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But Steam doesn't charge the same rates - they have a regressive commission strategy whereby Indie developers (who cannot leave the platform due to the quasi-mo

But Steam doesn't charge the same rates - they have a regressive commission strategy whereby Indie developers (who cannot leave the platform due to the quasi-monopoly nature of Steam on PC) are charged 30%, whereas titles that exceed $10m are charged 25% and $50m 20%. From insider accounts Valve/Steam is basically a money-printing operation on Autopilot, with Gabe Newell checking into the office irregularly, and otherwise living in New Zealand. Change the Steam commission to 15% to everybody, and Valve would still be clearing immense profits, developers would have higher revenues which would be invested back into better software and conditions for workers, and this whole competitive situation would become irrelevant.

danShumway 6y ago
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that a more recent change? My understanding was that people criticized Valve's rates in no small part because of Epic coming in and offering lower ones, and Valve responded by saying that they'd cut rates for big publishers. Maybe I'm misremembering the story.
- SXX 6y ago
  Recently it's just Valve publicly stating revenue share cut due to competition with Epic. Since Valve is a private company we have no data on how much they they charged big publishers earlier. For all we know Valve could also have any kind of agreements for games of Rockstar or Bethesda. It's hard to believe that all top titles on Steam paid thr same 30% cut till recently.