Steam changes revenue share policy and it has fair amount of impact on big publishers and small indie developers. Valve will take less share if any game makes good money. This could turn out a profitable deal for bigger publishers.
Before the revenue share policy, Valve takes 30% of sales revenue of video games distributed through Steam platform. Now, after Steam changes revenue share policy agreement, the distribution platform will still take 30% of revenue if the game sales up to $10 million. If a video game sales exceeds $10 million mark, the percentage share of Valve will reduce down to 25%. This condition is applied for sales between $10 million to $50 million.
The same rule applies for video games sales above $50 million. Valve will take 20% distribution share if any game surpasses $50 million sales mark. $50 million sales is a huge number one that only few of big publishers reach every now and then. The revenue share policy will result in more profit if any video game sales good and makes more money.
It looks like the revenue share policy will only be availed by select few publishers. The smaller indie devs will not get advantage from the change of agreement. Even reaching a $10 million mark to save a 5% cut will bag in more profit, but the number is too high for an indie game.
Recently, we have seen developers deviate from Steam platform. Call of Duty Black Ops 4 released on Blizzard Entertainment and Fallout 76 chose not to release on Steam platform. If bigger brands like Call of Duty and Fallout can leave Steam and opt for other platforms, others can do the same.
Steam changes revenue share policy is probably in the wake of these recent events. Now, the new revenue share policy will surely attract bug publishers to go for Steam. Steam has largest number of concurrent players than any other platform on PC. Steam Store also has great sales through out the year. Steam is absolutely amazing platform for gamers and publishers.
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