Paradox Interactive executive chairman of the board Fredrik Wester said recently that the standard 70/30 split that is offered to game developers on the industry’s most popular marketplaces is “outrageous”.
This claim has been made in the context of Wester speaking at a Gamelab panel just last week, where he said that the media could quote him when he said that “platform holders are taking too much money.”
According to Wester, the garden-variety 70/30 pricing model hails from the olden days of distributing movies via VHS tapes: “That was physical. It cost a lot of money. This doesn’t cost anything. So Epic has done a great job for the whole industry, because you get 88%. Fantastic move. Thank you very much.”
Continuing to speak in regard to Epic, Wester also said the following: “They have lower margins, to get into the market. But I think it’s also a matter of decency. I mean, how much does it actually cost to deliver a game?”
Wester concluded on an inquisitive note: “When the competition is low, the platform holder can get a big share of the pie; as competition increases, they need to lower their part of the pie, as well. That’s how the market works, right?”
Could this mean that Paradox may ditch Steam, despite the claims they made earlier this year? That decision would ultimately lie with Ebba Ljungerud, the current CEO of the company.
