this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2024
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Go ask any indie developer if they think the 30% cut valve takes from sales through steam means they're "getting fucked". I can assure you, the vast majority do not.
Serving files, absorbing the costs of credit card payments and charge backs, and maintaining community forums is worth the 30% alone. Hell, just being able to list your product on the most popular store is worth it for some people.
In my industry, physical stores won't even consider stocking your product for less than 40pts of margin and the big guys expect you to absorb the freight costs as well.
30% on storefront sales and you can sell your own keys for 100% profit on your own site is more than fair.
https://www.wired.com/story/death-occurs-in-the-dark-indie-video-game-devs-are-struggling-to-stay-afloat/
The indie industry is seriously struggling. I'm pretty sure they would rather survive than donate to Gabens coke and prostitute fund.
There's also a huge difference between a physical store and a digital soft monopoly.
Stop defending billionaires.
I can't read the link but if we just gauge the health of the indie game portion of the industry by how many games are released, I think the only conclusion you can make is that it's quite healthy. In no small part due to steam which provides discoverability for smaller titles and handles a lot of the technical stuff (downloads, multi-player, even drm) so indie devs don't have to.
You just seem to have a chip on your shoulder in this department and it's not clear why other than "billionaires are bad".
I'm gauging the health of the industry by the amount of studios that are struggling and closing their doors. The amount of games is meaningless since a lot of those games are that studios last one as well as the amount including all the shovel ware garbage. Anyone can make a game these days with AI, the amount is not a good metric.
Someone being a billionaire is a valid reason for saying they shouldn't be a billionaire. Yes, all billionaires are bad and leeching off society. Though I do have a chip on my shoulder and that's because of seeing people actually defend Gaben as if he was any different than all the other ones. Stop defending billionaires, they actively hate you and probably giggle seeing what they consider peasants coming to their defense.
You can go in incognito mode to avoid the paywall. In any case, here's a gpt summary:
Thing is, even if Steam charged them 0%, they would be struggling all the same. They're struggling because they don't have enough sales.
Steam is taking 30% of their sales, so they are struggling more because steam is greedy. At the end, it's the profit that matter. Selling more copies or selling the same amount but with a better profit margin is the same thing for the bottomline. I'm not trying to be harsh but your point is a bit silly.
Its also not like the whole industry is together and it's one big pass or fail. Some studios that were walking the line and would have survived with a bit more profits don't because of Steam.
Steam cuts into the profit of every sale and forces them to need more than they should to survive.