30% is not outrageous when they charge the same prices as consoles 90% of the time with oodles of DLC. (Meaning even with the 30% they already get a bigger cut as is) Is it a bit high? yes. Maybe valve could lower it to 20-25%.
But you are delusional if you don't think it doesn't cost money to keep a service running that supports 50+ Million people and then also pay all of your employees, keep developing that platform to add and improve features, continue improving linux support, support regions that EGS doesn't care about (and absorbing the cost of doing business in those areas. As mentioned all the pre-paid cards). They allow you to generate keys and sell them wherever you feel like it for a 0% cut. Those of us who have bought a ton of games outside of steam over the years % wise have already give devs a better deal.
I'm sure I can think of more. But where is the outrage on other platforms? They make an even smaller cut on consoles physically (I'm sorry what work does rando retailer #5 do for you other than the equivalent of just putting your game on the shelf same as a digital distrubter that deserves an even bigger cut than 30%?), digital who knows, users have to pay just to be able to play online in an often shitty environment, worse than on PC where the service is provided free to the user.(But just running random shit like this costs nothing right?/sarcasm Sony provides this service and guess what it costs money to do so! Shocker) Certification alone seems to be a black hole of ire by many developers and causes indirect cost. And once upon a time didn't certification and cert for patches cost thousands of dollars? (Meanwhile AFIK always been free to release patches as you please on Steam and no cost to send Valve your game to make sure it isn't a broken POS. This comes with it's own problems however)Like upwards of 40,000$? Patches seemed to have come back to the realm of reason for devs but last I heard Certification will cost you if you fail twice.
They already make a bigger cut than on consoles, it costs less money and time to release on Steam or any other PC digital platform comparatively, and yet they want more money and still charge the same exact prices as on consoles?
. For smaller indie devs , this totally makes sense since their scope and user base is already small.
But for huge companies like Paradox, Ubisoft and the like? Often whom already require their own launcher be used or sell directly on their own launcher?
That comes across as hypocritical and reeks of nothing but greed. Maybe if you believe THAT much that Valve is so evil and that you deserve so much more of that money, should be just like ActivisionBlizz, EA and Epic and the like and ONLY sell on your own store? EA seems to have done just fine keeping their own products locked to their own platform despite the constant negative press EA gets.
Put the effort that Epic is doing into driving the growth of your own platform. No wait, you just want all of the rewards of that but without any of the cost. You want the visibility and user numbers and 100% of the profit without paying for it.
