The recent wave of Epic Game Store exclusives has been a source of controversy lately with PC gamers favouring Steam's launcher over the Epic counterpart, but with games like Metro Exodus, Beyond: Two Souls, Detroit: Become Human, Heavy Rain, Hades, Journey, The Outer Worlds, Close to the Sun, and Borderlands 3 absent from the long-reigning Valve launcher, the times they are a changing.
On Twitter, however, Epic's Tim Sweeney answered a question about whether they'd continue pushing exclusives and his answer deflects questions away from his company and points them back at Valve:
"If Steam committed to a permanent 88% revenue share for all developers and publishers without major strings attached, Epic would hastily organize a retreat from exclusives (while honoring our partner commitments) and consider putting our own games on Steam".
Another point the CEO addressed was why Epic chose the 88/12 revenue split saying it will "provide a super-competitive deal for partners while building an enduring and profitable store business for Epic". He also talked about why other developers/ publishers built their own stores saying, "it's way more profitable to sell their games that way than to give 30% to a store".
Whether or not we get to see a change in Steam's revenue split, Sweeney did assert that Epic will stay as it is, not moving from 12% revenue saying, "30% store dominance is the #1 problem for PC developers, publishers and everyone who relies on those businesses for their livelihood". Overall, the likelihood of seeing such a drastic change anytime soon is quite slim but not impossible.
Interestingly enough, Epic Games' focus here seems to be the wellbeing of the developers that they're working with and, considering the long line of controversy regarding Steam, it's an interesting statement.