The company behind Fortnite has launched a rival to Steam

THE EPIC GAMES STORE ALREADY HAS A NUMBER OF EXCLUSIVES.

Epic Games, the company responsible for Fortnite and Gears of War, has launched its own PC gaming storefront. The Epic Games Store is designed to be a rival to Valve’s market-dominating Steam platform, and while its current library is tiny compared to the competition, it’s managed to launch with a handful of platform exclusives. These include Ashen, a much-anticipated action RPG, as well as the PC release of Journey, which has previously been exclusive to PlayStation consoles. To sweeten the deal, users of the Epic Games Store will receive one free game every fortnight throughout 2019.

The launch comes amid mounting criticism of Steam, with Valve’s revenue share policy coming under scrutiny in December, with many criticising a structure which sees more popular games attracting a smaller cut from Valve, thus handicapping niche and low-selling titles. Epic Games will grant 88% of all sales to the developer. It’s tough to crack the PC marketplace space in the shadow of a behemoth like Steam, but with Fortnite under its belt, Epic Games is arguably the best positioned company to do so.