this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2024
521 points (95.3% liked)

Steam

10334 readers
2 users here now

Steam is a video game digital distribution service by Valve.

Steam News | Steam Beta Client news

Useful tools:
SteamDB
SteamCharts
Issue tracker for Linux version of Steam

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] fidodo@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Digital marketplaces use a near monopoly to extort developers into accepting these inflated cuts. I simply will never accept an inflated rate caused by a monopoly as a good thing. Without that near monopoly there is no way they could maintain a 30% cut.

[โ€“] Carighan@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Without that near monopoly there is no way they could maintain a 30% cut.

I admit, it sounds high to me - like I said above. But I also got 0 clue, for all I know 80% of that are their costs. ๐Ÿคท Lack knowledge to judge that. At least in digital space 70% go to the makers, and usually 20-25% remain at the end, not 2%-8% like with physical goods.

[โ€“] fidodo@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I think the high profit margin on digital goods is almost entirely due to the more efficient distribution of the Internet vs a supply chain, not because steam enabled it. If anyone deserves that cut because of the lower cost of distribution it's the people that created the Internet, and thank God they were publicly funded scientists and not corporations.

Also keep in mind that the infrastructure of the Internet charges a usage fee, not a percentage of profit. If I change $5 for a game on steam vs $60, is steam really doing more work to justify a percentage fee?