4 ms·

The devs could already get around the 30% cut by selling steam keys to the game on another site, bypassing Valve. Epic also doesn't care about the developers,

by dx87 7y ago

The devs could already get around the 30% cut by selling steam keys to the game on another site, bypassing Valve. Epic also doesn't care about the developers, most of their exclusivity deals boil down to "anyone but Steam", even 3rd party vendors that also take a 30% cut. Steam is also much more than just "payment processing and hosting". The Epic launcher is so devoid of features that players have to come to Steam game forums for support with their games. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/04/why-valve-actually-gets-less-than-30-percent-of-steam-game-sales/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/04/why-valve-actually-ge...

Creationer 7y ago
And most of those other sites charged high commissions, lacked region locking, and also meant you would get less visibility on Steam due to lower sales on that platform.
- ddingus 7y ago
  Everything costs something.
- p1necone 7y ago
  As far as I'm concerned as a consumer lacking region locking (as currently implemented at least) is a big positive because I can buy games for friends. Steam won't let you gift games to people in other regions at all which I don't understand - if there's regional price differences shouldn't I at least be able to purchase my gift at whatever the highest price of the two is?
reissbaker 7y ago
Right, but most people would buy via Steam, not the third party site with the keys, as per the link you posted; almost three-quarters of all game sales come directly from Steam. It's also not the case that all "Other" sales are commission-free for the devs; per the article: > Those keys are often sold on other platforms that take their own cut, which sometimes amount to the same as Steam's (though platforms like Itch.io and Humble Bundle generally take much less). And at the end of the day, devs are still at the mercy of Steam; you can't just sell your game through keys, because Steam controls key generation and doesn't let you do that. Again per the article: > Steam also imposes some limits on key generation to prevent developers from essentially piggybacking off of Steam's services while solely selling games directly to consumers elsewhere. That's why I think the anger re: the Epic Store misses some of the point. Epic's move into the store space almost incontrovertibly caused Steam to lower their take rate: two days after the Epic Store launch, Steam dropped their cut of revenue for games that sold over certain revenue thresholds. If Epic is successful, I imagine Steam's pricing will continue to become more competitive, which is better for devs and better for keeping smaller studios alive and independent.
baud147258 7y ago
I'm pretty sure that some 3rd party vendors, like itch.io, take way less than 30%

by dx87 7y ago

Creationer 7y ago

And most of those other sites charged high commissions, lacked region locking, and also meant you would get less visibility on Steam due to lower sales on that platform.

ddingus 7y ago
Everything costs something.
p1necone 7y ago
As far as I'm concerned as a consumer lacking region locking (as currently implemented at least) is a big positive because I can buy games for friends. Steam won't let you gift games to people in other regions at all which I don't understand - if there's regional price differences shouldn't I at least be able to purchase my gift at whatever the highest price of the two is?

reissbaker 7y ago

Right, but most people would buy via Steam, not the third party site with the keys, as per the link you posted; almost three-quarters of all game sales come directly from Steam. It's also not the case that all "Other" sales are commission-free for the devs; per the article: > Those keys are often sold on other platforms that take their own cut, which sometimes amount to the same as Steam's (though platforms like Itch.io and Humble Bundle generally take much less). And at the end of the day, devs are still at the mercy of Steam; you can't just sell your game through keys, because Steam controls key generation and doesn't let you do that. Again per the article: > Steam also imposes some limits on key generation to prevent developers from essentially piggybacking off of Steam's services while solely selling games directly to consumers elsewhere. That's why I think the anger re: the Epic Store misses some of the point. Epic's move into the store space almost incontrovertibly caused Steam to lower their take rate: two days after the Epic Store launch, Steam dropped their cut of revenue for games that sold over certain revenue thresholds. If Epic is successful, I imagine Steam's pricing will continue to become more competitive, which is better for devs and better for keeping smaller studios alive and independent.

baud147258 7y ago

I'm pretty sure that some 3rd party vendors, like itch.io, take way less than 30%