The Epic Games Store launched simply over 4 years in the past, constructing an attraction for customers on high-profile exclusives and tons of freebies, and attraction for builders and publishers with a extra profitable income cut up. While it’s been rising when it comes to each customers and catalog, it’s nonetheless a fraction of the scale of the de facto commonplace for PC gaming, Steam. Today Epic is leveling the taking part in subject for considered one of Steam’s largest attracts, because it permits indie builders to post their own games to the store with out the necessity for a writer.

The setup for Epic is just like Steam: Pay $100 to submit a recreation, create a touchdown web page, enter some enterprise data, and submit your recreation for assessment. Notably, the Epic Games Store is preserving the well-publicized 88/12 revenue split for indie builders (which beats out the same old 70/30 cut up of Steam, the Apple App Store, the Google Play Store, and most different digital storefronts). While builders can have entry to the Epic Online Services platform instruments like recreation achievements, they aren’t restricted to utilizing Epic’s Unreal engine.

There are a couple of restrictions, nevertheless. Epic doesn’t have the identical laissez-faire angle in direction of explicitly grownup video games as Steam does. While “Mature” content material is clearly allowed, the latest glut of straight-up porn video games seen on Steam’s storefront gained’t be making an look on Epic. No video games that might be rated Adults Only by the ESRB shall be accepted. Multiplayer video games submitted to Epic want to permit crossplay with different recreation shops, which notably isn’t a requirement for Steam.

While Steam remains to be the first supply for indie builders to host PC video games, the market has change into extra democratized of late, with extra choices like GoG and Itch.io opening up. Steam publishes greater than 1,000 new video games each month at this level. Epic has an extended solution to go, however with that attractive income cut up and a rising viewers constructed by free video games and F2P staples like Fortnite and Rocket League, it’s in a great place to get there.