Are Fortnite and the Epic Games Store Enough to Kill Steam?

With Fortnite creator Epic Games announcing and launching the Epic Games Store for PC games, it appears that Steam finally has some competition. On this episode of Transition, the Gadgets 360 podcast, we discuss Epic's approach to content curation and aggregation that has indie game developers falling over each other to align themselves with the Epic Game Store. Considering that Epic's reason for being able to offer developers an 88 percent revenue compared to the standard 70 percent has to do with the ongoing success of Fortnite, we speculate on the feasibility of running a PC game storefront with just a meagre 12 percent.

Furthermore, we discuss how gamers have reacted to select titles being timed or permanently exclusive to the Epic Games Store. In a lot of ways, Epic's approach to market appears to be the PC equivalent of what the Android ecosystem saw for awhile what with legions of third-party app stores vying for developer attention. It's a tactic Microsoft used with the Windows Phone Store too. While both third-party Android app stores outside of China and the Windows Phone Store are non-entities right now, how Epic Games maintains momentum after a big splash at The Game Awards 2018 remains to be seen.

Finally, we talk about the games we've been playing this week including a wealth of Nintendo Switch games such as Warframe, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Big Bash Boom as well as some mobile fare like Ping Pong King.

You can subscribe to Transition via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download this episode,or just listen to it by hitting the play button below. The music for this episode comes via Magnus Souleye Pålsson's album PPPPPP, which is the soundtrack for the game, VVVVVV.