Epic Games launches an exclusivity program to attract developers

Far from the 30% that Valve usually takes in the Steam Games catalog. But although Epic Games has shaken the world of video games, as soon as its flagship arrival Fortnite In 2017 and the launch of its own blind the following year, the company is struggling today to catch up. At the latest news, Steam had some 132 million monthly users, more than double the audience of the Epic catalog.

LVMH and Epic Games announce a strategic partnership to transform the creative pipeline of houses and customer experience

On the sidelines of the 2023 edition of the Viva Technology fair, LVMH announced a partnership with Epic Games, creator of Fortnite and Unreal Engine, to transform the group’s creative pipeline and offer its customers discovery experiences of ever more products immersive. This strategic partnership will allow LVMH and its houses to use the powerful 3D creation tools more to offer experiences such as virtual fittings and shows, 360 ° carousels of products, augmented reality, the creation of twins digital and much more.

These tools, including Unreal Engine, Reality Capture, Twinmotion and Metahuman technology, will help LVMH seize significant growth opportunities. Resolutely turned to the future, the group and its houses have always endeavored to renew their offer and embrace new practices, while respecting their heritage and their inheritance. It is on this philosophy that the partnership established with Epic Games rests. LVMH will now be able to rely on the world’s recognized expertise of Epic Games to enrich the experiences offered to its customers in virtual worlds and thus get closer to what makes group strength in the real world: its production workshops and production workshops and production workshops and production workshops and production workshops Its network of shops.

In addition, this collaboration with Epic will broaden the expertise of LVMH teams, which has made the acculturation of its employees in Digital a priority.

“We have always been committed to innovations likely to offer our customers new experiences. Video games, which has become a cultural phenomenon in its own right, is a perfect example. This partnership with Epic Games will accelerate our mastery of 3D tools and ecosystems, from the creation of new collections to communication campaigns, including the websites of our homes. It will also allow us to initiate a new generation sensitive to these codes and uses. »» – Toni Belloni, Deputy Managing Director of the LVMH group

“With this partnership, we will work with LVMH designers to transform the creation of physical and digital products thanks to the use of the suite of advanced Epic creation tools. We are delighted to accelerate the adoption by the group of technologies Unreal Engine, Reality Capture, Twinmotion and Metahuman, and to help the global LVMH brands to engage with their customers through immersive digital experiences. »» -Bill Clifford, vice-president, Unreal Engine at Epic Games.

Solutions already deployed in LVMH houses

Several LVMH houses have already successfully adopted Epic solutions. During Viva Technology in 2022, Bulgari had revealed an unprecedented experience in the metarers inspired by ancient Rome, called “Virtual Rome”. The project had been developed using the Epic Unreal Engine 5 engine, which gave it unique realism.

Always on the occasion of Viva Technology in 2022, LVMH had presented Livi, its first virtual muse, developed and animated virtually thanks to Unreal Engine and Metahuman technology, Epic solution to create highly realistic digital humans.

This year, another of the group’s emblematic houses, Louis Vuitton, will unveil on the LVMH pavilion the “Digital Show Experience”, designed using the UNREAL Engine 5 engine, Metahuman technology and Reality Capture technology. This 6-minute interactive and immersive experience will allow visitors to relive the Homme Fall-Winter 2023 fashion show presented in January 2023 in the famous square courtyard of the Louvre. The public will thus be able to discover a selection of looks and creations from the male collection of the house, the time of a digital journey in the seven pieces that made up the decor of the parade.

Epic Games is launching an exclusivity program to attract developers

With Epic First Run, Epic Games attempts developers’ last chance by promising them not to tax the income of their video games for six months, provided they give in to its catalog in its catalog.

August 24, 2023 \ 5:44 p.m

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Tim Sweeney may redouble their efforts to boast the merits of its income sharing model with the developers, the Epic Games Store still does not outdo its competitor Steam. On August 23, as part of an announcement that sounds like a last chance gesture, Epic Games launched the Epic First Run program, which will be functional from October 16.

This will allow the studios which will be members to no longer worry about the 12% tax that is usually taken from Epic Games and to keep all the income of their new games for six months. On condition, and it is the most important for the Sweeney firm, that the games are distributed exclusively in its catalog during this period.

Epic still far behind Steam

The games distributed via this program will be decked out on the Epic Games Store of a new badge and presented to an audience of 68 million monthly users, said Epic Games in a press release. Once the deadline for six months of exclusivity, “The share of revenues from user expenses will amount to 88 % / 12 %”, we still read.

Far from the 30% that Valve usually takes in the Steam Games catalog. But although Epic Games has shaken the world of video games, as soon as its flagship arrival Fortnite In 2017 and the launch of its own blind the following year, the company is struggling today to catch up. At the latest news, Steam had some 132 million monthly users, more than double the audience of the Epic catalog.

A direct attack on its competitor

But Tim Sweeney, his CEO, understood: beyond the question of users, who follow their favorite licenses from one platform to another, arises that of the studios. Epic First Run is presented as a program for all the typologies of developers, but it is actually thought of as a means of attracting young independent studios that need all possible cash to survive. And this even if it means granting the exclusivity of their intellectual property to Epic Games for six months.

Behind this strategy hides the opportunity for the publisher of Fortnite to deprive Steam many potentially promising titles. Since his arrival in the sector, Epic Games has indeed multiplied the exclusivity agreements for popular video games of which Kingdom Hearts, Hitman 3 or the highly anticipated Alan Wake 2. The attack on Steam represented by the Epic First Run program is barely masked since Epic Games authorizes developers to publish and sell their games on their own websites.

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