Steam takes a large part of the revenue from every sale. But is that so unfair? An indie developer is extremely satisfied with it.
When you buy a game through the Steam platform, not only the developer and publisher of the game benefit – Steam itself also takes a large piece of the purchase price. A hefty 30% is claimed by Valve every time a game is sold. “Much too much,” some say and describe the practice as greedy. However, there are also developers who are very happy with the 30% – like Bellular.
Why is Bellular talking about this? The YouTuber and developer Bellular, known mainly for his WoW analyses, released a game on Steam a few days ago. In a stream, he afterwards talked about the sales figures and ideas on how to do better next time. He openly displayed the Steam data for his game and also addressed the “30% share” that Steam retains from each sale.
What does Bellular say about it? In one of his latest videos, Bellular not only shows the sales figures of his game “The Pale Beyond”, but also addresses the question of whether the 30% share from Steam is justified:
The question many ask: Does Valve deserve this 30%? There is a reason why this is a very short section [in this video]. Because the reason is: Yes. From our perspective as indie developers, where Valve takes 30% and only then the rest of the money is distributed to publishers and employees – we are very happy with Valve’s 30%.
What may seem incomprehensible at first glance, Bellular explains a bit more. Of course, 30% is a large share, but one needs to consider more:
The amount of attention, the “click-through rate” and all [the other benefits] … they have taken 30%. But it is 30% of a much larger cake.
In other words: The 30% is indeed a lot, but through Steam, the game is seen and bought by many more people, so in the end, the developers still make significantly more money than if they did not advertise and sell on Steam. With this 30%, you are essentially buying the reach and attention that ultimately leads to game sales.
Steam brings even more benefits: Bellular and his colleague Matt also discuss that Steam brings additional advantages. Because Steam is a platform that primarily cares about its customers, who are always prioritized. Therefore, systems like “refunds” on Steam are particularly easy to implement – such as the “2-hour” rule, allowing players to return games if they do not like them.
Even if developers lose some money afterwards, it would be a good thing, as those who can easily return a game are less likely to leave an angry, negative review afterwards.
On the other hand, Steam is always criticized for the 30%. For example, the Epic Games Store aggressively promoted at its launch that it would take a much smaller share.
