For the first six months since the release of Borderlands 3, it was only available in the Epic Games Store. In case of failure of the game, it could cost Epic Games $ 115 million, but already in two premiere weeks, the loot shooter managed to earn the lion’s share of the amount.
This is another piece of information revealed from the court documents in the Epic and Apple case.
How the funds were distributed:
- of this money, $80 million was allocated as minimum guarantee payments. In other words, Epic guaranteed that the title will collect at least $80 million in EGS, and if not, then Epic will give them to 2K Games itself;
- $15 million went to Borderlands 3 advertising. Another $20 million went to “non-refundable cash fees”. Such fees most likely meant a one-time payment for granting the rights to the exclusivity of the luther shooter;
The revenue of the PC version of Borderlands 3 for two weeks of sales amounted to $ 100 million: the game collected $ 77 million in EGS, and $ 23 million was brought by retail stores and resellers. At the same time, Epic earned about $9.2 million on commission from sales to Borderlands 3 players.
In two weeks, Borderlands 3 was bought by 1.56 million EGS users. More than half of them (53%) were new to the store.
Also, simultaneously with obtaining exclusive rights to the title, Epic agreed with 2K Games to distribute the collection Borderlands: The Handsome Collection and Civilization VI. For them, the company gave $ 11 million and $ 20 million, respectively. Note that these amounts are several times higher than those that Epic previously transferred to other publishers. The largest amount was considered to be $1.5 million paid for the distribution of Batman: Arkham Collection.