Gamespot article reveals Valve's cut with steam sales.

[wilco]

bananaking21 said:

oniyide said:

bananaking21 said:

oniyide said:

bananaking21 said:
that leaves the publisher with 42 bucks for a 60 dollar release. seems as a much more profitable option than retail

actually no, retailers are only getting 10 bucks per game

they pretty much get 15$ more bucks with steam. also, they dont have to worry about distribution or returns when a game drops in price. they would barely make a profit on 20$ games on retail but would make 14$ when its sold on steam. 

so retailers get 15 bucks, i was off by 5 bucks. who gets the returns?

the consumer, when they return their game  

Thats not  the only thing that referst to. Thats the money publishers spend when they have to return overstocks from retailers. 7bucks is the average but that price probably fluctuates.