Hmmmm, its all pretty standard business however. Many companies evaluate deals from bigger companies all the time.
I own a small meditation game on steam that is in early access, and the lone developer noted he was approached by ubisoft, and after having a few conversations the deal did not happen for whatever reasons. I believe another lone dev posted on reddit , he too was approached by publishers
but the deals were so one sided he declined and his game is not even out in a playable state yet.
So people declining Epic, isnt really anything special, those same people also have declined others and will continue to evaluate
offers in the future. When I was at Valve, they were evaluating potential buy out offers all the time. Gabe had no interest in selling
but that did not stop offers, and any good business person has to evaluate them even if you decide to decline.
Bottomline is content is king. All these big companies need content and they are always on the lookout for low risk acquisitions
they can use to bolster their portfolios.
Now if a deal doesnt work out , and it can be from either side , just because you decline doesnt mean you were in a power position.
It means the offer did not contain the terms or payout you wanted, and there were no more avenues to negotiate. You dont get to the decline deal stage without listening, and engaging. Now its nice to take advantage of the current climate, but all it shows me is all these developers are open to potential deals.
Things change in business all the time. So a company may say no today, and yes next year.