How Long can Epic Afford to Throw Money at the Epic Games Store?

Freeman writes:

How long can Epic afford to throw money at the Epic Games Store?:

The bitter court fight between Apple and Epic is primarily focused on the mobile-gaming landscape and Apple's iron-fisted control of the iOS App Store. But recent court filings in that case have also given the public a rare glimpse into just how much money Epic is throwing at the Epic Games Store [(EGS)] as it struggles to make a dent in the PC marketplace.

The raw numbers, as reported in a "Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law" document Apple filed last week, show massive incurred and projected losses for Epic's game download hub, which launched in late 2018. Documents and testimony from Epic itself show a $181 million loss for the store in 2019 and projected losses of $273 million in 2020 and $139 million in 2021.

[...] Add it all up, and Epic ended up paying a whopping $444 million in minimum guarantees in 2020, according to Apple's court filing (though that number could theoretically include future exclusives or free game deals). By contrast, Epic announced last year that players spent only $265 million on all third-party Epic Game Store games combined in 2020. In court documents, Epic also said it has paid out a total of over $700 million to third-party EGS developers so far. That suggests Epic has earned just $95 million through its standard 12 percent EGS revenue share.

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