With the announcement that Epic Games of Fortnite fame is getting in on the PC gaming storefront race, we have to wonder what this means for Microsoft.
Epic Games of Fortnite fame just announced a creator-friendly PC gaming storefront. The announcement was significant, as Epic touted 88 percent revenue slice for developers, beating out Steam (and for that matter, Microsoft) by a significant margin. Additionally, the Epic store will also allow YouTubers, streamers, and bloggers to get a cut of any sales they send through to the Epic store, which is something Steam has yet to consider.
Things are certainly heating up for Steam. Steam was the de-facto ruler of PC gaming distribution for quite a while, but as companies like Activision Blizzard and EA began selling their games direct to consumers on PC via their own storefronts, others have begun to realize that they don't exactly need Steam anymore. It also doesn't help that Steam is incredibly saturated, making it hard for some devs to gain visibility. Discord's rise as a community platform has also taken eyes away from Steam, as Valve's chat and community tools languish in an archaic state.
With increasing competition from all sides, the window for Microsoft to build a credible PC gaming storefront of its own seems to be shrinking. But as a platform holder, Microsoft does have a few natural advantages. Should it want to capitalize, that is.
Full story from the WindowsCentral blog...
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