Gal Civ 4 entered early access on EGS in June 2021 (more than 12 months ago).

I believe the 12 month exclusivity deal period begins at full release, not when the game enters early access.

Same here, sad end to what was a promising dev.

This isn't Gal Civ 4 and unless you can provide documentation to prove otherwise, I will go with what the DEVS have put out and bank on seeing SOES2 on Steam in about a year.  They have plainly stated that only the Tech Preview is exclusive on Epic, not that I care either way. 

Read the FAQ, that pretty much tells you what the DEVS have in mind.

i’m sorry, but you are wrong, this has nothing to do with Sins 2. This is how things work on epic for all games, when the game is exclusively released on epic. The year contract of exclusivity begins on the date of the game going live now regarding Sins 2, since early release is going to last for a year then the game will be tied to epic for two years in total.

I'll just leave this here for everyone to read, to me it makes the most sense, got it from the Stardock forum.

I'll say everything I have to in one post and disappear again. I have limited free time and energy, and I would rather use that towards doing things I enjoy and are more relaxing (like video games). So I apologize for that. This is a pretty nuanced and challenging topic, and the same pushback you see here happens with most of Epic's exclusivity deals.

Game development isn't cheap or easy, and these deals tend to offer baseline payment guarantees. That can help out with early funding and reduce the risk involved. No game is guaranteed to sell well, and nobody knows what Stardock's accounting looks like. Many developers I enjoyed have gotten absorbed or shut down over the years because they couldn't afford to keep making the games they wanted to. Gas Powered Games is the first that comes to mind.

Also, Stardock isn't a one-man-band or a massive gaming studio that's 100% immune to changing market conditions. There are a lot of people that rely on the pay they receive to support themselves and their families. Even if some people don't like the decision, this provides better financial stability for those creating the game. If these Epic deals existed earlier, other devs might still be around. Potentially great games never got the chance to exist because of a lack of funding.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion's peak players are pretty misleading. If you look at lifetime concurrent player stats on Steam across the past 10 years, it's floated closer to 1-1.5K players with some dips below that. It only had a few massive short-term spikes during two different free promotions and a humble bundle. I'd imagine a solid chunk of that activity isn't new players/buyers either. Stellaris sustains much larger ongoing player counts, and has frequent updates and DLC. They also have multiple large development teams, have a much bigger and equally loyal fanbase, and can fund everything internally. It's also a really good 4x game, which helps.

If people dislike Epic's launcher, wait for the full release elsewhere. It'll be a more complete game after early access is finished. It will likely end up on GOG and Steam eventually. If people are concerned about the game quality, check out gameplay videos and wait for reviews to decide. If people dislike the price, wait a few years and buy it at a discount. If people dislike Stardock for accepting a deal with Epic and think it's a deal-breaker, then don't buy the game.

Life is too short and complicated to get overly caught up or angry at a developer, person, game, or situation within this industry. At the end of the day, game developers are trying to bring something fun to others. Video games are entertainment, after all. They also have to make enough money to make that possible, and a deal with Epic is far less intrusive then some of the in-game microtransactions out there. I'm okay with the deal because it's the right thing for everyone who works for Stardock, not just Brad.

Unfortunately, none of this answers the question about how long the exclusivity lasts. Nobody knows, and the contract is likely too air-tight for anyone to even hint at it. There's a decent chance of it being one of a few things:

1. 1-year exclusivity, which is how Epic often structures these.

2. Full early access exclusivity, estimated at 1 1/2 years based on their FAQ.

3. 2-year exclusivity. So full early access + 6-month launch exclusive.

Longer than 2 years seems unlikely unless they offered a long-term deal that was too good to refuse. It's equally unlikely that it's shorter than a year.

I came in here just to express my disgust for you all selling out to Timmy Tencent and his joke of a store. It makes no sense whatsoever to sell out to Timmy Tencent after years of loyal players playing your game on Steam and Impulse before it. I own Sins, Rebellion, and ALL of the DLCs and I will pirate your game before giving Timmy a dime. See you at Steam release.

Every game fails on the Tencent store. This will be no different.

exactly, in two years 🫣👍

On top of all the other already mentioned reasons, regarding community and everything other posters said above...

To make it simple -- EPIC annoys me endlessly with ad-popups on windows desktop which steam never does
and so far I have zero interest in any other game on that crap-store

And there is even a technical reason - the epic crap so far is the only thing on the internet I came across so far that is supposed to be set up by professionals but does not work with DNS-sec, they simply are too stupid to set up their glue records for their tracking infrastructure or maybe it would interferes too much with their privacy-violating user tracking
so the epic crap is the only thing on the "insecure exception list" here

As an Aside to whom it may concern....
Sadly that "zero interest for any other game on Epic" currently includes GalCiv IV since I am unable to finish any game due to crashes on "next turn" on the current patchlevel..

I love the game!, i can't understand why some users hate Epic?

there is a lot more to it than that like they’re anti-customer business practices, their business plan is not sustainable in the long-term, flat out quote by the CEO and oh let’s not forget that PRC owns 45% of the company . . .

As for the PRC thing, Tencent also owns large shares in Riot, Activision-Blizzard, PUBGCorp and Ubisoft so you better not be playing any of those games either if that is an issue with you.  I agree that a 40% cut is concerning, and I hope our government will do something about China cutting into our businesses (it's not just the Gaming industry) but Tim Sweeney has the controlling shares of the company.  So far, there has been no proof of Chinese Duplicity with Epic.  

Once again, I like steam better but if you are going to spit out spin, at least get it correct.