Evidence? If there were such evidence it wouldn't matter at all since the publisher entered into a contractual exclusive agreement with Epic for a certain period--in exchange for whatever money Epic promised them to do that--so unless there's a specific clause stating otherwise, if Epic sold a single copy a week--just one--it would have to pay the publisher the promised amount, and the publisher would have to take it. Such is the nature of this kind of nutty agreement. I could see a publisher taking this agreement if he had little to no confidence in the game selling well--but I think it would be a mistake in the case of a really good game that should sell well everywhere. In the case of a good game, then, ideally the developer would want to see it sold by as many reputable game vendors as possible, which would easily overcome being paid by Epic to sell from a single source, regardless of what Epic paid them to do that. People who buy games know these things--and are automatically suspect of any game Epic would have to finance partially, otherwise the publisher was running scared of it. One month's exclusive for a game like RDR2 PC is OK and understandable because it gives them a month to "beta test" the game with Epic PC customers and whip it into shape for the general release 30 days later. But a *year's* exclusive? Holy cow, Batman, that's cra-zee...;) That means that neither the developer or the publisher has much of an expectation of profit for that game--a year--man, that's almost too much dumbness to wrap your head around....;)
Ok, quickly, let's look at it another way: Pillars of Eternity II. Feargus has been quoted complaining that the game didn't sell very well so he doubts anyone would want to publish a sequel. There's just one problem with that, though. PoE II, in the end, after a solid year of development after the first installment of the game shipped, when all installments were complete and the turn-based mode was also complete--was and is a truly excellent game. I think it's first-rate--better than the original in many ways. However...it was the release strategy of the developer, Obsidian, that killed the sequel, in my estimation. What they did wrong:
1) Took almost a year to actually complete the game so that a player could play it through from start to conclusion--ie, the second and third installments of the game should have been finished before the the first installment shipped. People don't much like serial movies anymore--same with serial games.
2) Turn-based mode--was great--had been asked for often for PoE. Should have been planned from the start. Game should never have been released without it.
It took almost a year post release to get the game ship-shape. Simply put, the game was released far too early. People like me bought and liked PoE OK, but I didn't like the episodic drip-drip-drip release schedule for the game--I honestly would not have bought the first installment of PoE when I did--but would have waited until they'd gotten it all finished and reasonably patched before buying it--would have enjoyed it a lot more! So when PoE II was announced--no way was I buying into it early again! I waited until 5.0, almost, was out--hence my very high opinion of the game. But if Feargus and the guys aren't going to understand that PoE II was shipwrecked from the start because of the premature, unfinished release schedule of the game--then they clearly aren't going to address this kind of thing and may make these same mistakes in the future.
Challenge for Obsidian: For God's sake do a PoE III--and bring the series back to the continent, please! The ships were a nice diversion--let's not get lost in them, however...;) This time, though, include turn based from the start and include all of the planned episodes in the first release of the game--all of them! Then later, if you want, do a worthy expansion--in a year or two...;) I'll bet it would be a walk-away best seller *everywhere* and not just from the Epic store--just putting it there is kind of insulting to some of us.
*I love Outer Worlds, btw. Am playing via the Xbox PC thing through the Microsoft Store. It's on sale now for a price I agree with with--~$45...so I will probably buy it tomorrow for Christmas!* Would love to see a PoE III--but only if it's done right as mentioned above............!