Earlier in the year, Rebellion CEO, Jason Kingsley, said it was unlikely that the company would make any exclusive deals. That’s why it was somewhat of surprise with the company announced Zombie Army 4: Dead War at E3 as an Epic Games Store exclusive on PC. Now Kingsley is back to explain what happened there, saying that the move was a good one for his company.
In an interview with PC Gamer, Kingsley reaffirmed that the game’s PC version would be exclusive to Epic Games Store for a 12-month period. He also commented on understanding why some people were not particularly happy with the move, but ultimately shrugged it off, saying that the move was one that helped the game and company, and that all of those upset people are actually putting a spotlight on the game when maybe it wouldn’t have before.
“They’re great guys,” said Kinglsey of Epic Games. “Steam are great as well. And I think that Epic, from their perspective, they’ve got to fight against someone who’s incredibly dominant in the market space. One of the ways they can do that is by offering something exclusive.
“It makes sense from their perspective, and it upsets a few people. And maybe upsetting a few people isn’t necessarily bad, because it gets you attention as well. And one of the challenges for us making games, and a challenge for any indie studio, anybody that doesn’t have a huge amount of money to spend on marketing, is discovery. How do you get people to even know your great game exists? Before they can buy it, they’ve got to encounter it. If they encounter it, they [might] like it. If they haven’t encountered it, they don’t know whether they like it or not. So discovery is an interesting thing, and that’s exactly the same for Epic. [They’ve got to] work super hard to build up that market share to get to the point where they’re competitive. So I think they’re being very smart in what they’re doing.”
It’s not the first time a company has said the exclusive deal with Epic is good for them, though the reasoning was a little different here. It probably won’t sway those who aren’t a fan of the store, but it is what is, as they say. Regardless, Zombie Army 4: Dead War will release early 2020 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC (exclusively on Epic Games Store).