Topic: Valve is going to take a smaller cut from bigger games on Steam

[MysterD]

RPS - Valve is planning to take a smaller cut from bigger games.

Looks like w/ all the super-duper huge dev's & pub's leaving Steam to avoid the (usually standard) 30% cut from Steam sales & for them to also often push MTX's of their own store to maximize profits...
...Valve is trying to get some to stick around and maybe also some others to come back.

In a move to keep more big publishers on Steam, Valve are starting to take a smaller cut of sales from games which make loads and loads of money. After $10 million (£8m), Valve’s cut will go down from 30% to 25%, then beyond $50 million (£40m) they’ll starting taking 20%. Valve say that that big games have “positive network effects” for all of Steam so they’re worth keeping around and rewarding. It’s still pretty gutting to introduce a regressive tax, the rich getting richer while many smaller developers struggle.

“The value of a large network like Steam has many benefits that are contributed to and shared by all the participants. Finding the right balance to reflect those contributions is a tricky but important factor in a well-functioning network,” Valve said in last night’s announcement on Steam’s development group. “It’s always been apparent that successful games and their large audiences have a material impact on those network effects so making sure Steam recognises and continues to be an attractive platform for those games is an important goal for all participants in the network.”

[MysterD]

Some big publishers/dev's that left Steam and actually have their own service now include:
1. EA has Origin.
2. Activision-Blizzard has Blizzard Battle.Net.
3. Zenimax/Bethesda has Bethesda Launcher.
4. Microsoft has the Windows Store.
5. Epic Games has the Epic Games Launcher.

Some big publishers w/ their own launcher/client-service, also using that on Steam:
1. UbiSoft with UPLAY.
2. Rockstar with Rockstar Social Club.

[MysterD]

PC Gamer - Some Indie dev's aren't happy about this move Valve's making.

Also, don't know if anyone knew, but...
Creative Assembly now has the Total War Launcher now, which is now in Beta on Steam for all of their TW Games.
Could this be a plan, to eventually break away from Steam...if they feel they need to/want to?

[idolminds]

I think Valve could have given everyone a break and not generated so much backlash. It does seem like a silly move to only reward the games already selling shitloads.

[Cobra951]

It seems a bit disingenuous to call this a regressive tax.  Higher volume sales lead to lower unit costs.  That's quite standard in business, as is bigger players negotiating better deals.  Also, small and indie developers would not sell nearly as much as they do without a platform like Steam.  And it's not like anyone forces them to publish on Steam.  I don't know.  I understand their sentiments.  Maybe they can form a big group and launch their own publishing platform--or at least threaten it convincingly enough to get Valve to sweeten the pot.

[Quemaqua]

They tried that, it was called Desura.

I think this is a pretty shitty thing. Just because it's standard practice doesn't make it good.

[MysterD]

Epic Games Launcher with their 12/88 split (12 for Epic/88 for dev's-pub's split) might be the place for the Indies.

It's not like Epic is that small of company or anything, but they probably really feel that they don't need to take a fortune. Fortnite is already raking in $ like there's no tomorrow. That game pretty much prints $ daily.

SuperGiant (with Hades) and Double Damage (with Rebel Galaxy Outlaw) seems to already be on-board there.