The Epic Game Store received a huge boost today with news that Ubisoft’s third-person shooter, The Division 2, will launch on the game store and not on Steam. This partnership will see a semi-exclusive deal between the two companies that will begin with the March 15th launch of The Division 2.
The partnership between the two gaming giants will not only include The Division 2 but also “additional select titles to be announced during the coming year.”
“We entrust Epic to deliver a smooth journey for our fans, from preordering the game and enjoying our Beta to the launch of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 on March 15,” Ubisoft vice president of partnerships Chris Early said in the announcement. “Epic continues to disrupt the videogame industry, and their third party digital distribution model is the latest example, and something Ubisoft wants to support.”
This decision by Ubisoft will be seen by many as a massive two-fingered salute towards Steam. The Division 2 had already been listed on Steam, but the product page has since been removed. “We have no plans currently on releasing Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 on Steam” said a Ubisoft rep, although The Divison 2 will, of course, also be available to purchase through Ubisoft’s own UPlay service.
The launch of The Division 2 will mark the first major developer to ignore Stream in favor of Epics Store. With Epic’s more generous approach to revenue sharing, we’re pretty sure it wont be the last major developer to jump ship and release it’s games on Epics service.
So far, we’ve been impressed with the quality over quantity approach that Epic has taken with the games available on it’s store. Whether or not this is deliberate remains to be seen, but one things for sure – we finally have a competition on our hands.
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