Inspired by true events from this morning
this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2024
897 points (97.6% liked)
Games
39141 readers
983 users here now
Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
Rules
1. Submissions have to be related to games
Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.
This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.
2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil
No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.
We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.
3. No excessive self-promotion
Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.
This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.
4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you're submitting before posting to see if it's already been posted.
We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.
5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW
Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.
No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.
6. No linking to piracy
Don't share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.
We don't want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.
Authorized Regular Threads
Related communities
PM a mod to add your own
Video games
Generic
- [email protected]: Our sister community, focused on PC and console gaming. Meme are allowed.
- [email protected]: For all your screenshots needs, to share your love for games graphics.
- [email protected]: A community to share your love for video games music
Help and suggestions
By platform
By type
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
By games
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
Language specific
- [email protected]: French
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
For context: I make indie games and have released two so far and I'm currently working on the third one which is weird as fuck. So the way that Steam works is, they don't send you money anytime you make a sale, but they send all of it at the end of every month. Now September is almost over and I got an e-mail titled "Steam Payment Notification" and I get all hyped up. I open it and read it that the Payment Notification is actually that there is no Payment since I didn't make $100 in sales. Way to hype me up and bring me down, Steam.
Youtube and twitch work this same way. When I was starting there were months where I didnt make any money because I didn't meet the minimum. Hoping next month meets the requirement for you boss π
Does the balance at least accumulate until you do hit the threshold, or is the money just gone?
It accumulates, so there is no money lost. It does kinda suck though that as you start, even though you can make money and did make a bit you don't get to see it yet
It does make sense from a payment processing standpoint. It doesn't make sense to spend more money on creating the transaction than is actually being sent.
I used to pay a particular company by purchase order for this exact reason. CC takes 2-3% of the payment, but purchase order - they've got to get themselves into the company system, track the PO, invoice, track the payment...at the time, a common estimate was $50 to process a PO, and if you're only buying $100 batches, that's a big hit. Did not like that company, but they were the only place to get whatever it was I had to buy.
Sending a simple transaction like this costs a couple cents though, which they could in theory bill to the developer as well. Setting the threshold at 100 is probably more to accrue additional interest on Steams bank accounts.
I think in the US Iβve heard ETF/ACH transaction fees are usually around $2.50? It might be possible to have that apply across a batch, though, as in if you submit 10 payments to 10 different people as a single transaction itβs still just $2.50, or 25Β’ per person. Iβm only getting this from hearing accountants complain at companies Iβve worked with, so I donβt understand the details. But Iβve seen it pretty common with companies doing payouts to want to see a minimum amount before they actually send the payment, otherwise itβs not worth doing.
Absolutely. It's got to be the way it is. Just kinda feels bad at first
It accumulates
Does Steam take a cut for distribution?
If not, while this emotionally sucks, they've a solid operational policy.
Yes, their cut is 30% which is a lot, but they are pretty much the only big platform out there. Epic games has been trying to get in the game but so far they are not close. Their cut is 15%.
I want to note that you'd need about $143 in gross sales to meet the threshold of $100 in net profit.
On the surface that sounds like a lot. But, they're providing a service without any guarantee of any income. Epic can only compete because they've few users and are willing to operate at a near loss in attempt to garner market share.
This will be a difficult one for others to understand as a "good deal". Gamers are usually correct when they pull out their pitchforks. This should not be one of those times.
While I'm no fan of Epic Games for bribing companies to keep games off of Steam for a year or more, Valve's market dominance in PC game sales isn't a good thing for developers or consumers.
Competition in capitalism is always better than a lack thereof. But, we've not busted monopolies in a significant way since Ma Bell. And, even if we were, at 75% of the global market share they'd not warrant any action yet.
There's going to be a dominant organization because late stage capitalism sucks. And, I'd rather it be Valve than some alternative trying to fuck me over at every opportunity.
The thing is, steam's market dominance is one of user choice rather than anticompetitive strategies or lack of alternatives. Steam doesn't do exclusives, they don't charge you for external sales, they don't even prevent you from selling steam keys outside the platform, or users from launching non steam games in the client. The only real restriction is that access to steam services requires a license in the active steam account. Even valve-produced devices like the steam deck can install from other stores.
Sure, dominance is bad in an abstract theoretical way and it'd be nice if Gog, itch.io, etc were more competitive, but Steam is dominant because consumers actively choose it.
Yeah! Other publishers should open their own stores and compete!
.....
Oh wait no fuck oh god oh what have we done
Bullshit. Epic's loses are in paying for exclusives and giving away games while ruining their PR.
Steam could operate at 15% if they wanted to. But... why would they do that?
Neither is publicly traded. Neither of us know the numbers.
Does Steam make money on hosting indie games?
How does one research such a question?
I don't need answers. I had them before I made my second post above.
Good luck to you.
https://sell.amazon.com/pricing#referral-fees
I guess, according to you, it costs more to host files than it does to ship you a physical USB.
Maybe all these apps stores need to look into physical delivery in order to bring their costs down.
Isnβt it free up to a certain amount?
Also arenβt you able to create steam keys for free and resell them wherever you want and they wonβt take a cut off those?
Steam only charges that for larger developers though iirc
I see you settled on a design for the toaster. Love the mustache.
Thank you : )
Other games include "be a rock" and "pizza synthwave" and this is the weird one.
Wish listed.
You raised my hopes, and dashed them quite expertly sir! Bravo!
Ayy I remember that toaster! This looks great! The sign with "Do not bite yourself to check whether you are a cake" got me smiling good
Oooh, I remember seeing you post about the toaster
Since i'm a sucker for weird games and very bad at following simple rules i wishlisted your new game lol
Whats the game? :)