Steam alternatives are cropping up all over the place, so let's throw one more into the ring. Announced earlier this year, Brian Fargo's Robot Cache officially began signups for its so-called Early Access period today. Well, players can sell used games, developers get to keep 95 percent of a game's revenue, and there's a cryptocurrency involved. If you go to the Robot Cache website, it even says it's "The world's first blockchain-based digital marketplace for video games." The cryptocurrency in question is called "IRON," all-caps, and apparently one Iron is pegged to the value of one Euro.

Today the marketing team behind Robot Cache sent out a press release pimping the first 11 video game publishers and developers that have signed on to the Steam competitor's decentralized and, honestly, quite unique PC game distribution platform. But in a cynical industry overflowing with competition for your dollars, it may not be quite enough to make you hunt down Robot Cache's offices and demand early access to the service. It's the kind of press release that's difficult to act on because there's barely enough meat on its bones to create a substantial article from. I've done marketing, and this is a move designed to keep momentum up and mindshare steady before the big mic drop happens. I don't mean to bash them.