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Valve creates new revenue sharing tiers to give big sellers a break

gamasutra.com

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Re: Valve creates new revenue sharing tiers to give big sellers a break

#51

Post by Praxish »

jamp897 wrote: post #30

Many larger studios are working on self publishing and have projects in the works. The percent that Valve takes even at 20% is still too high, but the bigger issues is that Valve locks up your users so when you make your next game you have to reacquire them, ownership of ones users is the key due to this issue. We’ll see how they fair over the coming years but this does look like they’re starting to wake up a bit to…

As an entrepreneur in this space, I'd be okay with 20%. The issue is the current thresholds. I'd want it to be 20% over $1M not $50M. Around a million it starts being worth it to handle credit card processing, chargebacks etc.

Re: Valve creates new revenue sharing tiers to give big sellers a break

#52

Post by dogma1138 »

PakG1 wrote: post #32

I actually am surprised that services like Steam, the Apple App Store, and Google Play are able to command as high a margin as they do for sales commission. I mean, it's obviously possible because it's reality, but it's nonintuitive. I wonder if it will continue to be that way. For iOS, you don't really have a way to install apps outside the app store without jailbreaking, but you do for macOS, and I've seen a number…

Brick and mortar stores pay about $45 for a $60 dollar game, and have additional bonuses for sales targets.

Some larger publishers operate on a different scheme similar to the large DIY and big box stores in which they “rent” shelf space, pay for promotional services and share a smaller percentage of each sale revenue.

A lot of times there are other restrictions such as game stores need approval for things like unofficial bundles e.g. if they want to bundle a specific game with a console outside of officially branded promotional bundles.

I think the big problem with Steam at least as far as big publishers go isn’t that they charge 30% this is about the same as other channels but that the big publishers have their own distribution platforms atm.

If you buy an EA, Activision or Ubisoft game on Steam atm you don’t download it from Steam you’ll download it from the Publisher via their own client.

Granted they caused this problem to themselves by trying to compete with Steam but they still bare the majority of the cost these days.

Re: Valve creates new revenue sharing tiers to give big sellers a break

#53

Post by azhenley »

user5994461 wrote: post #47
michaelmrose wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's not like each game creators could run a worldwide distribution and payment operation" You mean like a website? I think it's more fruitful to imagine multiple merchants competing to sell devs wares and lessor commissions as a result of competition.

You realize that it takes a lot of work to make a website to accept payment from a hundred countries in dozens of currencies and handle customer support and chargeback and fight fraud? You can try to run your own website, to save 10% fees on a minuscule userbase, it simply doesn't cover the costs.

Serious question: isn’t this what services like PayPal are for? Along with customer service services. Certainly not trivial, but it seems doable.

Re: Valve creates new revenue sharing tiers to give big sellers a break

#54

Post by pnloyd »

user5994461 wrote: post #47
michaelmrose wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's not like each game creators could run a worldwide distribution and payment operation" You mean like a website? I think it's more fruitful to imagine multiple merchants competing to sell devs wares and lessor commissions as a result of competition.

You realize that it takes a lot of work to make a website to accept payment from a hundred countries in dozens of currencies and handle customer support and chargeback and fight fraud? You can try to run your own website, to save 10% fees on a minuscule userbase, it simply doesn't cover the costs.

Don't companies like stripe aim to make packaged solutions to problems like these?

Re: Valve creates new revenue sharing tiers to give big sellers a break

#55

Post by Praxish »

whydoineedthis wrote: post #20
beerlord wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve have shown that they will do nothing unless their hand is forced. Your best bet is an Epic Store, which will hopefully charge commissions of 8-12%. https://www.neogaf.com/threads/tim-sweeney-not-sure-why-stea... https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/29/app_store_duopoly_3... Valve and the other large platform holders know that if they abandon 30%, there is no going back. Over time that 'platform tax' will get p…

1 decade down and iTunes hasn't budged. I suspect your 100yr timeframe is close

Maybe not 100 years but substantial time. More likely, we need a platform transition as an inflection point that creates oppty for new market entrants. Part of new entrant's disruptive value prop may be better rev share terms.

Re: Valve creates new revenue sharing tiers to give big sellers a break

#56

Post by kbwt »

acomjean wrote: post #19

This makes sense. the share drops to 25% after 10 million in sales. and more after. One would imagine that there is some fixed cost for adding new titles and maintaining steam store. After a certain amount of sales the cost per title is just bandwidth so steam is making more per game anyway. Its also a hedge to prevent every large game seller from setting up their own store. Even if you are large its cheaper to use s…

> One would imagine that there is some fixed cost for adding new titles and maintaining steam store.

I would imagine that it's mostly automated, similar to the Google Play store. If anything, it's the developer bearing this cost to create the listing.

Re: Valve creates new revenue sharing tiers to give big sellers a break

#57

Post by Dylan16807 »

zeroname wrote: post #8
beerlord wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is unfortunately not correct. A large amount of advertising and PR is very necessary to receive any attention for a launch on Steam. Unfortunately a mere 'launch' on Steam has been devalued, by Valve allowing anyone with $100 to launch on the platform (and the majority of the launches on Steam are very low quality as a result). If you want to make a middle class income from launching games on Steam, you will nee…

It's not just lack of marketing, it's the fact that there are now far more games, but gamers have neither more money nor time to compensate. There are too many game developers, it's as simple as that. Too many millennials don't want the regular old "grown up" jobs anymore, they want to be creatives or artists and the market just can't soak them all up. If you think it's hard as a game developer, try living off painti…

Maybe. But the odds are far worse when Steam won't even filter out garbage asset flips that took three hours to make.

Re: Valve creates new revenue sharing tiers to give big sellers a break

#58

Post by user5994461 »

kbwt wrote: post #50
user5994461 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realize that it takes a lot of work to make a website to accept payment from a hundred countries in dozens of currencies and handle customer support and chargeback and fight fraud? You can try to run your own website, to save 10% fees on a minuscule userbase, it simply doesn't cover the costs.

Can't something like Stripe + Braintree provide the same at a fraction of the cost?

Not at all. For starter Stripe is only usable if you are a small US company selling to a US user base. It also restricts your audience to customers with a card and willing to enter it on your website.

It's better than nothing but it's in no way comparable to what steam offers.

Re: Valve creates new revenue sharing tiers to give big sellers a break

#59

Post by michaelmrose »

user5994461 wrote: post #47
michaelmrose wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's not like each game creators could run a worldwide distribution and payment operation" You mean like a website? I think it's more fruitful to imagine multiple merchants competing to sell devs wares and lessor commissions as a result of competition.

You realize that it takes a lot of work to make a website to accept payment from a hundred countries in dozens of currencies and handle customer support and chargeback and fight fraud? You can try to run your own website, to save 10% fees on a minuscule userbase, it simply doesn't cover the costs.

I would be interested in data but logically wouldn't most of revenue at present come from 12-18 countries?

Re: Valve creates new revenue sharing tiers to give big sellers a break

#60

Post by user5994461 »

pnloyd wrote: post #54
user5994461 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realize that it takes a lot of work to make a website to accept payment from a hundred countries in dozens of currencies and handle customer support and chargeback and fight fraud? You can try to run your own website, to save 10% fees on a minuscule userbase, it simply doesn't cover the costs.

Don't companies like stripe aim to make packaged solutions to problems like these?

Definitely not. It's quite the opposite actually.

Stripe gives you a basic solution to accept payments in some locations and under some circumstances. Once a company reaches in the tens of millions in yearly turnaround or expand internationally, it has to move on and run multiple payment providers.

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