• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Tim Sweeney: Not sure why Steam is still taking 30%

R

Renekton

Member
https://twitter.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/898316545499201536

YufINri.jpg


Some image cherry-picking by yours truly. Click on the link for the full conversation.
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
That's pretty average for most digital storefronts, isn't it? And Steam does offer extra services for developers if they choose to use them.
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
Doesn't virtually every digital game storefront take 30% last I heard? Maybe this changed over the years and I somehow missed out.
 
L

LewieP

Member
I think he's playing dumb.

Valve are able to take that cut because they have a huge number of customers' trust.

If you don't want Valve getting that cut, then stop selling games on Steam (but good luck generating as much revenue).

Edit: 30% is an industry standard cut. Plenty of retailers charge more.
 
J

JoeyJungle

Banned
Sparrowhawk said:
Goddamn, I knew they took a cut, but not 30%. That's absolutely insane.
Click to expand...

All major platforms take a 30% cut. Steam, iTunes, iOS App Store, I assume Google Play, Sony, MS, etc.

itch.io takes a smaller cut but not sure about the details, have no idea how stores that only sell keys (GMG, Amazon, etc.) do business.
 
K

KHlover

Banned
They're distributors, not payment processors like VISA or mastercard. They're also on line with the rest of the market, why single them out?

Garbo tweet
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
I don't understand the credit card comparison. If a credit card took 30% no store would honor it. Developers and publishers are clearly willing to give up 30% of their games price because it's a popular storefront.
 
F

Figments

Member
Posts about Steam not being a monopoly always make me laugh.

It's like saying Microsoft isn't a monopoly in the PC OS space when Linux and Mac OS exist. As though the majority of people give a shit about the other two.
 
T

truestatic

Member
Their service is slightly more involved than facilitating a digital transaction of money, though. Credit card companies aren't a great point of comparison. I understand thinking 30% is too great a cut but Steam and Mastercard aren't apples to apples.

Figments said:
Posts about Steam not being a monopoly always make me laugh.

It's like saying Microsoft isn't a monopoly in the PC OS space when Linux and Mac OS exist. As though the majority of people give a shit about the other two.
Click to expand...

They're not a monopoly though? Increasingly often, people are going outside of the steam storefront when buying steam keys. Amazon, Humble, GMG, Gamersgate, CDKeys, and that's not to mention the less scrupulous sites that need not be named here, there are other places that turn a fairly brisk business.
 
F

Frozenprince

Banned
Neuromancer said:
I don't understand the credit card comparison. If a credit card took 30% no store would honor it. Developers and publishers are clearly willing to give up 30% of their games price because it's a popular storefront.
Click to expand...

Because it's a monopoly, it's also why the other storefronts charge the same rate, because they know that devs have no choice no matter what even if they seek alternatives.

JayEH said:
Not sure why he's singling out steam when that's the standard everywhere.
Click to expand...

Because Steam is the monopoly, so they define the standard.
 
Crayon

Crayon

Member
If it's a monopoly, valve is a pretty nice monopoly. This is the most pro consumer if you count 4 major game platform providers. Behind Gog if you count them as the 5th.
 
C

Cru Jones

Member
JoeyJungle said:
All major platforms take a 30% cut. Steam, iTunes, iOS App Store, I assume Google Play, Sony, MS, etc.

itch.io takes a smaller cut but not sure about the details, have no idea how stores that only sell keys (GMG, Amazon, etc.) do business.
Click to expand...

Steam Doesn't charge devs for keys, so they can download a list of steam keys and distribute them as they see fit. Many of those stores/bundle sites take their 30% cut.

Source: I used to run a site the sold steam keys and we took a 30% cut.
 
F

Figments

Member
JayEH said:
Not sure why he's singling out steam when that's the standard everywhere.
Click to expand...

Probably because Valve and Steam proponents love to tout it as an "open marketplace" and somehow different from the competition, yet they still do shit like this.
 
F

Freddo

Member
Neuromancer said:
I don't understand the credit card comparison. If a credit card took 30% no store would honor it. Developers and publishers are clearly willing to give up 30% of their games price because it's a popular storefront.
Click to expand...
Yeah. Giving up 30% is cheap too when they give up about 70% for physical copies with the manufacturing, transport, game store and so on involved.
 
S

snap

Banned
Neuromancer said:
I don't understand the credit card comparison. If a credit card took 30% no store would honor it. Developers and publishers are clearly willing to give up 30% of their games price because it's a popular storefront.
Click to expand...

Except they're increasingly not. It used to be just the EAs and Ubisofts of the world who didn't want to deal with Steam (although Ubisoft crawled back to it), but now Bethesda, Activision, and MS are all hedging their bets with their own storefronts in an attempt to drive customers away from Steam so that they don't have to give 30%.

OT: Yeah, 30% cut for a digital storefront is a bit rough, even on phones. That's probably how MS got so many publishers to dip their toes into the Windows Store pond, by offering to bring that cut down to 5 or 10%.
 
F

Figments

Member
truestatic said:
They're not a monopoly though? Increasingly often, people are going outside of the steam storefront when buying steam keys. Amazon, Humble, GMG, Gamersgate, CDKeys, and that's not to mention the less scrupulous sites that need not be named here, there are other places that turn a fairly brisk business.
Click to expand...

Uh. You can go anywhere and buy a code for Windows. What exactly is your point?
 
B

Blizzard

Banned
I wonder how many people posting in the thread that it's too high realize it's the same on other storefronts. Maybe some are joking but of course that's impossible to tell on the internet.

truestatic said:
Their service is slightly more involved than facilitating a digital transaction of money, though. Credit card companies aren't a great point of comparison. I understand thinking 30% is too great a cut but Steam and Mastercard aren't apples to apples.
Click to expand...
Yep, it's not just money and CDN. There's storefront management, advertising, analytics, friend/community/forum services, microtransaction/item trading/item selling, matchmaking. Plus as mentioned it's a standard cut right now.

The real funny thing is, aren't credit card companies MASSIVE compared to even Steam? I would have guessed so, yet his excuse for why the UE4 storefront charges 30% is that it's small compared to Steam. Well, Steam is small compared to a major credit card, I'd guess. :p
 
P

Pepboy

Member
Figments said:
Posts about Steam not being a monopoly always make me laugh.

It's like saying Microsoft isn't a monopoly in the PC OS space when Linux and Mac OS exist. As though the majority of people give a shit about the other two.
Click to expand...

Microsoft's main competition is itself. It's hard to get people to buy new OS when the old one typically works okay. Thus they can't charge too much or get too lazy, so the downsides of a monopoly are somewhat reduced.
 
A

Aztechnology

Member
Sparrowhawk said:
Goddamn, I knew they took a cut, but not 30%. That's absolutely insane.
Click to expand...

That's pretty standard for the industry. Apple takes 30% of all apps and revenues for instance. Sony and Microsoft I believe respectively take 30% of digital sales. It's pretty disgusting, but that's the danger of a closed ecosystem. And Steam has an effective monopoly now in that regard. I really do like Steam, but 30% is obviously excessive for what they provide.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Tim Sweeney emailed Gabe Newell calling Valve 'you assholes' over Steam policies, to which Valve's COO simply replied 'you mad bro?'
Game Dev 2 3 4 5
212
12K
SoloCamo replied
Tim Sweeney, fix your fucking garbage engine stutters
27
2K
Lethal01 replied
Introducing Steam Families
Platform 2 3
143
5K
Topher replied
Whats is yours the most "Japanese" game
Social Opinion 2
99
3K
cesar2xtreme replied
Fans bring iOS classic Infinity Blade back, and it works on Steam Deck
24
2K
ClanOfNone replied
Top Bottom