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Steam's Business Model Is "Unrealistic," Ubisoft Executive Says

stormfire

Member
Nov 26, 2018
2,849
Ubisoft executive Chris Early, who is the VP for partnerships and revenue at the Assassin's Creed company, has spoken up to share his thoughts on Steam. Speaking to The New York Times, Early said the company's business model, as it stands today, is unworkable.

"It's unrealistic, the current business model they have. It doesn't reflect where the world is today in terms of game distribution," he said.
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It's not completely clear what part of Steam's business model Early is speaking about. It may be in reference to the revenue split that Steam offers. Steam typically keeps 30 percent of game sales, with 70 percent going to developers/publishers. By contrast, the Epic Games Store offers much more to the people who make games; on the Epic Games Store, 88 percent of revenue goes back to developers.

Given Early's comments, it's not hard to understand why Ubisoft elected to release The Division 2--one of the company's biggest games of 2019--on the Epic Games Store instead of Steam. The Division 2 was also released on Ubisoft's own Uplay store, and sales of the game there grew 10X after the decision to bypass Steam.

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eKongDiddy

eKongDiddy

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,521
Beach City
Why not just release their games on UPlay, EGS, Steam, Origin, and whatever other launcher is out there. Just let gamers buy from wherever they want.
 
nsilvias

nsilvias

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,790
people who like money want more money. dont we all?
these publishers dont care if the platform is barebones garbage without any features that benefit users as long as they make more money.
 
Dest

Dest

Has seen more 10s than EA ever will
Coward
Jun 4, 2018
14,057
Work
Weird how this was never really a problem until EGS showed up and started flinging money around.
Weird how this was never an issue with consoles.
Weird.
 
Queen Of Hunting

Queen Of Hunting

Banned
Jun 14, 2019
599
Remember last year n year before how yves multiple times at e3 n other conferences pleaded with everyone because gaming should be free and everyone should be able to create in a non draconian way n stuff n play how they want to play, all because of the vivendi takeover

Now like hold my beer
 
Nzyme32

Nzyme32

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,245
All other platforms are good though right, even with worse terms?!

10x sales boost is hilariously missing the context. Sale grew because the vast majority do not want to use EGS, and would prefer Uplay - a more feature complete solution over it, and the only other option anyone can have. However, over Uplay, clearly users prefered Steam. Uplay have made a great move for themselves, and Epic are fine with that since it has a disruptive affect on Steam and its customers
 
Hamster Plugin

Hamster Plugin

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,841
Console stores take the same cut though. But even worse: consoles make people pay $60/year to access the internet and developers of MP games get zero dollars out of that. Why are publishers or developers never making a big deal out of that? For someone not currently paying for online it can turn a $60 MP game purchase into a $120 game purchase with the game dev getting none of the extra money. The dev/pub also has to pay for the servers.
 

Deleted member 42

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 24, 2017
16,939
Oh great let's get some stuff outta the way now

Ubi has always thought this, that's why they made Uplay. They want to maximize as much money they get so they'll always be fighting with Steam this way.

They can't negotiate with consoles like this because it's a walled garden, unlike PC. They likely have deals with console manufacturers to lighten things, but not by much.

Console peeps will likely start getting pressured if/when Steam decides what their move is.
 
Alpheus

Alpheus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,655
Queen Of Hunting said:
Remember last year n year before how yves multiple times at e3 n other conferences pleaded with everyone because gaming should be free and everyone should be able to create in a non draconian way n stuff n play how they want to play, all because of the vivendi takeover

Now like hold my beer
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LOL i already had forgotten about that.
 
Demacabre

Demacabre

Member
Nov 20, 2017
2,058
Guess Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Mobile are all unrealistic too. Funny how we just single out one company. Funny. No complaints with those companies' cut.

Edit: Oh, and brick and mortar retailers. But in the world of PR, what is intellectual honesty? Watch them thread that needle by saying "We have no choice and need to be on those platforms so that makes it completely A-OK and we love those platforms!" Again, intellectual honesty, there is none. It's all PR and bullshit no one in the press will call them out on.

Edit 2: So this implies either A) They don't mind the 30/70 cut but are disingenously striking at a competing store on PC or B) they are pretending to like it to remain in the good graces of Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Mobile, Brick and mortar and don't have the ethical integrity to stand by this statement. Y'all keep on cheerleading for them and EGS.
 
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AHA-Lambda

AHA-Lambda

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,807
gundamkyoukai said:
Would be interesting to see what he means .
Also people need to stop comparing a store front to consoles.
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Hardly. It's the same principle and companies aren't going to excuse 30% if they think it's too high cos "ah consoles are different"
Especially when Valve have used those funds to advance their service and PC gaming ultimately too
 

Deleted member 1635

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,800
If they think they are making more money by not releasing on Steam, then that seems like a wise business decision and I can't fault them. They're not a charity.

At this point, I'm fine with using UPlay. I've got my entire library of Ubisoft games bought from wherever there, so I don't mind using it.

Demacabre said:
Guess Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Mobile are all unrealistic too. Funny how we just single out one company. Funny. No complaints with those companies' cut.
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None of those platforms are open, so complaining about the revenue split there is just going to hurt relations with the platform owner to no benefit.
 
GhostTrick

GhostTrick

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,316
LQX said:
Is Steam cut higher than that of the console manufacturers?
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Steam's cut is actually lower since reaching a certain revenue threshold, it decreases down to 20%.

Steam's Business model of 20-30% is unsustainable, yet consoles at 30%, heck even retail where the publisher sees 55% of revenue instead of 70% is sustainable.
 
Conkerkid11

Conkerkid11

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
13,967
Of course they would say that. The only reason they went to Epic is because they now get that check from Epic, and they now sell most of their copies on their own store, where they make 100% of the revenue.

What cut does Uplay take for non-Ubisoft games?
 
olag

olag

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
2,106
Interesting, Im curious as to what % Uplay is operating on but the 30/70 split is something I wouldnt mind getting reduced on both consoles and pc.

However I would have liked Ubisoft to expand on this as I suspect this was mearnt to answer the broader question on why they went full exclusive which is kind of a non-answer when the big pile of money Epic was offering seems to be the main draw.......Ofcoarse NDA's kinda stiffle that conversation as well.
 
gundamkyoukai

gundamkyoukai

Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,141
AHA-Lambda said:
Hardly. It's the same principle and companies aren't going to excuse 30% if they think it's too high cos "ah consoles are different"
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It's not the same principle because it's not the same type of business model .
Sure companies would like to pay less on consoles but they don't look at it the same way as a store front.
 
eonden

eonden

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,087
BronsonLee said:
Oh great let's get some stuff outta the way now

Ubi has always thought this, that's why they made Uplay. They want to maximize as much money they get so they'll always be fighting with Steam this way.

They can't negotiate with consoles like this because it's a walled garden, unlike PC. They likely have deals with console manufacturers to lighten things, but not by much.

Console peeps will likely start getting pressured if/when Steam decides what their move is.
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They really dont on the cut side (at least Ubisoft), during an investor presentation they showed a breakdown of what 100$ in each method meant and it spelled clear the console cut (20% on physical and 30% on digital). They probably have advertisement agreements and other side deals about marketing, but not on the base.

And yeah, Ubisoft always wanted that 100%, even a 10% cut would be too much when you can just get everything.
 

Deleted member 5596

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,747
I guess,from Ubisoft perspective, ideally there would be no Steam, no Epic, no Sony, no MS....so they can sell the games on their own terms without "middlemen".
 
olag

olag

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
2,106
Alex840 said:
Microsoft and Sony own Xbox and PlayStation which require massive R&D, as well as ongoing support. Steam is just a storefront.
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I think with profit margins operating where they are, we are kinda approaching the point where bringing up RND specifically for consoles is a moot point more appropriate for 2005.
 

Deleted member 42

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 24, 2017
16,939
Also with the new rules in effect, Ubisoft games would almost assuredly get that 20% cut just based on sales

It's all about wanting more
 
andymoogle

andymoogle

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,312
They should be selling enough to reach the 25/75 split at least. That combined with their uPlay sales and other storefronts should be plenty enough. Obviously, nothing is ever enough for these publishers.
 
AshenOne

AshenOne

Member
Feb 21, 2018
6,108
Pakistan
The business model for a big name company like ubisoft is actually pretty good since they sell in the millions. Its actually pretty unrealistic how some executive can shit on steam's business model thats actually suitable for them... i guess the only thing that can answer is that they want even more money?

What can i say... they're a bunch of greedy fucks that barely do shit to innovate in their own gotdamn games.
 
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