Comment on Steam is basically a PC gaming monopoly, so why isn’t anyone mad?
TehPers@beehaw.org 3 weeks agoI see this point come up all the time when it comes to Steam, but I have yet to see anyone really propose an alternative. How much should it cost to host your game on Steam? It obviously can’t be free because of hosting costs, and you’re also paying for marketing and discoverability, so what’s a good price for it?
Until recently, 30% was the industry standard for large software stores. Google is apparently lowering its cut after losing their recent battle with Epic, so it’s possible that the industry standard changes. I’d hope that Valve adjusts with it.
JillyB@beehaw.org 3 weeks ago
Valve’s cost of hosting is pennies. They’re one of the most profitable companies in the US. They could lower that number to 5% and still have plenty of margin, I’d bet.
TehPers@beehaw.org 3 weeks ago
Surely you can’t mean this literally. They host downloads of hundreds of GB that get served to tens of millions of users. The bandwidth costs alone are going to be insanely high, putting aside the storage costs as well.
But anyway, I’d love to see them lower it to 5%. I think if they can afford to do that, they should take the lead.
cristian64@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
I guess they meant “pennies per game sale”, in which case 30% could be quite a generous cut. But, of course, buyers can download the game many times, and forever, so it’s really hard to measure what’s a fair cut.
To me, it’s not a monopoly because Steam doesn’t require exclusivity, and there are other stores (including physical a stores).
DaleGribble88@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
You’d make that bet, but I wouldn’t. And only one of us is guaranteed to have money walking out of the casino