this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2023
636 points (95.2% liked)

Games

32712 readers
1619 users here now

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Weekly Threads:

What Are You Playing?

The Weekly Discussion Topic

Rules:

  1. Submissions have to be related to games

  2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil

  3. No excessive self-promotion

  4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts

  5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW

  6. No linking to piracy

More information about the community rules can be found here.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

From the opinion piece:

Last year, I pointed out how many big publishers came crawlin' back to Steam after trying their own things: EA, Activision, Microsoft. This year, for the first time ever, two Blizzard games released on Steam: Overwatch and Diablo 4.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] -3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Let's not be stupid, and recommend an hour long video without a link (it's here) as an answer to why 30% is a good deal. He says it loud and clear, but also it's hidden somewhere in the hour long talk. Like I said, 30% must be worth it if so many developers are willing to take the cut for the services. But if a big part of what you're getting is the number of users that use your platform, then you're in a bit of a loop. The 30% is worth it because so many people will see your game, and users don't leave steam because it's where all their games are. The users have incentive to stay, because it's nice to keep all your games in one spot. I have over 1,500 games on steam, so for me to leave steam would mean leaving behind thousands of dollars worth of content I paid for already. So how can another service enter the arena and have any viability? 30% might be fair, but it might also be too high. What if it doesn't matter if it's too high because they get more sales on Steam? It's a complicated topic, but I'm just saying that 30% of each and every sale is a pretty big cut, even if it has become standard (a standard set by steam).

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Apple also takes 30% (or did it change to 15%? Definitely used to, tho). So does Google, Amazon app store, Samsung Galaxy store (just to name some in the mobile industry). And guess ehat, even GOG takes 30%.

I would argue that, compared to other services that also take 30%, and taking them as a baseline for what they offer on top of "buy download play" model, Steam is still very generous as it offers cloud saves, achievements, workshop, community forum, chat, streaming, offline mode, and tons of little stuff that make your life easier.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] mnemonicmonkeys 2 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

The 30% were introduced by Nintendo for cartridges iirc. So I would not say valve set that standard.