The Microsoft Store announced today that it’s cutting out on its revenue shares in order to give developers 88% of each PC game sold on their storefront.
“Game developers are at the heart of bringing great games to our players, and we want them to find success on our platforms,” Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty said, adding, “A clear, no-strings-attached revenue share means developers can bring more games to more players and find greater commercial success from doing so.”
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) released recently the results of its ninth annual State of the Industry Survey, revealing trends in the game industry ahead of GDC 2021 which will take place virtually July 19-23.
The survey showed interesting shifts in larger industry trends, including greater disapproval of the 30% revenue share many digital storefronts employ, justifying developer-friendly revenue share models being introduced by Apple, Google, and Epic Games Store.
Only 3% of polled developers believe the 30/70 revenue split on digital storefronts is fair. Game developers largely rely on third-party digital storefronts such as Steam, GOG, Google Play, Apple’s App Store, and the Epic Games Store to sell their games.
Selling games via these services comes at a cost—the standard share has been 70% for the developer, and 30% for the platform holder. That standard has come into question in the past few years, so much so that the standard isn’t so standard anymore: Google Play’s fees will soon lower from 30% to 15% for the first $1 million generated by a developer, per year; Apple similarly reduced its cut to 15% for developers that sell under $1 million in a year (though the 30% cut reactivates to affect all revenue if sales go over $1 million).
Epic Games aggressively launched its store with a 12% cut, challenging the industry standard; Steam is still holding tight onto 30%–but gives a discount if a game is making tens of millions of dollars.
Starting on August 1, Microsoft will reduce its net revenues on its PC gaming storefront from 30% to 12%.
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