3 ms·

Looks like Microsoft finally found a way to eat Valve's lunch - release a windows API that forces you to only publish via their app store. I'm surprised this i

Looks like Microsoft finally found a way to eat Valve's lunch - release a windows API that forces you to only publish via their app store. I'm surprised this is the first they've done this. In a way, Valve has been reaping the same benefits of Apple and Google without supporting an OS. It's too bad things are headed completely in this direction. Rent seeking app stores have shown that there is little resistance from developers even with ridiculous margins (30% of revenue!).

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
sago 11y ago
As someone who's shipped games for direct download, and via steam, as well as in retail boxes (oh for 70% margin!), I can honestly say that I find 30% not in the slightest bit ridiculous. I'd give 99% revenue to a platform if it meant that I sold more than 100x the product. Steam, for example, has been transformative for the industry, and has led to a renaissance in independent game production. I remember the bleak days of the early 2000s, when consolidation was sending even large developers bust, with little opportunities for their staff. Many friends and colleagues were jettisoned from the industry. Apple's iOS store, also, for all its well-rehearsed problems, has supported an industry that I honestly don't think would exist without it: largely creating a viable micropayment games economy that had been wanted by developers for 20 years at least. Both have increased sales by many times more than their cut.
vacri 11y ago
> Rent seeking app stores App stores are not rent seeking. They created a market (and in some cases a platform) for you to sell to. Being able to sell your product with only 30% overhead is something previously unheard of in retail. If you want to get 100% of the money, then you're welcome to build your own sales system and generate trust with it, deal with bad creditors yourself, deal with maintenance and artefact distribution in a secure, scaled manner... the list goes on and on. Go and ask some farmers if they'd feel hard done by if they got 70% of the final purchase price of their produce.
- oblio 11y ago
  Physical retail and digital retail are wildly different.
  - vacri 11y ago
    My second paragraph was crafted just for you, then! Really, it's not all that different. You have the same groups - a distributor and a shopfront. Sometimes these are the same (apple's app store) sometimes not (a games publisher managing your game on steam). You generate the primary product, and it goes through a middleman or two on the way to the end-user. And just like a farmer, you can sell your own product yourself and walk away with 100% of the cash. But like the farmer's shack by the side of the road, you don't get as much market penetration with your product on your own website - people have to come to you or stumble across you, instead of just get your stuff at the supermarket where they usually shop. Yes, there are differences, but no, they're not wildly different. You make something and want to sell it. People offer services to help you sell it. You give them some of the money in order to sell more product. 30% is really low overhead.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

sago 11y ago

As someone who's shipped games for direct download, and via steam, as well as in retail boxes (oh for 70% margin!), I can honestly say that I find 30% not in the slightest bit ridiculous. I'd give 99% revenue to a platform if it meant that I sold more than 100x the product. Steam, for example, has been transformative for the industry, and has led to a renaissance in independent game production. I remember the bleak days of the early 2000s, when consolidation was sending even large developers bust, with little opportunities for their staff. Many friends and colleagues were jettisoned from the industry. Apple's iOS store, also, for all its well-rehearsed problems, has supported an industry that I honestly don't think would exist without it: largely creating a viable micropayment games economy that had been wanted by developers for 20 years at least. Both have increased sales by many times more than their cut.

vacri 11y ago

> Rent seeking app stores App stores are not rent seeking. They created a market (and in some cases a platform) for you to sell to. Being able to sell your product with only 30% overhead is something previously unheard of in retail. If you want to get 100% of the money, then you're welcome to build your own sales system and generate trust with it, deal with bad creditors yourself, deal with maintenance and artefact distribution in a secure, scaled manner... the list goes on and on. Go and ask some farmers if they'd feel hard done by if they got 70% of the final purchase price of their produce.

oblio 11y ago
Physical retail and digital retail are wildly different.
- vacri 11y ago
  My second paragraph was crafted just for you, then! Really, it's not all that different. You have the same groups - a distributor and a shopfront. Sometimes these are the same (apple's app store) sometimes not (a games publisher managing your game on steam). You generate the primary product, and it goes through a middleman or two on the way to the end-user. And just like a farmer, you can sell your own product yourself and walk away with 100% of the cash. But like the farmer's shack by the side of the road, you don't get as much market penetration with your product on your own website - people have to come to you or stumble across you, instead of just get your stuff at the supermarket where they usually shop. Yes, there are differences, but no, they're not wildly different. You make something and want to sell it. People offer services to help you sell it. You give them some of the money in order to sell more product. 30% is really low overhead.