Digital game stores are becoming more common, providing an easy way for consumers to purchase a variety of different games at often discounted prices. But on the developer side of the equation, many feel that the common 30% profit cut for popular digital stores like Steam and GOG is too high, according to a 2021 GDC State of the Game Industry survey. While digital stores do offer good exposure for smaller games that might otherwise go unnoticed by gamers, apparently only 6% of polled game developers big and small feel that a 30% profit cut is justified.
While digital store giants like Steam have been around since 2003, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused digital game sales to skyrocket compared to physical copy counterparts. Digital game sales saw a huge spike across Europe in 2020, and individual developers like Control's Remedy Entertainment experienced 90% of its sales as digital downloads last year. With more developers relying on digital sales to have good profit margins for game releases, it seems that they've also felt the weight of a 30% profit cut even more.
The 2021 State of the Game Industry survey also revealed that 43% of game developers primarily from Europe and North America feel somewhere between a 10% and 15% cut is justified. This echoes sentiments from 2020 and 2019 surveys as well, where game developers originally said a 30% cut on Steam specifically is too high and the site doesn't do enough to justify its take. Steam and Apple have both recently made adjustments to their 30% take, but those changes affect only certain developers on each platform. The notable detractor from the 30% take standard is the Epic Games Store, which takes only a 12% cut.
The Epic Games Store has made a name for itself since 2018, primarily because of the large amount of free games the store gives away constantly. Although there have been around 745 million free Epic Games Store games claimed by players since 2018, the site has also reportedly lost over $450 million in potential revenue. The Epic Games Store also struggles to compete with Steam, as only 6% of surveyed developers say they earn most of their revenue from the Epic Games Store and 47% of surveyed developers earn more than half of their revenue from Steam. 78% of the same developers also don't sell anything on the Epic Games Store.
The current Apple/Epic lawsuit concerning Apple's control of payment processing for in-app purchases in games like Fortnite has also brought more attention the disparity between Epic's 12% and Apple's 30% cut. Many gamers and game developers are curious to see how the court case will play out and where the conversation will be afterwards regarding 30% takes on digital storefronts. For now, it's clear that developers are hoping digital store profit shares will decrease in the near future.
Source: PC Gamer