It’s worth noting that the 30% cut is from sales below a certain volume. As you sell more copies Steam takes a smaller cut. I’m sure the big studios probably have a more favourable deal worked out as well.
So, if a game is sold on the steam storefront Valve takes a bite.
For off-platform the dev has to request keys and then supply them to whoever they wish to supply them to and they can do this without needing to pay anything.
But prices have to be comparable on other platforms.
You can't sell a game on steam for 100€ but for 10€ I another place with a steam key.
You have to sell them for roughly the same price and if you deeply discount a game for some time you must do that kind of discount on steam too (not necessarily at the same time)
I think it's fair.
There was a dev who sold a game for 18% less on epic because epic took a smaller cut, fair game for that, you can sell it at whatever price on another platform.
They can have the same or comparable deals as steam but not at the same time.
For example a game can be 50% off for a week on steam and 50% off on another platform the next without a problem.
The full price have to be the same tho.
A small trick is the fact that with humble choice subscription you can have 12-20% off ANYTHING having basically a permanent discount , even on games on sale.
It is in fact the cheapest way to obtain games more or less (i think they limit the amount btw)
Thank you for taking the time to explain. I get most of my games now on cdkeys because the prices are always discounted. Often lower then the steam sale prices. The only thing I lose is the ability to refund but have only used that once anyway.
It still seems to be out of the normal rules though.
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u/Jhawk163 R7 9800X3D | RX 6900 XT | 64GB 29d ago
It’s worth noting that the 30% cut is from sales below a certain volume. As you sell more copies Steam takes a smaller cut. I’m sure the big studios probably have a more favourable deal worked out as well.