I Want To Release A Game For Charity

[Harv]

Not sure which charity yet though, probably one that's cancer related because everyone knows someone that has been a victim of it.

So I've got a couple of questions:

1) Will Valve be willing to donate their percentage to charity and who do I contact to find out?

2) Do I still have to pay $100 before releasing the game?

3) Can I give the bank details of the charity to Valve and let them handle the donations or will I need to register a proper company and do all of this myself?

Many thanks in advance for any help!

Harv
(Roughpaws Studio)

[rawWwRrr]

https://partner.steamgames.com/

Have you started there, yet?

[Harv]

Had a look at that and saw from this Web page:

https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Your-Game-on-Steam

That they ask for tax information and bank details. Will I need those details?

I was kind of hoping that I could be let off the 100 dollars fee because I'm doing this for charity lol

And if I'm not going to be getting paid for this and the proceeds are going to charity they don't need my tax details, do they?

Any idea who at Valve I can contact about all of this? Is there some sort of support email somewhere for developers or something?

[Drab]

This is simple.

You release a game on Steam - you follow all the rules of every other developer.

You do what you want with the money left after Steam's cut from the sales.

[IFIYGD]

引用自 Harv：

That they ask for tax information and bank details. Will I need those details?

Yes, you will.

I was kind of hoping that I could be let off the 100 dollars fee because I'm doing this for charity lol

That's not how any of this works. Everyone pays the $100, everyone.

And if I'm not going to be getting paid for this and the proceeds are going to charity they don't need my tax details, do they?

Again- yes, they do.

Any idea who at Valve I can contact about all of this? Is there some sort of support email somewhere for developers or something?

https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/Login?redir=%2Fen%2Fwizard%2FHelpWithPublishing&title=Sign+In

[Ducks on Fire]

引用自 Harv：

Had a look at that and saw from this Web page:

https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Your-Game-on-Steam

That they ask for tax information and bank details. Will I need those details?

I was kind of hoping that I could be let off the 100 dollars fee because I'm doing this for charity lol

And if I'm not going to be getting paid for this and the proceeds are going to charity they don't need my tax details, do they?

Any idea who at Valve I can contact about all of this? Is there some sort of support email somewhere for developers or something?

I mean, even if you release a game on Steam completely free you have to pay the fee. And charities do have to provide tax information even if they are exempt.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

I don't know how game devs/publishers have handled charity sales on Steam so far, but my guess is that they just donate their own cut (the 70% they would normally keep, not counting things like processing fees) to a charity of their choice.

Valve's 30% cut is presumably static (unless you've sold crazy well already). You'd have to ask them if they're interested in donating their cut.

If you are representing a charity yourself, you will definitely need to have tax information for your organization. I'm pretty sure a charity can hold and exercise the publishing rights or publishing license to a game. But that doesn't mean you don't need to register the charity with appropriate tax authorities; you likely still need to, because the government doesn't want people pretending to be charities.

If you're not (representing) a charity yourself, I'd bet that you need to pay the $100 to get on Steam. Even if you are (representing) a charity, I'd still bet that, except it may be waived if Valve really wants to, but it'd just be them being nice about it; it'd be standard if they don't.

If you don't want your tax information exposed to Valve/Steam, you could transfer the game to the charity you're hoping to benefit, and ask them to apply to put the game on Valve on your behalf, but under their name, I think?

Also another idea is to ask game devs in general about how they do charity sales. There have been several big charity drives on itch.io for example so you may want to ask folks over there (particularly devs on there) how they do it.

[Fake]

OP
Have you released any games on Steam before? If so, what were your profits/payout?
The reason why I'm asking is that if the take was less than $100, consider just donating the $100 directly to the charity.

[Nx Machina]

You release a game om Steam, Valve take their cut, you take your cut, you donate to charity.

[rawWwRrr]

引用自 Harv：

Had a look at that and saw from this Web page:

https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Your-Game-on-Steam

This is not Steam.

This is Steam: https://partner.steamgames.com/

引用自 Harv：

That they ask for tax information and bank details. Will I need those details?

If you went to any business to make use of their services in order to make money, even for a charity, they will be entering into a financial contract with you and ultimately need the same information. Business is highly regulated to combat many financial crimes. Shifting large sums of money around or paying out profits to unknown entities is verboten, especially when charities are concerned.

引用自 Harv：

I was kind of hoping that I could be let off the 100 dollars fee because I'm doing this for charity lol

Everyone pays the $100. It is recouped once the gross sales exceed $1000. I know this because I went to https://partner.steamgames.com/ and read about it.

引用自 Harv：

And if I'm not going to be getting paid for this and the proceeds are going to charity they don't need my tax details, do they?

They need someone's details. You can find out what information is needed by going to https://partner.steamgames.com/ and logging in with your individual Steam account and start the process.

引用自 Harv：

Any idea who at Valve I can contact about all of this? Is there some sort of support email somewhere for developers or something?

Seriously, everything that you're going to need is at https://partner.steamgames.com/ once you log in.

[nullable]

引用自 Harv：

Had a look at that and saw from this Web page:

https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Your-Game-on-Steam

That they ask for tax information and bank details. Will I need those details?

I was kind of hoping that I could be let off the 100 dollars fee because I'm doing this for charity lol

And if I'm not going to be getting paid for this and the proceeds are going to charity they don't need my tax details, do they?

Any idea who at Valve I can contact about all of this? Is there some sort of support email somewhere for developers or something?

Doing something for Charity isn't code to relax requirements, do things on a wing and a prayer, or otherwise just do anything goes.

If anything, you'd be subjected to even stricter requirements to make sure your claims match your actions.

But let's be honest here, based on everything I'm reading my take is: This is passing fancy. You don't want to put any money into it because you don't think you'll generate any money, you just like saying the idea. And you don't want to do any of the administrative work because you know it's going to be a waste of time. You don't believe in any of it.

[my new friend]

Why not just release it as a standalone game without it being tied to a service and sell it on HumbleBundle?

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

引用自 my new friend：

Why not just release it as a standalone game without it being tied to a service and sell it on HumbleBundle?

I don't know how easily you can release one single game as a PWYW thing on Humble, but I know you can do that on itch.io for what it's worth.

[Harv]

引用自 Snakub Plissken：

引用自 Harv：

Had a look at that and saw from this Web page:

https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Your-Game-on-Steam

That they ask for tax information and bank details. Will I need those details?

I was kind of hoping that I could be let off the 100 dollars fee because I'm doing this for charity lol

And if I'm not going to be getting paid for this and the proceeds are going to charity they don't need my tax details, do they?

Any idea who at Valve I can contact about all of this? Is there some sort of support email somewhere for developers or something?

Doing something for Charity isn't code to relax requirements, do things on a wing and a prayer, or otherwise just do anything goes.

If anything, you'd be subjected to even stricter requirements to make sure your claims match your actions.

But let's be honest here, based on everything I'm reading my take is: This is passing fancy. You don't want to put any money into it because you don't think you'll generate any money, you just like saying the idea. And you don't want to do any of the administrative work because you know it's going to be a waste of time. You don't believe in any of it.

Actually I've put a fair bit of money into it so far, Well over two grand. I've decided to release for the Quest 2 instead, Meta are being more helpful.

[♥ catgirl connoisseur]

Definitely take a look at other platforms, they're more likely to relax the requirements and work with you on this. Itch.io is a good one. best of luck!

edit: oh didn't see you already replied. glad you found a platform!