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(+1)

There are two really good things about the Epic store and one thing that might be good or bad long term:

1.) It's a major platform (as in has AAA games) pushing a better revenue split for developers. I thank GameJolt and Itch for starting this, and I am glad to see Epic taking it seriously too

2.) The financial support for some developers to give them a certain amount of money to develop and launch their games exclusively on Epic (matching or exceeding the expected sales they would've got)

3.) Giving developers money to release their games for free


Point 1 is already something Itch does. The only thing that could improve is exactly what you're saying, a few serious, bigger games. Not necessarily AAA. But then again, stuff like Celeste is on here, so they already kind of do it in terms of the big Indie games. 

Point 2 I don't see as something that Itch could afford. Really only comes from Epic's success with Fortnite and investments. Maybe there's a crowdsourcing angle that could be exploited? Although I feel Patreon already handles this well enough

Point 3 is yet to be determined if it'll be good (could distort the market even more :S), and also ties into Point 2 in terms of me not sure if Itch could afford it.


But I am glad that we are seeing some improvements for the smaller devs out there, thanks to these platforms. I do think you're onto something with bigger game releases.

(+1)

All I will add is that your comment regarding "market distortion" basically outlines the issue I have with Epic. I don't blame developers for taking deals (my beef is with Epic only), but I really think exclusives should be discouraged in every industry. Most of the biggest companies in the world used the same or similar strategies, so I really don't have high hopes Epic will make things "better" in the long run. I hope I am wrong about this though.

Anyway, I do want to avoid any further discussion since this topic can get very heated easily and I would be derailing this discussion.

Just to balance this out, I actually did stumble on this post by asking google if "Itch.io accepted AAA games" in hindsight it was kind of a silly question to ask (IMO) since it would go against what Itch.io *is*.

Bigger indie games I feel would give the platform the most leverage since I imagine Itch.io has this stigma that it's just for "amatuers" or for "small experimental titles". Maybe if enough people shop at Itch.io or even simply engage with the site, we could see game jams or events appear that give developers funding or resources to make/finish larger projects.