The Littlest Next Big Thing In Gaming, Itch.io Hits The Desktop
December 25, 2015 9:44 PM Subscribe
To understand the degree to which Valve's Steam service dominates videogame sales, you only have to witness the rending of garments and gnashing of teeth that occurred when Steam went offline on Christmas Day for approximately an hour. Despite attempts by other companies, such as EA's Origin service, no one has so far been able to loosen Steam's grip on players' wallets. But on December 14th, tiny upstart Itch.io, sometimes called "Bandcamp for games," released the public alpha for their desktop client app for Mac, Windows and Linux.
Itch.io is already a popular site for distributing independent games, especially short-form or experimental works that would not be well suited for a traditional commercial release. However a handful of more commercially successful independent developers, such as Fullbright (Gone Home) and Finji (Feist, Panoramical, and the upcoming Night In The Woods) have started selling games on both Steam and Itch.io, in part because Itch.io allows game developers to choose how much revenue from purchases is given to Itch.io (currently from 0-30%).
With Itch.io's desktop app streamlining downloads and installations, as well as creating a stronger psychological sense of ownership over a library of digital goods, it may accelerate the growing interest among players in its catalog of over 15,000 games, many of which can be had for free. If more small and mid-sized developers make their commercial games available, perhaps in pursuit of a more favorable revenue split, we may finally see a return of market competition in PC games retail.
Some recent titles on Itch.io that have appeared on the blue:
Right Click to Hack
Pixel Dungeon
Coming Out Simulator
Itch.io is already a popular site for distributing independent games, especially short-form or experimental works that would not be well suited for a traditional commercial release. However a handful of more commercially successful independent developers, such as Fullbright (Gone Home) and Finji (Feist, Panoramical, and the upcoming Night In The Woods) have started selling games on both Steam and Itch.io, in part because Itch.io allows game developers to choose how much revenue from purchases is given to Itch.io (currently from 0-30%).
With Itch.io's desktop app streamlining downloads and installations, as well as creating a stronger psychological sense of ownership over a library of digital goods, it may accelerate the growing interest among players in its catalog of over 15,000 games, many of which can be had for free. If more small and mid-sized developers make their commercial games available, perhaps in pursuit of a more favorable revenue split, we may finally see a return of market competition in PC games retail.
Some recent titles on Itch.io that have appeared on the blue:
Right Click to Hack
Pixel Dungeon
Coming Out Simulator
This post was deleted for the following reason: Sorry, this is way too editorial (and consequently reads like a sales pitch, which is a no-no.) -- restless_nomad
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