As much as I love Steam, a 30% commission is harsh man.

[Octavius]

Even though it's convenient to have all your games in one place, a monopoly sucks for everyone except for the monopolist. In the end we as users suffer as well when a monopolist extracts this much wealth from this market.

Ideally I would like to see a single open source user interface with standards that can interact with different stores and distribution networks, but I fear that won't happen any time soon.

In the meantime I have mixed feelings about these Store wars. Fully siding with Steam here just seems stupid though, it's more logical to also direct anger at them for charging a 30% commission leading to this problem.

[HJP1]

What??? First of all I don't think you know what a monopoly means.. Steam isn't forcing devs to make their games exclusive on here, or anyone to use the store, they're free to put their games on all the other platforms as well. Everyone just prefers Steam because it offers a lot to us as consumers. Plus devs can also sell Steam keys for their games on 3rd party sites and Steam gets none of that money. If anything, Epic are the ones trying to start a monopoly.

And second, let's not pretend that this money is going nowhere! Every game on the store gets its own dedicated forums for discussions and support, achievements and trading cards system, workshop support for mods that increase the lifespan of a game, cloud saves, integration with the steam inventory and market where devs can make a ton of money through in-game items, exposure to the biggest audience, valve's networking API and soon VACnet as well. Plus we as customers get custom profiles, the activity feed, storage for screenshots, the review system, text and voice chat, etc.
All that stuff isn't free to host and maintain, and it's offered to every user and developer on the platform. So of course Steam is taking a decent cut from sales as opposed to the Epic store that literally just added a search bar as their new feature. Come on..

[Sir Bowen 🐉]

This is just a snapshot.

You have to look at the whole story of Steam, when a Gabe Newell about 17 years ago had the idea of offering ALL games on one launcher.
Creating a community around this for help and discussion and exchanging information.
To establish an effective anticheat protection next to the cumbersome installation of PunkBuster.
At the same time to install a resource-friendly communication tool next to Skype and to offer an automatic update system where it is no longer necessary to wait for magazine CDs or to check every single developer for updates singlehandedly.
And then to offer all developers, whether small or big, a distribution platform where they don't have to worry about advertising or reach, where even the smallest two-man garage developers had the opportunity to become known.

So for all this advertising, dozends of services, gadgets and reach, Steam charges 30%.

At that time laughed at by EVERYONE, that something like that doesn't work, it has established itself over the years as a quite successful model and at that time small developers could become very famous and successful overnight.



But now, that this model is working as we all know, EVERYONE wants some piece of the cake and starts complaining.

The strange thing is, that even today, ALL these launchers out there don't even try to compete with STEAM in scope, functionality and services.

Are the others all too stupid to at least copy&paste all these functions steam allready got over the years or do they simply want to make as much money as possible with as little effort as possible and just set up a simple launcher, without service, communityplatform or similar?

Ask yourselves that, but I guess rather the latter is the case and as long as that's the case it's for me. No STEAM No BUY.

I also can't try to compete with a car that has the technical standard of 1900 with a current model but these 28+ launchers out there will never understand that but it's up to us customers to make them understand it by not jumping on every launcher that wants to make fast money with little effort.

#NSNB NoSteamNoBuy

[Bronzeborg]

epic games offers no reviews. no forums. no guides. no workshop. no easy refund button and no feedback. id say that would be worth maybe 10% on steam. i would only agree that 30% is ridiculous

[d3mentu]

So why do you care about Valve's commission lvl 0 guy ? you pay the same price here and on Epic Store.

[Rhia]

Steam is the default because it offers gamers more, it has nothing to do with them being a monopoly or shady business dealings. Gamers have dictated that Steam is the default go to platform.

Sweeney Tim hates that and has said as much, hes angry that gamers have decided this and is bribing developers to try and cheat his way to steam competition level without offering gamers anything comparable. He flat out says gamers wont decide the future of the digital marketplace, a company CEO saying customers wont decide.

Anyone who defends them is just a Fortnite drone.

[RyanBurnsRed]

1. 30% is industry standard
2. Rate drops to 20% when revenue reached $50 million
3. Epic is paying devs large sums of money for exclusivity
4. It's not about the cut
5. This thread is dumb

[Primus Palus]

Originally posted by ƦƴαиβμгиѕƦε∂:

1. 30% is industry standard
2. Rate drops to 20% when revenue reached $50 million
3. Epic is paying devs large sums of money for exclusivity
4. It's not about the cut
5. This thread is dumb

Seeing as Epic only takes 12%... 30% is no longer the industry standard.

[RyanBurnsRed]

It still is as there are for more, and far bigger companies still taking 30% and Epic has to rely on moneyhatting to force their way onto the stage

[Magnus Aurelius, Bright Lord]

30% is standard because Steam made it so and it have no competitions. Steam also have a highly toxic community. Two points devs have been said to be why they went to epic.

In the end, people can be as mad as they want, the issue is not about them and doesn't concern them and that's why they were not ask their opinions and permission.

And customers can put their loyalty in a particular company all they want, but its a bad thing to do. Im not sure why people give loyalty to a business whos goal is to make money.

I want to play the game, Il buy it wherever it feels more convenient to me. I don't care who gets the money, I dont care who gets what, with what deal, I dont care if I have more game on steam than Uplay, , I just want the game to play it.

The same way I don't care who gets the money when I buy bananas or Steak, I just want to buy groceries, wheter the money goes to Kraft or Nestle is the least of my concern.

That's just my opinion of course, I dont hold anyone to it.

[MaGicBush]

Originally posted by ƦƴαиβμгиѕƦε∂:

1. 30% is industry standard
2. Rate drops to 20% when revenue reached $50 million
3. Epic is paying devs large sums of money for exclusivity
4. It's not about the cut
5. This thread is dumb

This. 30% has been standard since games have existed. Before Steam the publishers and factories took a cut.

[hashimoto4life]

30% seems rather steep to be honest.

[Dregora]

Originally posted by Primus Palus:

Originally posted by ƦƴαиβμгиѕƦε∂:

1. 30% is industry standard
2. Rate drops to 20% when revenue reached $50 million
3. Epic is paying devs large sums of money for exclusivity
4. It's not about the cut
5. This thread is dumb

Seeing as Epic only takes 12%... 30% is no longer the industry standard.

I don't think you understand what ''standard'' means. If you genuinely think that epic makes the standard then please.

Standard is basically what the majority uses. Since it's, you know, THE STANDARD.


If I walk outside with my peepee out, does that mean I set the new standard for how to walk outside?

[upuaut2]

Originally posted by Hobotango:

30% is standard because Steam made it so and it have no competitions. Steam also have a highly toxic community. Two points devs have been said to be why they went to epic.

In the end, people can be as mad as they want, the issue is not about them and doesn't concern them and that's why they were not ask their opinions and permission.

And customers can put their loyalty in a particular company all they want, but its a bad thing to do. Im not sure why people give loyalty to a business whos goal is to make money.

I want to play the game, Il buy it wherever it feels more convenient to me. I don't care who gets the money, I dont care who gets what, with what deal, I dont care if I have more game on steam than Uplay, , I just want the game to play it.

The same way I don't care who gets the money when I buy bananas or Steak, I just want to buy groceries, wheter the money goes to Kraft or Nestle is the least of my concern.

That's just my opinion of course, I dont hold anyone to it.

well when you talk about highly toxic community you speak for yourself right?

someone who only job is getting into every forum to phrase epic and talk about all the wonders and how great epic is, while talking constant crap about steam and the steam community.

it is obvious by now your big hatred for steam and the steam community . my question for you is.

what the ♥♥♥♥ are you still doing posting on steam forums?

[Makadon]

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/04/why-valve-actually-gets-less-than-30-percent-of-steam-game-sales/

+ compare the features, research, and innovation Valve offers and contributes to its competitors

+ Steam offers 25% and 20% cut tiers for higher selling titles

Not to mention you've been captured by Epic's PR line, when they're simply securing exclusives by bribing them with fat wads of cash, not the cut.

[upuaut2]

Originally posted by Makadon:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/04/why-valve-actually-gets-less-than-30-percent-of-steam-game-sales/

+ compare the features, research, and innovation Valve offers and contributes to its competitors

+ Steam offers 25% and 20% cut tiers for higher selling titles

Not to mention you've been captured by Epic's PR line, when they're simply securing exclusives by bribing them with fat wads of cash, not the cut.

dont forget to mention that using epic there still the possibility of getting your private info sold to chinese companies. some people say this was just a fake news. with each one of epic recent move, only confirm that they are capable of doing anything for money. they lost any credibility they had left to prove otherwise.