Everspace 2 on Steam because of "the whole infrastructure"

Nowadays a lot of news about the Epic Games Store revolves around exclusivity deals being struck, as Epic is making a lot of moves to ensure they have top games exclusive or timed exclusive on their platform, but Rockfish CEO Michael Schade has explained to GamesIndustry.biz that this won't be the case for Everspace 2, despite conversations taking place with Epic already.

"Our hardcore fans are on Steam - they have already said 'Please don't do it. We just don't want it.' You don't even have to discuss whether this is reasonable or not. If they don't want it, they don't want it, and more than 100,000 people bought Everspace in Early Access. They would be mad at us," he said.

"Without Epic, Rockfish and Everspace wouldn't exist, but it's the same with Steam. Without Steam, we wouldn't exist... In our case, it doesn't make sense. We need Early Access, the full feature set, the forums, the constant updating, the whole infrastructure. Valve has the best platform, by far, to roll out a game as an independent developer. It's by far the best tools and the best communities. This is exactly what we need."

Considering Steam has provided over 50% of the revenue for Everspace so far, this isn't all that surprising, although Schade does acknowledge that exclusivity deals can be helpful for smaller developers.

Ooblets, for example, was on the receiving end of a lot of harassment when an exclusivity deal was revealed for the Epic Games Store earlier this year, and developer Ben Wasser said the following about signing with Epic:

"Because Epic doesn't yet have the same market share as their competitors, they offered us a minimum guarantee on sales that would match what we'd be wanting to earn if we were just selling Ooblets across all the stores. That takes a huge burden of uncertainty off of us because now we know that no matter what, the game won't fail and we won't be forced to move back in with our parents."

"Now we can just focus on making the game without worrying about keeping the lights on. The upfront money they're providing means we'll be able to afford more help and resources to start ramping up production and doing some cooler things."

Which platform do you prefer?