Epic Games has long been attempting to set up the Epic Games Store as an alternative to Steam, which is why it has offered its infamous free weekly games since 2018. More recently, Epic has promised a Game Store overhaul in order to draw in more game publishers and players with new features, a refined UI, better game discovery, and even Linux support. Now, in a recent interview with PC Gamer, Newzoo analyst, Emmanuel Rosier, argues that it may be too little too late for Epic to claw back enough market share with a redesign,

The analyst echoes previous reports that said players were simply going to Epic for the free games and then turning around and going back to Steam when they wanted to buy a game they actually wanted to spend money on. The premise of the argument is that Steam is "inevitable," meaning it is too big for new gamers to avoid and too entrenched for long-time and casual gamers to turn their backs on.

Last week, Valve cracked down on a number of explicit games on Steam, citing concerns from payment processors as the driving force behind the policy change. Now, Itch.io, the platform that pitches itself as "an open marketplace for independent game creators," has followed suit, with game developers initially noticing their games being pulled from the platform without notice, followed by an announcement by Itch.io explaining the removal and clarifying the marketplace's stance on NSFW and sexualized content on the platform. Itch.io blames the crackdown on the same campaign that initially affected games on Valve's Store—an open letter titled "Open letter to payment processors profiting from rape, incest + child abuse games on Steam" signed by numerous executives from major payment processors. In the letter, numerous valid concerns were raised, specifically surrounding imagery of minors and non-consensual sexual activity. In a response issued by Itch.io, the platform explained that it had to make the urgent decision to temporarily de-index all games that contain NSFW or explicit content while it conducts an audit in order to "protect the platform's core payment infrastructure." Once the audit is conducted, Itch.io will provide NSFW game developers with new guidelines and changes that need to be made to their games in order to be reinstated, and some games will be permanently removed from the platform in order to comply with the demands of the payment processors. Games that have been removed from the platform are currently unavailable to purchase or even be downloaded by those who purchased them previously.

On sites where now-removed games used to live, Itch.io is displaying a message to its users that reads: "We don't allow hosting content that includes sexualized images or videos of real-life humans. Fictional, illustrated, and rendered content is generally fine, assuming it's legal. AI-generated imagery that is designed to resemble photographic content of real people is not allowed. Content glorifying sexual violence is not permitted. Depictions of minors, minor-presenting, or suggested minors in a sexual context are not allowed and will result in account suspension. If you plan to collect money for your content, then you must adhere to the acceptable use policy of all respective payment processors that your account utilizes." Although this leaves some room for interpretation, it clearly still allows for some NSFW and sexualized content. Itch.io is also directing users to read its NSFW content policy and the policies of its payment providers by linking those policies on the same page.

Retreat to Enen, the tranquil sandbox survival game from developer Head West and publisher Freedom Games, harnesses harmony on PC via Steam and Epic Game Store today. In the distant future, the denizens of a war-torn Earth reflect on the endless violence, choosing to move forward in a more naturalistic direction. Society finally puts forth efforts into restoring nature, inspired by the ways of its ancestors. Come to the island of Enen and harmonize with wildlife, in a right of passage bettering each individual, granting them a newfound peace.

Live off of nature's boons like plants, fruits, animal meat, and other materials to truly appreciate these blessings. Build a shelter, fire, and other crucial survival tools using more than 100 different resources to create a true home away from home. Explore the island to discover key meditation spots in order to maintain an in-sync spirit across newly discovered ruins and treefall gaps, flourishing in a peaceful journey of self-actualization.

Bethesda had concerned a few people last year when they had announced most of their new games would be available on the PC platform only via their own store and launcher, at least initially. People were quick to speculate whether this was Bethesda wanting a bigger share of the pie than Steam would allow, which is hilarious in hindsight with everything Epic Game Store related since then, and also whether this was because they were worried that Fallout 76, the first of these games affected by said decision, would have generate refunds galore on Steam as a result of bugs, bugs, and more bugs. Today Bethesda took to social media to make good on their promise, saying that all their upcoming games will be simultaneously available on both Steam and the Bethesda Store, including Rage 2, Doom Eternal, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, and Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot.

Interestingly, it will still be a while before Fallout 76 will make its way on Steam, which does not help its cause as far as far as having a depreciating player base goes. The move in general also plays into the larger dynamics of PC game stores, with game exclusives suddenly becoming a valid point of consideration as the competition from Epic Games heats up. It is also interesting to see how few complaints there are online of how these games are not available on, say, the Epic Games Store, or Discord, or GoG, and points further to the loyalty-factor of the populace complaining about exclusives on PC game stores in 2019.

In a report via Ars Technica, it seems that Microsoft is actually inching ever closer to having PCs powered by Xbox games (and Xbox servers). After the company pushed some free copies of State of Decay to a limited number of beta testers for its upcoming Windows 10 updates (and asking for feedback on the game's behavior), a number of users tried (and managed) to dig deeper.

It seems that Microsoft used the Xbox's distribution services instead of the usual Game Store ones for distributing State of Decay, which would mean a tight integration of its console distribution platform and its Windows PC one. Furthermore, the state of Decay files came in encoded on a proprietary, Xbox-bound .xvc file system. State of Decay, as it is being delivered, also tries to update the DirectX installation on the users' PC, which speaks of it being aware of some PC-specific requirements for it to be run, which wouldn't be present shouldn't that be the case. This is all part of Microsoft's GameCore initiative, which aims to build a common set of system services and APIs that allow for higher development integration between both the PC and Xbox platforms, lowering the coding barrier for games to run on both, and perhaps even enabling PCs to be recognized as equals to Xbox consoles when it comes to content distribution. Maybe we'll finally be able to get The Master Chief collection and... Red Dead Redemption in our PCs?

We reported yesterday how Metro Exodus unceremoniously left Steam for a year-long exclusivity deal on the Epic Game store, one of many steps that Epic and Tencent are taking to challenge the Goliath of PC gaming storefronts itself. Valve was quick in putting out a rare statement yesterday, which has been updated since to reflect the status of the game on Steam, and it can be seen below verbatim, with THQ Nordic's take on this matter past the break.

Notice: Sales of Metro Exodus have been discontinued on Steam due to a publisher decision to make the game exclusive to another PC store. The developer and publisher have assured us that all prior sales of the game on Steam will be fulfilled on Steam, and Steam owners will be able to access the game and any future updates or DLC through Steam. We think the decision to remove the game is unfair to Steam customers, especially after a long pre-sale period. We apologize to Steam customers that were expecting it to be available for sale through the February 15th release date, but we were only recently informed of the decision and given limited time to let everyone know.

With more and more companies creating their very own digital storefronts in the PC gaming space, it was only a matter of time until Epic Games threw their hat into the ring. With an announcement posted today, by Tim Sweeney the Epic Games store is now officially a reality. The new digital storefront will be made available for PC and Mac to start with, while other platforms will be added throughout 2019. In regards to games available on the platform, Epic will offer Fortnite alongside a set of hand-curated titles at launch. What those games might be is currently unknown.

Delivering a shot across the bow at Steam and their 30% revenue cut, Epic's game store will instead only take 12%, resulting in developers earning 88% of sales revenue. If they are using Unreal Engine the 5% engine royalty will be waived by Epic and instead is factored into their original 12% take. Putting that into perspective, an Unreal Engine based game released on Steam currently gives developers only 65% of the revenue with Steam earning 30% and Epic 5% due to engine royalties. Going from 65% to 88% is a significant increase in earnings, and it doesn't matter what game engine a developer uses, the revenue split will remain the same. This should leave developers quite happy since they are not limited by game engine choice and Epic benefits from a vastly increased selection of titles they can offer in their digital store.

With over 150 million users Discord, the popular chat platform for gamers, made a big step forward last October and launched its own online store. We started talking about that move in August, and it seems the idea is growing on the company, because they will now be offering early access games as part of their current catalog. This allows users to enjoy titles that are still in development, and the title creators can start earning some money while receiving valuable feedback in the process.

There are several games that became popular through this model like 'Ark: Survival Evolved' and even 'Fortnite', and on Discord we will find several offerings of this kind like 'Mad Machines', 'Parkasaurus', 'Kynseed', 'Visage' or 'Descenders'. This new catalog is an interesting addition to other platform offerings such as Discord Nitro, its own subscription service that offers unlimited access to 60+ games for $9.99/month or $99/year (USD).

We reported in August this year that Discord was trying out games delivery as a service option, and today the company took a major step forward in this regard by bringing out the Discord Store to a public beta state. For all intents and purposes, the store is fully functional and all users have access to it regardless of whether you are a free user or subscribe to the Discord Nitro service. The new store is curated, and attempts to be user friendly in finding games- something that is easier with fewer games on board, as Steam users will be quick to tell you. There are a few "First on Discord" games already, and the number is bound to increase as the company will have to attract users to what is yet another game store option on the PC platform.

Going the profitable subscription route, Discord Nitro at $9.99/month or $99/year (USD) now offers 60+ games at no additional cost. This list includes smaller titles such as last year's popular horror game Soma, as well as larger AAA titles from before including Metro: Last Light Redux for what they term as a combined value exceeding $1000. For those who do not want games but wish to retain the older perks of Nitro, the new Nitro Classic at $4.99/month is for you. Lastly, for those worrying about the need for another separate launcher, the addition of Discord Library means that games from the Discord Store can be launched right from Discord itself. In a pleasant bonus, Discord Library will also allow players to launch other games regardless of where they were purchased from, although this currently is similar to adding an external game on the Steam application.