The Epic Games Store isn’t the only Steam competitor to make a splash at the end of 2018. Discord‘s curated selection of games includes a collection of exclusives, although those deals seem to be less restrictive over time than Epic’s. Games like Last Year: The Nightmare and Bad North are “First on Discord” and making a big splash. This has led Discord to accept another $150 million in funding from several investors led by Greenoaks Capital. In total, the company is now valued at $2.05 billion.
Among several investment firms in the lineup posted on Gamasutra, you’ll also see Tencent. They’re heavily invested in both new stores, building platforms to go against Steam’s near-monopoly in the PC space. Discord is also taking a similar stance to Epic when it comes to how developers are treated by platform holders. Developers on Discord receive a 90/10 split of revenue, with only ten percent going back to Discord. That’s a twenty percent boost over what Steam takes and even topples Epic’s generous offerings.
With over 200 million users, this chat app has the audience to promote games that might otherwise remain buried under Steam’s massive library. They’re also not far behind Xbox in the subscription game, as they’ve added games to their existing Nitro package. Games on Nitro aren’t available to purchase separately and consist of games that have been commonly on sale and included in bundles in the past. Still, if you’re new to the PC platform, grabbing titles like SOMA and Psychonauts is a deal.
Games on the Discord store have optional DRM similar to Steam, although any games that do require a connection won’t work as the platform doesn’t currently have an offline mode. Much like the Epic Games Store’s launch troubles, 2018 was only the beginning, and we should see both stores ramp up over the coming year.
