As of September 2019, Epic Games had made deals for 105 exclusives for the Epic Games Store, which mounts to a total of just over $1 billion spent acquiring them. That’s according to records released as part of the ongoing Epic vs. Apple trial, which is finding some very attractive business dealings.
In its October 2019 ‘Review of Performance and Strategy’ document, it’s reiterated that Epic spent $444 million on its 2019 exclusive launches: we already knew that. But it also verifies that $542 million was used on 2019 launch exclusives, while—as of September 2019—it had already spent $52 million acquiring four exclusives for 2021.
It’s not breaking news that Epic Games is pushing a heck of a lot of money at its PC storefront, but $1 billion on exclusive releases—most of them timed, as they usually come to Steam after 12 months—is a shocking number. Far more startling than the $11 million it spent between December 2018 and September 2019 on its free games offerings, which seems minuscule given how many new account sign-ups they received.
The exclusives will grow, too. According to Epic’s “Aggressive Pursuit Model”—that is, the model they’ll follow if things are going well—it’ll strive for 52 exclusives in 2021, 36 in 2022, 34 in 2023, and 34 in 2024.