Genshin Impact is a title known by almost every gacha enthusiast. The game itself is visually stunning to the point where you want to play it wherever possible. Luckily, Genshin Impact is available on every platform, but not how a Steam gamer would prefer.
Why is Genshin Impact Not Available On Steam?
miHoYo has restricted downloads for Genshin Impact to their own website and platform. The simplest reason is because of the costs associated with keeping it on Steam. Furthermore, the game has enough potential to forge its own identity.
Needless to say, Genshin Impact is still up for grabs on Epic Games Store, so miHoYo’s move only seems to make the suspicions grow even further.
In this guide, I will analyze the chances of an exclusivity contract and the possible reasons that could’ve prompted Genshin Impact to stay away from Steam.
Has miHoYo Signed an Exclusivity Contract with Epic Games?
Epic Games has a long history of acquiring successful AAA titles from publishers in the form of exclusivity contracts. While the move might not make sense at first glance, the reason is that Epic Games is a newer contender looking to beat Valve’s Steam as the primary store for purchasing games.
Their best way of going about it is to acquire games that have insane player counts. To add the cherry on top, if the game is only available on Epic Games, then all of the Genshin Impact players will have to use the Epic Games Store as well.
Will miHoYo Change Its PC Launcher?
Looking at the charts revealed by Sensor Tower, miHoYo seems to have earned more than 100k downloads on mobile devices alone despite transitioning out of its cash cow stage. Having said that, it currently seems hard for Epic Games to convince miHoYo for complete exclusivity.
Hence, it’s quite safe to assume that Genshin Impact’s primary source of downloads will be through its official launcher. With the game getting new content updates on a regular basis, it’s also clear that the title is not going to lose its popularity anytime soon.
Steam vs Epic Games Store: What’s Better for Publishing?
Both Epic Games Store and Steam work on a revenue split model. This means that a publisher will have to pay a certain percentage from each sale to either Epic Games or Valve depending on the platform it’s currently being run at.
Valve’s Steam continues to take around 30% profits per sale from most publishers. While this number might change for games with bigger user counts, it’s safe to assume that they’re not as lenient as Epic Games when it comes to revenue distribution.
In comparison to Steam, the Epic Games Store only takes 12 % of the total profit. Their Support-A-Creator policy centralizes them as a store meant for gamers and publishers alike. In fact, you might’ve heard about Epic Store giving out free games each month.
Can You Connect Genshin Impact to Steam?
While you cannot download Genshin Impact directly from Steam, it’s still possible to connect your account with one. Simply follow the steps mentioned below and you should be good to go:
- Launch Steam and click on Games in the top-left corner.
- Choose the Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library option and add Genshin Impact from the browse window.
Once done, you will be able to launch Genshin Impact from Steam. However, this might not work for the Epic Games version.
Conclusion
Fortunately, Genshin Impact is still available on its official launcher. Therefore, not all the winds seem to be blowing towards Epic Games. That being said, there have been no official statements, but an exclusivity contract seems to be the most plausible solution.
Genshin Impact is available to download on PC for free from the Epic Games Store and the official game Launcher.
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