Samurai Shodown devs turned down an exclusivity deal on an unnamed PC sales platform

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Nobuyuki Kuroki, director and art director on the upcoming Samurai Shodown reboot, has done an interview with Korean gaming website GameFocus, and it seems that developer SNK has turned down an exclusive deal for the PC release of the fighting game by an undisclosed “PC download sales platform” – and some people are guessing that it could be Epic Games.

As highlighted by Twitter user Gatoray, the GameFocus article reveals that the unnamed PC platform was seeking exclusive rights to distribute the game, and believed the 12th installment in the long-running series would sell “hundreds of thousands” of copies. It sounds like SNK rejected it because it believes it will sell a lot more than that – more than a million copies, in fact.

In the GameFocus article, it says (translated using Google) “Samurai Shodown wanted to sell his PC on a PC download sales platform on condition of a pre-order of hundreds of thousands of copies, but SNK Chief Commander declined Samurai [Shodown] as a title to be sold more than a million copies.” It sounds like the studio wasn’t keen to take up the offer on the terms of these predictions and is feeling optimistic about how well the game will sell.

What is interesting is that the platform that put this deal to the studio wasn’t named by the director, but users on a ResetEra thread where Gatoray’s tweet was posted have started a discussion on what it might be, with several users pretty certain that it’s Epic Games. This could well be jumping to conclusions, as there’s no indication at all so far that it was the Fortnite creators trying to scoop Samurai Shodown up as an exclusive. However, Epic Games has been pretty proactive in bringing aboard titles as Store exclusives in recent months – for example, Metro Exodus, Shenmue 3, and Phoenix Point. So while it’s far from certain it was Epic in this case, it’s certainly possible.

Gatoray@gatoray_kof

Kuroki director said, some PC download platform wanted an exclusive release on the condition of a pre-order of hundreds of thousands, but SNK CEO rejected because he thought Samurai Shodown will be for sale million copies.#Samuraishodown

Epic really is throwing around a crap ton of money to get AA-AAA on board. Since they're were willing to pay them worth the amount of hundreds thousand that times $60. Just for example 300,000 copies sold at $60 would be equal to $18 million dollars. That means they're likely giving publishers and devs like 2K and Gearbox $50 million at least. How long can Epic keep this up? Even with Fortnite pulling in billions if they keep having to pay for exclusivity deals of that magnitude eventually they will feel those loses. Not to mention the $100 million they're giving out no strings attached in the Epic Mega Grant.

On a sidenote SNK CEO seems really optimistic about it selling at least a million PC considering it is a fighting game which not only one of the least popular gaming genres but is one of the least popular on PC.

Love it!

Release on all platforms if possible!

No way it will make a million, but I think there is abit of a difference here to something like KOF has been fairly constant while this has been sitting in the background as a nostalgia product. The fighting genre is bigger than ever now. It will probably do alot better than the typical SNK game.

But really, they need crossplay, been saying this for yonks.

You have no idea the mountain of cash they're sitting on thanks to Fortnite. So much they had no choice but to use it to dive into another more lucrative venture, aka the epic store.

It's a wise investment since the Fortnite trend will eventually level off but a storefront is viable for years.

Based SNK

oh my, who could it be

I'll buy two copies of SamSho now.

Fortnite grossed over $2 billion last year. And it should make at least over $1 billion this year. That's more than enough money to throw around. They could pay for exclusivity deals with dozens of AA-AAA developers. Although it would be better if they just used that money to actually improve the Epic Store itself.

It's delayed on PC, double dip with the PS4 copy.

For sure. One PS4 and one PC copy.

I was really looking forward to Maneater (best game of E3) and Chivalry 2 but I will wait a year now before getting them, it'll be a long wait, but I'm not supporting any game that accepts Epic money for exclusivity.

....Ok..

SNFuckingK baby.

Game is looking so good.

I think this is a better sword fight. But it is not Japanese. So I respect the pick.

Kinda just randomly tacked that on, but yea, that one is good.

The one from Rob Roy stands out, the English are so evil.

Anyone else enjoying the so called PC master race tearing itself apart with Steam vs Epic?

I know I am.

Friendly reminder, preorders get the season pass free.