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Kyuu on 26 August 2025
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Cerebralbore101 said:
Kyuu said:

I don't have a recent source, but I thought this is common knowledge? A quick search on the internet shows that retailers used to pay publishers anywhere between 50%-75% of the MSRP, which is effectively a 25%-50% fee.

It's still confusing to me though. Does this mean 3rd party publishers have to pay 30% to platform holders and another 30% to retailers? lol.

Here's a good read from December 2020:

https://www.serkantoto.com/2020/12/30/price-video-console-game-digital-physical/

According to this, platform holders only get 15% from 3rd party publishers for physical game. The figures probably vary depending on the game, country, retailer, etc.

Thankyou for the link but that guy doesn't actually name his source. Whether you are a PHD or a regular guy your source cannot be "because I said so". Also I suspect that the writer of that blog is referring to Japanese physical games since that is what his site mainly focuses on. Finally, he is CEO of his own company which unless he has more employees than himself is pretty suspicious. 

I tried finding my own source but could only find the typical breakdown of $60 that has been around since 2010. 

But even this is pretty suspect because having talked to multiple independent shop owners they all swear they only make $5 on a sale of a brand new game.

But then again it would make a lot of sense to be 30% a cut. $15 of $60 is 25% and a 5% bump for going to $70 would make sense. Sorry I just want a solid source on this either way. 

I wish he linked more solid data breakdowns, but he pretty much is a source himself. He's an active industry guy with connections, followed and sometimes cited by Jason Schreier, Daniel Ahmad, Christopher Dring, Takashi Mochizuki, Tae Kim, etc.

It is curious that articles about this are scarce. But there is just no way that platform holders and retailers get a 30% cut each. This would leave like 40% between the game's publisher and developers, not factoring in disk/cartridge cost, development and marketing budgets, and extra fees like 3rd party engines and licensing. So I'm going to assume that the cuts are more flexible.

Last edited by Kyuu - on 26 August 2025