Comment by nindalf | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nindalf | Hacker News Reader

I'd love to support this service. They do everything right - they take 0% of the game and give the entire amount to the devs. In contrast Steam takes 25% (earlier 30%). The tools itch offers to devs to package/upload their game are considered to be best-in-class in the industry and they're all open source [0]. There's an excellent article that talks about the difficulties in creating a competitor to Steam, and the kicker is "the service you're thinking of already exists - it's called itch.io" [1].

And yet when I think of an indie game I want to buy, it's not there. Just today I saw an excellent review [2] for a game called Hollow Knight. I couldn't find it on itch, ended up buying it on Steam instead. FWIW, the game is also available on gog.com, the Humble store and all consoles, so it's not like the devs haven't taken the effort to make their game accessible.

[0] - https://github.com/itchio

[1] - https://www.fortressofdoors.com/so-you-want-to-compete-with-...

[2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksexEs7FKf4

You are using itch wrong. It's like Netflix: you don't use it with a movie in mind. They won't have it. Instead, you go to it to find something new that they are recommending.

Your main point is still valid but Steam still takes 30% on the first $10 million in sales [0]. If you're an indie, this is almost certainly not going to apply to you [1].

There are a few new options for game marketplaces such as itch.io, the discord store, and the epic games store. All of them take a lower cut than steam. However, so far none of the steam alternatives have a large number of popular games.

[0] https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/12/01/steam-taking-sma... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WycVOCbeKqQ

Many excellent indie games are on itch though - take Celeste, for example.

https://mattmakesgames.itch.io/celeste

Oh of course, Itch does have several games. It's just that it didn't have the game I wanted when I went there. It might be a long time before I want to try a game and check out itch once more.

Coincidentally the video I linked reviewed Celeste in addition to Hollow Knight, but Girlfriend liked the latter much more. That's why I went with Hollow Knight.

Note that if you purchase Hollow Knight from Humble or GOG, you get a DRM-free binary that runs anywhere. You own the game and don't need a client like Steam running in the background.

For those who don't know, gog.com is basically the same as itch.io, although I'm pretty sure GOG has a strict policy against DRM, whereas Itch seems to just say "we don't implement any DRM ourselves". GOG also has a much wider selection currently. That said, Itch is doing a lot right, as you say, and I'll support the service by buying any games I want that are available there.

I'd disagree with your characterization of GOG. I'd say they're more like a DRM free Steam. Just like Steam they also charge 30%. I also have a somewhat negative bias against them because several years ago they announced they were shutting down in under a week. This turned out to be a PR stunt but I haven't bought anything from them since.

They're also an excellent example of how tough this space is. Even though they're owned by CD Project Red you can still buy games like the Witcher on Steam.

I agree that the "shutdown" stunt was poorly executed, but it did have the effect they intended.

Here is a quote from discussions on slashdot at the time:

> Plus, they must suck at advertising. This is the first I heard of them.

https://www.slashdot.org/story/141308

Also, as people pointed out at the time - with GOG at least you don't need their servers to be online to reinstall from your backups.

> they take 0% of the game

Not exactly, they charge 10% or allow you to setup your own merchant gateways.

https://itch.io/docs/creators/payments

That 10% is well worth it for having them deal with the tax/VAT madness.

No, they literally allow you to give them 0%. The 10% listed is an example as it's the default, the slider goes down to 0% if developers don't want to give them anything.

Well, not exactly too. They charge 10% by default, but allow you to set any percentage (including 0%) regardless of the chosen payment mode. The only fees still left are the payment processor ones.

Personally I have set 30%, because they deserve it.

We need to evolve the terminology. The games on Itch.io are not Indie games - they are sub-Indie. Mostly amateur, hobbyist and school projects.

People who are making games as a serious side-gig or full-time job (ie. the typical definition of Indie) are all on Steam, and the best Indies are on console and Epic Games Store.

People want curation and less junk on Steam. Itch.io is exclusively... uncurated junk.

I think Itch.io would thrive if Steam increased their listing fee (Steam Direct) to $2,000 and required $100 annually if the game generated below $2,000 of gross revenue. This would be great for Indie games and consumers on Steam, but would give Itch.io an opening on the low end, so its probably why Valve isn't doing it. Ironically they are pushing their own top customers (and suppliers) to Epic with this strategy though!

I think Itch.io would be better with some kind of very cheap subscription, or being supported by advertising or sponsorship (integrated into game distributables). It could be like the Newgrounds of the next generation. It should be the place where you can try out low-end games for very little costs, secure in the knowledge that the executable has at least been verified for malware.

This is wildly inaccurate. There are at least a few very well known game publishers such as Double Fine that have their games on itch.io. In addition, there are more than a few critically acclaimed indie titles such as Celeste, Crosscode, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, and others.

While I agree that I would personally prefer a more curated view, itch.io is intentionally pursuing an open marketplace and that means developers of all skills and kinds and all types of projects are represented.

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