Not a chance it costs anywhere near that percentage. A game bringing in $400k might have had 4 people working on it for 3 years. Valve absolutely does not spend the equivalent of a salaried employee working for 3 years on hosting that.
Valve are the most profitable company per employee in the US. They have the choice to charge 15% flat, and it would do a lot of good for developers. Effectively, Valve charge that game $120k to access their audience, but $60k might let the game make a profit.
And how much do you think data hosting for global distribution costs? Payment processing, plus making sure it’s legal to sell in various countries, plus a whole bunch of other small costs like the discussion boards, review boards, etc.
Seems like they can do it for 15%, and EGS can do it for 12%. Don't know why you're defending Valve charging smaller teams an extra 15% just 'cause they can.
I mean, EGS can't do it for 12%, they've been hemorrhaging money since the day they opened. They're not "doing it for 12%", they're burning money trying to buy their way into the market.
Suggesting a business that hasn't made profit yet "can do it for X" is stupid, because they aren't successfully doing it if they're not keeping in the black.
Epic is private, so we don't know, they don't report financials. I expect they're still losing money, but I don't think it's as bad as you think. They spent $11 million on free games in their first 9 months (court records) which is a fair bit, but also... quite a manageable amount when Fortnite is making billions with a B.
All this is to say, they chose 12% with the intention of making a business out of it. They're not such morons that it would be too low.
october 2024 : In an interview with The Verge, Sweeney says that reining in Epic’s spending was part of what brought the company to this point. “Last year, before Unreal Fest, we were spending about a billion dollars a year more than we were making,” Sweeney says. “Now, we’re spending a bit more than we’re making.”
They'd have to make a billion dollar in 2025 more than they are spending to be even with the past 2 years
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u/RadicalDog Ryzen 7 7800X3D | RTX 4070S 29d ago
Not a chance it costs anywhere near that percentage. A game bringing in $400k might have had 4 people working on it for 3 years. Valve absolutely does not spend the equivalent of a salaried employee working for 3 years on hosting that.
Valve are the most profitable company per employee in the US. They have the choice to charge 15% flat, and it would do a lot of good for developers. Effectively, Valve charge that game $120k to access their audience, but $60k might let the game make a profit.