Which… is a nice idea, but I can't say I believe him. A clear intent of Epic paying megabucks for exclusives is to bootstrap their own Store, to try to become a profitable rival to Steam by securing big games from big developers and publishers. They're burning huge amounts of cash now to gain users and make even more in the future. Sweeney's implication that they're only doing it to pressure Steam into treating developers better is laughable. Their store, as a store for customers to use, is worse than most of its rivals – scloosies are its saving grace.
I certainly support Valve giving developers a larger cut of Steam sales, to be clear. I'd love for my scepticism to be proven misplaced. I'll also point out that Epic going on about caring for developers while
reportedly massively overworking their own employees is iffy at best.
Epic's longing to be seen as saviours of PC gaming is frustrating. Their pretence that they're not trying to straight-up buy a share of PC gaming is daft. The over-enthusiastic (and disingenuous-feeling) hyperbole from Sweeney and other connected industry figures makes me feel they think we're rubes. God, don't even get me started on Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford saying their next boring game being Epic-exclusive
will end Steam's supposed monopoly. I know that you're running businesses and that businesses both need and want money. Please abandon this television evangelist act.