Epic paid $146 million for Borderlands 3 exclusivity and 2K game giveaways

Epic Games has been paying millions to obtain timed exclusive games for its store. We know a smaller game like Control ended up costing Epic around $10 million, but what about a bigger game like Borderlands 3? Court documents reveal that Epic paid well over $100 million for Borderlands 3 exclusivity. 

Documents revealed through the Epic Games v Apple trial (via Simon Carless), which is taking place this week, show that Epic Games paid $146 million for Borderlands 3 to launch on the Epic Games Store.

Breaking that cost down, $115 million was for Borderlands 3 itself, which includes an $80 million minimum guarantee on sales, $15 million for marketing and $20 million in “non-recoupable fees”. The remaining $31 million was spent securing two 2K published titles to be given away as freebies on the Epic Games Store. Those two freebies were none other than Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, which cost $11 million, and Civilization VI, which cost $20 million.

Borderlands 3 at launch made over $100 million in revenue and due to the Epic Games Store's 12 percent revenue cut, Epic made $9.2 million off of those launch window sales.

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KitGuru Says: We're getting a lot of juicy details out of these court documents, giving us plenty of insight into the inner workings of game companies as well as exclusivity and marketing deals. 

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