Epic's "fully loaded" Borderlands 3 deal cost $146m, secured six months of PC exclusivity Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Epic's "fully loaded" Borderlands 3 deal cost $146m, secured six months of PC exclusivity Charge up. News by Wesley Yin-Poole Deputy Editorial Director Updated on 4 May 2021 31 comments We know Epic is burning through hundreds of millions of dollars trying to get its store off the ground. Thanks to its ongoing trial with Apple, we now know just how much is changing hands for some of the big games. A document released as part of the trial, tweeted by GameDiscoverCo founder Simon Carless, shows Epic paid $146m in advances to secure six months of PC Borderlands 3 exclusivity from 13 September 2019. The eye-catching deal ensured Gearbox's shooter did not launch on rival PC platform Steam until 13th March 2020. Watch on YouTube Eurogamer news cast: are 'metaverse economies' the future of video games? Digging into the detail, Epic paid $115m for the Borderlands 3 deal. This included a minimum guarantee of $80m, a marketing commitment of $15m, and a one-off fee of $20m. Also included are "bundled 2K deals". This involves money paid to release a couple of 2K games on the Epic Games Store for free. As part of this, Epic paid $11m for the Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, and $20m for Civilization 6. That's a total of $31m. So, the "fully loaded Borderlands 3 deal", as it's called in the document, amounts to $146m. Also notable: Epic paid Take-Two $146 million in advances for PC Borderlands 3 exclusivity ($115 million for the game + marketing + one-off fee) and recouped the minimum guarantee part ($80mil) in just the first 2 weeks. pic.twitter.com/3YThZuy5pJ- Simon Carless (@simoncarless) May 4, 2021 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings Was it worth it for Epic? According to the document, 100 percent of the $80m minimum guarantee was recouped within just two weeks, with $100m generated in a fortnight. In the first two weeks, Epic made $9.2m from Borderlands 3, based on its 12 percent cut. Borderlands 3 achieved just over 1.5 million users on the store within that timeframe. Crucially for Epic, 53 percent of those users were new to the Epic Games Store. Last month, court documents published as part of Epic's high-profile legal battle against Apple revealed Epic committed $444m in minimum guarantees for 2020 alone. A minimum guarantee is an advance paid to a publisher or developer whether or not the game itself makes enough money to claw the advance back. An example is the €9.49m 505 parent company Digital Bros received from Epic for PC exclusivity for Remedy's Control. Currently, the Epic Games Store loses money. "EGS is not yet profitable at its current scale and stage of development because it has front-loaded its marketing and user-acquisition costs to gain market share," Epic has said. During the opening day of the trial, Sweeney said Epic's store is "hundreds of millions of dollars short of being profitable". "We have a general expectation of becoming profitable within three or four years," he added. Become a Eurogamer subscriber and get your first month for £1 Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More News Google announces cloud gaming Chromebooks less than a fortnight after Stadia shutdown GeForce Now preinstalled. 4 Atari will hold RollerCoaster Tycoon rights for another decade Ups and downs. 7 Lady Dimitrescu will be a tad smaller in Resident Evil Village's Mercenaries DLC Level the playing field. 1 Overwatch 2 suffers another DDoS attack and character roster bugs Mei Mei. 13 Latest Articles Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. Google announces cloud gaming Chromebooks less than a fortnight after Stadia shutdown GeForce Now preinstalled. 4 Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Genshin Impact Path of Gleaming Jade dates, login event rewards Including other anniversary rewards and how to claim them. Supporters Only Premium only Off Topic: Take a minute to appreciate Cookin' with Coolio's incredible scallops recipe. What a great book. Premium only Off Topic: Reading City of Glass in comic form "Where exactly am I going?" Premium only Off Topic: Il Buco is a transporting film about a really big hole Underlands. Off-Topic Netflix handled Sandman brilliantly It was Dreamy. 9 Buy things with globes on them And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store! Explore our store