While the world still has to digest the story Microsoft e Discord which seems to have just ended with nothing, Epic Games Store comes with a surprise integration of Itch.io, the popular digital store dedicated to independent games and apps. A bomb.
Yes, you read that correctly: Itch.io will become a downloadable app from Epic Games. Practically a digital matryoshka made by a store inside a store. Its interface will be reworked to be integrated into the Epic ecosystem.
Itch.io is a collection of some of the most unique, interesting and independent creations you will find on the web. Bringing the Itch.io app to the Epic Games Store will give us the opportunity to broaden the audience of people who can discover the diverse collection of indie works we host.
An Itch.io representative in an email exchange with Polygon.Itch.io will be downloadable like any app from the Epic Games store, and there users will be able to take advantage of Itch.io as they always have. From an economic point of view, Epic Games Store will not get any percentage from Itch.io game sales. So what's the benefit of Epic? This collaboration would lead 200.000 titles and 31 million daily active users su Epic Games Store.
Currently, developers who sell their games on Itch.io choose to what extent do the percentages of their sales go to Itch.io, and this formula will also be maintained in this new collaboration with Epic. This means, therefore, that Itch.io will also have an advantage on its side: a showcase on your store much more exposed than usual. An advantage that also goes in favor of independent developers, who thanks to the Itch.io system can sell their products with a percentage of less than 12% to be entrusted to the store, a threshold that is currently the standard Epic one. (Steam instead retains 20% or 30% depending on the games).
Epic's move moves towards creating its own app store, rather than limiting itself exclusively to games. The same strange fate also happened to Spotify a few months ago, an application for which at this moment there is an offer underway with Fortnite. In addition to Itch.io, Epic will also add iHeartRadio, the open-source web browser Brace, the KenShape 3D modeling app, and Krita painting software to its store.
Itch.io and the other apps are available right now.
