How much does valve pay to keep steam service online?

[Binary_Deviant]

I am trying to find info to show people that paying for XBOX LIVE or PSN is a scam, or not an acceptable business practice. Does anyone know how much valve pays to keep this service we use online, so I can help people understand. It really sucks when I hear people say that on console they get a great service when they pay for the same service we get for free. Makes no sense why people see their subscription for those consoles as a good thing.

[Start_Running]

Millions.
But then Valve recoups the cost by taking a cut of the sales. COnsoles on the other hand, well 70% are physical media based so MS and Sony don't make any direct money from the sale.

[Paratech2008]

Yeah they do. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo make $10 a sale off $59.99 games. They have licenses that are sold to gaming companies on a game per game basis.

That's why PC games used to be $10 cheaper than console games.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Paratech2008:

Yeah they do. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo make $10 a sale off $59.99 games. They have licenses that are sold to gaming companies on a game per game basis.

That's why PC games used to be $10 cheaper than console games.

Learn something new every,.. wait...you sayin the reason we PC gamers have to pay $60 is because of these console scrubs?

[Cockroach]

I heard steam takes 70% of the sale.
They would have their own servers.

[Darren]

Steam takes around 30% of the price of the game. It is unclear if it is always that much or if it varies per game but I imagine it would be fairly fixed to make admin simpler.

[Crac]

2 cents per gigabyte?
Typical for large data.

1.7Tbps average??
Eyeballed from Valve's stats page, the peak is close to 6 I've just 'guessed' an 'average'.

$4.25 per second
or
$134,028,000 per year?


But this is only one part of the system.



If you call the core users of Steam 34 million. (a wild stab in the dark)
Boiling steam or Steamspy would have better figuers...

Every active user is likely using $3.942 of data, but I'm guess we are spending more than $13.14 per year too.

[Binary_Deviant]

Originally posted by Crac:

2 cents per gigabyte?
Typical for large data.

1.7Tbps average??
Eyeballed from Valve's stats page, the peak is close to 6 I've just 'guessed' an 'average'.

$4.25 per second
or
$134,028,000 per year?


But this is only one part of the system.



If you call the core users of Steam 34 million. (a wild stab in the dark)
Boiling steam or Steamspy would have better figuers...

Every active user is likely using $3.942 of data, but I'm guess we are spending more than $13.14 per year too.

Isn't it the developers, or publishers that pay for the servers? I was referring to keeping steam running. if that is what you meant as well than I can clearly see that Sony alone is making a killing off their PS+ subscription. Your Price listed is way lower than the amount that sony has received in the last year for their annual PS+ price and their 20.8M subcribers. Sony has gotten $1,248.000.000.00 from paying memebers ( If I did the math right ) and that leaves a harge amount of money that sony profit from. Yes?

[Binary_Deviant]

My reason for asking is I cannot think that the Playstation Network service can't cost 1.2 Billion dollars a year. Would it? I feel that seeking answers can help show some friends where they know I enjoy multiple platforms, but would enjoy playing games with friends on PS4, but don't feel right paying sony for their online fee. They argue the payment is good for the service and it is fair for the experience they get. WHAT?! ........ am I wrong?

[Insanity Claus]

Originally posted by Log A Frog:

I heard steam takes 70% of the sale.
They would have their own servers.

They take 30%. This has been pretty well established.

Originally posted by Darren:

Steam takes around 30% of the price of the game. It is unclear if it is always that much or if it varies per game but I imagine it would be fairly fixed to make admin simpler.

I believe it always is 30%. The uproar over WB's charity DLC for Shadow of War highlighted this perfectly. People raged that WB said that $3.50 of each DLC purchase would go to the charity fund rather than the full $5 cost of the DLC. But if you do the math, 70% of $5 is $3.50. So, basically, WB was giving 100% of all profit they made from the DLC. Valve's 30% cut made up for that missing $1.50. (this doesn't discount the problematic issue that some states and countries have different laws regarding raising charitable funds, making certain areas ineligible to have purchases go towards the fund)

[3006150]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

[
Learn something new every,.. wait...you sayin the reason we PC gamers have to pay $60 is because of these console scrubs?

I'm telling you, if you are not waiting for a sale, or GOTY discount, you ain't doing it right.
All those PC pre-order, unfinished Early Access now, + consoles, are why I play less, way later.

30% of $60 = $18
30% 0f $20 = $6

Thank you consoles! Enjoy your $60 games.
Since Valve is not a publicly traded company, no stock market, no share holders, no real public info, good luck estimating. But do consider
https://www.polygon.com/2017/1/6/14184200/steam-top-selling-games-2016 , and that profit from economy market cards, skins, Steam Wallet, The Bank of Valve.

No doubt 125+ million users, operations are not as cheap as me.

P.S> I am trying to find info to show people that paying for Steam, skins, crate keys, or trading cards is a scam! At best gambling, But no luck.

[WolfEisberg]

Originally posted by Log A Frog:

I heard steam takes 70% of the sale.
They would have their own servers.

Steam takes 30% of the sale, the publisher/developer gets 70%.

[WolfEisberg]

Originally posted by Binary_Deviant:

Originally posted by Crac:

2 cents per gigabyte?
Typical for large data.

1.7Tbps average??
Eyeballed from Valve's stats page, the peak is close to 6 I've just 'guessed' an 'average'.

$4.25 per second
or
$134,028,000 per year?


But this is only one part of the system.



If you call the core users of Steam 34 million. (a wild stab in the dark)
Boiling steam or Steamspy would have better figuers...

Every active user is likely using $3.942 of data, but I'm guess we are spending more than $13.14 per year too.

Isn't it the developers, or publishers that pay for the servers? I was referring to keeping steam running. if that is what you meant as well than I can clearly see that Sony alone is making a killing off their PS+ subscription. Your Price listed is way lower than the amount that sony has received in the last year for their annual PS+ price and their 20.8M subcribers. Sony has gotten $1,248.000.000.00 from paying memebers ( If I did the math right ) and that leaves a harge amount of money that sony profit from. Yes?

The only money Steam gets is for games that are bought through Steam. Valve gives all the Steamworks features for free to publishers/developers. Any game that was bought outside of Steam, even if it is a Steam game and requires Steam, Valve gets no money for that, and they get no money for any of the Steamworks features (servers, MP servers, achievements, DRM, ect)

So Steam is giving so much away for free to the publisher/developers and to the conusmers, while Sony/Microsoft charges for the same stuff.

[WolfEisberg]

Originally posted by Binary_Deviant:

My reason for asking is I cannot think that the Playstation Network service can't cost 1.2 Billion dollars a year. Would it? I feel that seeking answers can help show some friends where they know I enjoy multiple platforms, but would enjoy playing games with friends on PS4, but don't feel right paying sony for their online fee. They argue the payment is good for the service and it is fair for the experience they get. WHAT?! ........ am I wrong?

Sony/Microsoft are charging for it because they can and the people will pay for it. They can easily not charge for it and still be massively profitable.

[cinedine]

You don't pay for the service to be running. You also pay overhead to keep the company afloat. Valve makes a killing from the market, workshop and in game purchases. So consider this the offest for not paying for Steam itself.

[Insanity Claus]

Originally posted by Eisberg:

Originally posted by Log A Frog:

I heard steam takes 70% of the sale.
They would have their own servers.

Steam takes 30% of the sale, the publisher/developer gets 70%.

Typically, publishers get 100% of all profit from sales. This changes sometimes, depending on contracts, but it holds true most of the time for most games that are released. Even when devs do get royalties, those royalties are very, very minimal; as in the 5% range or as a single lump-sum bonus given at certain milestone. (sell 5m copies, get 90% score on MetaCritic, etc.)

Typically, a dev will say to a publisher, "we need $35m to make this happen." A pub will either agree or negotiate a lower price. The dev gets paid whether the game does well or not. The pub's money is on the line and they hope the game does well, but if it doesn't, then they lose their shirt. So, if a freelance dev repeatedly under-performs, then publishers tend to not want to take the risk of funding their projects.