On the twenty-second of April, 2021, Epic Games quietly widened its storefront beyond games, adding the indie marketplace itch.io and a handful of ordinary apps to a shop that had until then mostly sold play. It is an odd thing, a store placed inside a store, yet it reflects an old human pattern: platforms reach for more visitors by becoming more than they were. For small developers, who have long struggled to be seen, the question is whether a crowded hall of 160 million people will actually walk through the new door.
Epic Games Store Adds itch.io and Four Other Non-Gaming Apps, Widening Its Reach Beyond Games
A store inside a store is an odd arrangement
Mark
Why does itch.io showing up on the Epic store matter?
Mimi
Because indie developers often struggle to be seen. Epic reported over 160 million users as of January 2021, and itch.io hosts thousands of smaller games.
Mark
So it's basically free exposure?
Mimi
Potentially. Itch.io already had its own desktop app, but now it sits in a much busier storefront.
Luke
Careful with "millions of new users." That's a hypothetical: if even a small fraction download it. Nothing in the reporting says how many have.
Mark
And there's the account issue, right?
Mimi
Yes. You still need a separate itch.io account to buy and play games, so it's not a seamless purchase inside Epic.
Luke
Which is exactly where the benefit could leak away. Friction usually costs you users, though we don't have data on that here.
Mark
What about the other apps?
Mimi
Brave, KenShape, Krita and iHeartRadio were named. Epic added Spotify back in December 2020, so this looks like a pattern.
Luke
A pattern, yes, but Epic's long-term plan isn't confirmed. Kotaku reads it as more plans to build the store; that's an interpretation, not an announced roadmap.
El Pulso
- Itch.io, the home of thousands of small independent games, now sits inside the Epic Games Store, a shop with more than 160 million users.
- The catch is friction: anyone who wants to buy through the app still needs a separate itch.io account, so the promised audience is not yet automatic.
- Five non-gaming apps arrived alongside it, including the Brave browser, Krita, KenShape and iHeartRadio, pushing the store into territory once held by Spotify alone.
- The reach for indie developers depends on a simple, uncertain act: how many people actually choose to download the itch.io app.
On the twenty-second of April, 2021, Epic Games quietly widened its storefront beyond games, adding the indie marketplace itch.io and a handful of ordinary apps to a shop that had until then mostly sold play. It is an odd thing, a store placed inside a store, yet it reflects an old human pattern: platforms reach for more visitors by becoming more than they were. For small developers, who have long struggled to be seen, the question is whether a crowded hall of 160 million people will actually walk through the new door.
On April 22, 2021, Epic Games announced a batch of new apps for its store, and the most notable was itch.io, a storefront built around independent games. Itch.io already had its own desktop app, but now people browsing the Epic Games Store could find it. For a small developer fighting to be noticed, that matters. Epic reported more than 160 million users in January 2021, and even a small share of them installing itch.io could mean millions of new eyes on thousands of modest games.
The arrangement has a catch. Epic does not merge the two stores into one account system, so anyone who wants to buy and play through the app still needs a separate itch.io account. Kotaku Australia judged the extra step worth it, given how many free games the service offers.
Epic also added five non-gaming apps that day, including the Brave browser, the Krita painting program, the KenShape tool for turning pixel art into blocky 3D models, and iHeartRadio for radio and podcasts. The source identifies only four of the five beyond itch.io. The additions followed Spotify in December 2020, a sign that Epic wants its store to be more than a place to buy games.
What remains to be seen is whether the reach is real. The 160 million figure describes the store's users, not the people who will install itch.io. How many of them actually download the app will decide whether the indie audience grows in any meaningful way.
On April 22, 2021, Epic announced that a batch of new apps had landed on the Epic Games Store, and the one that stood out was itch.io, a separate storefront built around indie games. A store inside a store is an odd arrangement, and Kotaku Australia's coverage treated it that way, while also noting what it could mean for small developers.
Itch.io already had its own downloadable desktop app. What changes is where people can find it. The Epic Games Store reported more than 160 million users as of January 2021, and the reasoning is simple: if even a small fraction of them download the itch.io app, the result could be millions of new users for the platform and for the thousands of smaller games sold there. Indie developers often struggle to get in front of bigger audiences, and this is a possible route to one.
There is a catch. Epic's listing does not fold itch.io into a single account system. Anyone who wants to buy and play games through the app still needs a separate itch.io account. Kotaku's view was that the step is worth it, given how many free games the service carries.
Itch.io was not alone. Epic added five other non-gaming apps the same day. Brave is a free, open-source web browser that lets people send "Basic Attention Tokens" to websites via cryptocurrency blockchains, a feature the Kotaku writer found distasteful. KenShape is a simple tool that turns 2D pixel-art drawings into blocky 3D models, which can then be exported into various game engines. Krita is a painting and drawing app that has been around for some time and is already popular. And iHeartRadio is a podcast and internet radio service offering hundreds of radio stations from around the country along with a long list of podcasts.
The source names four of those five apps beyond itch.io, so the remaining one is not identified here.
This was not Epic's first move beyond games. In December 2020, the company added Spotify to the store, an early sign that the Fortnite developer wanted the storefront to be more than a place to buy games. The April additions, in Kotaku's reading, confirm that Epic has further plans to build the store out.
What to watch is whether the reach is real. The 160 million figure describes the store's user base, not the number of people who will install itch.io, and the separate-account requirement adds friction. How many of those users actually download the app will decide whether the indie audience grows in any meaningful way.
Citas Notables
Users still need a separate itch.io account to buy and play games.— Kotaku Australia reporting
Quieres la nota completa?
Lee el original en Kotaku Australia ↗
General News