Skich is the next competitor to take a swing at the new alternative app store market
By gamers, for gamers?
- Skich is the latest contestant in the altstore space
- It's focused on gaming with a wealth of discoverability mechanics
- But can it succeed in a rapidly growing space?
With Apple's ecosystem being busted wide open we've had a glut of new entrants competing for the title of the first successful alt appstore on iOS. The latest contestant is Skich, a gaming-focused alt store that hopes to compete with the likes of Apptoide by offering a heavier focus on gaming rather than other apps.
The core conceit of Skich is its discoverability system. Essentially Skich focuses on three features: a recommendation system, a swipe-based discovery system and a social system alongside lists to let you see what your friends and others with similar tastes to you are playing.
You may recognise some of these as being quite similar to Steam, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. One issue that the Epic Games Store for iOS carries over from its PC iteration is the fact it lacks many of the social features and discoverability that those who use platforms like Steam, and to a lesser extent GOG, take for granted.
With that in mind, Skich does have a core selling point going for it. But, and this is a big but, I'm not sure that'll be enough to carry it. As I observed before, one big thing that storefronts need to do now that they can step into the iOS ecosystem is to entice players away from what they're used to.
With Epic, that enticement comes in the form of free games, with Apptoide it's the fact that it also focuses on other apps as well. So can Skich achieve the success it clearly wants with this focus on gamer-first features? There's definitely a chance, but I think it's far from assured.
Still, with a greater focus on alternative app stores from bigger publishers, such as EA and Flexion's recent team-up, we may be looking at a future where the official storefronts play second fiddle to up-and-comers from outside.
