IS STEAM'S 30 PERCENT CUT WORTH IT?
Nearly all the developers interviewed for this piece, when asked if Steam's 30 percent cut of revenue was worth it, answered with a resounding "no." Many spoke fondly of the good old days, when Valve "actually did something" to earn their money. Now, many of these developers allege, those days are over.
"There used to be other companies you could use to do what Steam did, manage updates and transactions, companies like BMT Micro," another developer said. "Most of those companies would take 4 percent or 5 percent from each sale. What Steam was supposed to provide for the additional 25 percent was 'all those customers,' but now they're not providing that, and they're actually [sending] you toxic customers who leave you negative reviews who make things worse for you."
Hicks said that for him, the major difference between Valve's 30 percent and Microsoft or Sony's 30 percent was in the level of personal support and care the companies provided.
"Sony and Microsoft both provided me with personal contacts that I can pitch ideas to. They also provide contacts to pitch things regarding marketing [...] so if I have an idea for a cool promotion I can at least talk to someone about it," Hicks explained. "Additionally, they do everything they can to provide each game with a nice chunk of store visibility at launch."
Steam does not offer the same level of care.
"Valve has none of this," Hicks continued. "They stopped giving everyone a personal contact, the amount of banner support you get at launch is based off title popularity so nothing is guaranteed, and I have no one to pitch marketing ideas to. If they're going to be completely hands-off and redirect smaller developers to a message board for any type of support issues ... yeah, that's not worth 30 percent to me. Honestly, they do as much as itch.io does and itch takes 10 percent for a default percentage!"