Facepunch Studios, the developer of Garry’s Mod and Rust, “would have made over $50,000,000 more” if Valve took a smaller cut from games available on Steam, developer Garry Newman revealed.
The sum above applies in the case of a smaller Steam cut of only 10%. Currently, Valve takes a 30% cut from most games on its store. Since November of last year, the cut actually decreases to 25% for sales between $10m and $50m, and to 20% if sales exceed $50 million, although both Garry’s Mod and Rust were on the platform before these changes were applied.
Newman continued by saying that he “never really had a problem paying Valve their share”, owing “everything to the opportunities they gave me”.
Garry's Mod Developer Facepunch Studios Steam Cut
“And yes, $50m more would have been nice.
Is 30% fair? It’s what we all agree to when adding our games to Steam.
Minecraft didn’t agree and they did fine. Just make a game as good as Minecraft and process all the payments yourself then sell it for 2bn then block me on twitter.”</b>, he concluded.
The discussion around the cuts taken by various storefronts was likely reignited following the Apple Fortnite ban which came as a result of developer Epic Games implementing its own payment method that kept Apple from taking its App Store cut.
Epic Games itself boasted its lower cut of just 12% as it began positioning the Epic Games Store as a competitor to Valve’s Steam who had, for a long time, been virtually untouchable as far as PC digital storefronts go.
If Valve only took 10% instead of 30% Facepunch would have made over $50,000,000 more
— garry (@garrynewman) August 14, 2020
Where do you stand on Steam’s 30% cut and how do you feel about the Epic Games Store now that its number of features has grown? Let us know in the comments.
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