Microsoft is lowering commission for game creators in Microsoft Store

There's also the payment options and Valve covering some of the involved fees and I believe the trading cards were cited as a part of what this cut also covers for and then there's the free key generation and being allowed to sell to other platforms though you can't generate a massive number of keys and just sell elsewhere there's a few terms for it but Valve is fairly generous about this system it doesn't have to be 1:1 against Steam sales.

Regional pricing is nice as well, shame a lot of publishers modify the suggested price defaults to really mess with a couple of regions but EGS also supports it though then sees it modified a bit afterwards as I think it's applied by default letting people snag a few good deals before it's "corrected" ha ha.

Higher sales allowing for a reduction in the cut though I don't know if many but the larger publishers could hit such sales.
Proton and all that effort as well, massive work on input support and upcoming overhauls and improvements.

Think the cut could have been higher too and might even have been before the 30/70 split but it's the industry default now though EGS and Microsoft (3rd parties and only on PC though.) lowering it down is a interesting shift.
(I don't think it'd be sustainable though lowering it by that much.)

 

I am impressed to hear other services even offer key generation, figured that'd be a big no without them getting at least a cut out of the sales from this if not the majority of the revenue even but Valve somehow have allowed the practice even if they are losing out on it.

Geographical blocking of sales and the changes to VPN and regional cross-purchases is something I have to look into as another piece of the ongoing regional pricing and changes, I am however glad the refund policy exists even if consumers have to put up a bit of a fight for getting it granted compared to before with digital sales.

The ongoing lawsuit and claims is kinda ridiculous with some of the demands and statements but it will be interesting to see if this ongoing legal settlement and other surrounding business decisions and changes have an impact, lowering the fee would at least be a nice bonus for developers (Or the publisher.) even if the actual purchase price remains unchanged.


EDIT: Ah right, so there's also the Steam licenses and keys for that and activation of these.
Then there's the key requests so the developer can distribute these elsewhere but it's also outside of Valve's fees and there's no additional costs just that they will eventually look into sales for when a very large number of keys gets requested and how it matches the current Steam sales.

 

Steams future will be russian asset flips.

 

The only problem I have with Steam is them allowing games on Steam that are broken, instead of pushing for those titles to be fixed.

 

Epic is simply trying to making in 2 years what steam did in more than 17 years. Even Steam at beginning was not profitable for Valve outside it's own games.

That's a common problem for modern software thanks to gig economy and agile programming.

 

I think Microsoft's idea with Gamepass is the best shot so far to actually have a chance going up against Steam.
But I don't ever see Steam being challenged for real, gamers simply opt for that since they have their 15+ year old accumulated libraries and want to keep it in the same place when possible. It was obviously easier for physical stores to compete with oneanother since the price was the only difference no matter where you bought the game.
And I do truthfully believe that if Epic thought that they could make a dent on Steam without paying for all the exclusives, they would absolutely do so. They're just as greedy as every other business and if they decide to waste money it's because their management has deemed it the most viable strategy.


I don't remember every single good/bad thing Valve has done, but it sure feels like the standards back then was lower and now Microsoft/Epic/Ubisoft are judged harsher for their methods. I do remember Counter Strike being a mod available for everyone before Valve bought it and made it exclusive to Steam, as well as thinking it wasn't morally right that Valve made a standalone game of Dota that actually was popular in WC3. Valve is actually the reason Blizzard explicity says every map you create is their IP.

 

Glad to see Microsoft stepping up to the plate. What the PC Online gaming distribution markets need is fierce competition. EPIC was the first one to realize that it doesn't do a reseller much good to cut his commissions by 22% to developers if end user customers do not also get some sort of concomitant reduction in purchase prices. For instance, a Microsoft or EGS developer gets a reduction in his commission of 18%, discounts his software to his customers by 10%, and still comes out 8% ahead of where he is today with Steam! (No exclusives required. That was only something Sweeney felt he had to do to break into the online market--he cannot continue that, of course--and neither can developers.) Personally, I prefer GOG. No DRM, and no compromise on that issue; and I get my own installable copy of every game I own on GOG. But if I can buy a game cheaper somewhere else, I may just do that.

 

Everything you just thought, doesn't work in reality.