By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Cerebralbore101 on 18 May 2017
Edit Thread
Ka-pi96 said:
Cerebralbore101 said:

I had a college course on this a few years back. The console manufacturer gets $7-10 in fees. Next the publisher gets $10. Marketing is usually $10, but can be nothing if you don't want to market. Stores take $10-15. Shipping is $5. For a heavily marketed game where the developer is not the publisher, the dev gets $10 of your $60.

Nintendo makes a huge profit on their games because they are the dev, publisher, AND own the console. They also spend way less on marketing.

IMO Valve should only take $10 off every new release sale. With digital they can forego console royalties, publisher fees, store middlemen, and packaging. AAA PC titles could easily release for $40, but Valve and the devs want to make more money, instead of pass the savings on to the consumer. This is my main beef with digital sales right now. They are just a rip off at those prices.

Best Buy doesn't even charge the $15, which makes their games $45. They are banking on you buying additional products from their store, or paying interest on a credit card.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/02/anatomy-of-a-60-dollar-video-game.html

That's not entirely true. They're not foregoing console royalties, physical PC games wouldn't have them either, so there's no saving there. Many games on Steam still do have publishers, so they are still paying the publisher fees regardless of being physical or digital. They still have store middlemen (that's effectively what Valve are). So the only thing they're really foregoing is packaging.

Oh, and if you think Steam digital prices are a rip off... just look at PSN/XBL UK prices, now those are a ripoff! Steam are at least in line with what you'd expect to pay for a physical copy, PSN/XBL are a fair chunk higher!

But physical games do have royalties on consoles. By putting the game on PC you are avoiding that. Steam's normal take on a $60 title is $18 or 30%. Most brick and mortar stores take $10-15 which is 16% to 25%. Steam doesn't have nearly as many costs as a brick and mortal store, yet they are charging more. Brick and mortar stores have to pay employees, and have to pay property taxes for example. Steam's take just isn't justified, given their low costs of operating. It's like they want to play the role of publisher, console maker, and middleman all at once.

You are right about the publishers still taking their share. It isn't just valve being greedy here. A lot of devs, and publishing companies are simply looking to have better profit margins on each game sold.

Oh yeah, digital prices on consoles are a lot worse like you said. At least steam has sales. At least with steam you can install your game to whatever computer as many times as you want. Digital on consoles is just a nightmare.