Some interesting industry news for you here. Epic Games have announced a change to the revenue model of the Epic Games Store, as they try to pull in more developers and more gamers to actually purchase things.
You sorta figured out competition in marketplaces.
Hey, I’m a social democrat. I’m all for intervening in markets, but for commodity entertainment products competition works pretty well, as you just explained.
but no, steam has maintained its 30% cut since its inception do you know the rate publishers like EA demand? 50%. EA is just pissed valve is a better and more reasonable publisher than they are.
so long as EA and other publishers exist and are taking a bigger cut than valve. I’m happy to give valve a pass atm at the better option.
the issue at hand atm is gamers won’t tolerate price increases and inflation has cut into the original profit margin. and so publishers are running around screaming about valve’s 30% cut when they demand a larger cut.
No, you absolutely are. Publishers will typically pay for retail manufacturing costs (so printing, boxing and shipping), but that’s not the same as digital distribution. Digital distribution doesn’t map to shipping game boxes, it maps to retail.
Which is why games on Steam have deals with publishers, NOT with Valve.
No, I’m not. you’re assuming i am. game developers dont generally have the relationships with distributors. the whole point of a publisher is to handle that relationship + the relationship with marketing avenues.
with digital distribution the role of a publisher is greatly reduced. mostly down to just marketing.
Sure, I’m just saying Epic is not any better than Valve in that regard. They’re just in a different position. It wouldn’t make financial sense for Steam to do something like that.
Epic only does it because they know they’re the underdog. If that were to one day become untrue they would never do anything like this again.
I mean, yeah.
You sorta figured out competition in marketplaces.
Hey, I’m a social democrat. I’m all for intervening in markets, but for commodity entertainment products competition works pretty well, as you just explained.
but no, steam has maintained its 30% cut since its inception do you know the rate publishers like EA demand? 50%. EA is just pissed valve is a better and more reasonable publisher than they are.
so long as EA and other publishers exist and are taking a bigger cut than valve. I’m happy to give valve a pass atm at the better option.
the issue at hand atm is gamers won’t tolerate price increases and inflation has cut into the original profit margin. and so publishers are running around screaming about valve’s 30% cut when they demand a larger cut.
You are mistaking publishing for distribution.
Publishing is not distribution.
smile the whole point of publishers back in the day before the internet was distribution and marketing. no I am not mistaking one for the other.
No, you absolutely are. Publishers will typically pay for retail manufacturing costs (so printing, boxing and shipping), but that’s not the same as digital distribution. Digital distribution doesn’t map to shipping game boxes, it maps to retail.
Which is why games on Steam have deals with publishers, NOT with Valve.
No, I’m not. you’re assuming i am. game developers dont generally have the relationships with distributors. the whole point of a publisher is to handle that relationship + the relationship with marketing avenues.
with digital distribution the role of a publisher is greatly reduced. mostly down to just marketing.
They will continue doing it if they need to compete. Capitalism working as intended. Who would’ve thought
Sure, I’m just saying Epic is not any better than Valve in that regard. They’re just in a different position. It wouldn’t make financial sense for Steam to do something like that.
Of course. They’re both just companies
And steam doesn’t do it at all.
One approach is objectively better for the little guys than the other.
I’m a littler guy than any game company, Epic treats me like shit. So I’m not going to use Epic.
Sure, I’m just saying Epic is not any better than Valve in that regard. They’re just in a different position.