Epic Games is the second largest digital games store in the market. According to 2020 data, it was estimated at about 15%Which is not a bad piece of cake. The third, fourth and fifth positions are held by GOG, Humble Bundle and Itch.io, respectively, according to the research, which aggregates data from various sources. However, and you’ve probably been thinking about it since the beginning, Steam’s position is out of reach for the rest today with a market share estimated at around 75% in 2020.

On the one hand, we have Valve trying to stay in this position, and the rest of the shops aspiring to maybe not steal the gold medal, but at least to close the distance as much as possible. GOG, Humble Bundle and Itch.io are on a different scale, but Epic Games has aspirations (obviously legitimate) to damage Steam accounts, and of course that has a positive impact in itself.

To achieve this change, however, the Fortnite Creators Store should take measures to improve their competitiveness with Valve’s store because its policy of giving away games every week has proven to be extremely expensive and not very effective at climbing the ranks or at least achieving a really substantial increase in market share.

In this sense, we already knew in 2021 that Epic Games wanted to open its own publishing store, and that the closed beta was supposed to start at that time. The idea seemed quite good, as it would facilitate the arrival of new titles to the stores, since it is an affordable option for developers of all sizes, who could benefit from the sales conditions of this store, much more favorable than those offered by Steam.

We haven’t heard of it until now, but as the store itself announced, Epic Games finally allows self-publishing in its store. The publishing fee, which is what a developer (or their distributor) must pay to upload their game to the Epic Games Store, is $100, the commission charged on each sale is 12%, compared to the 30% charged by Valve, and , in in accordance with its request to Apple, allows the use of third-party services for in-app sales and in this case does not charge any commission for them.

Opening up the store to developers of all shapes and sizes, something Steam has offered for a long time, is a pretty smart move because you can significantly expand your catalog without the company having to take on the cost of having to fully manage the amount of each new title. Now, of course, we’ll have to test the acceptance of this new self-publishing system and whether Epic Games will grow in user share and revenue with it, bringing its still distant profitability a little closer.