Valve is not the one setting the prices. The publishers/developers are. One could argue that they are increasing their prices becauses of Valve’s cut, but they aren’t. A Ubisoft game for example costs the same on Steam as it does on the Ubisoft store, which is obviously not taking any cuts for its own games.
Edit for the price parity argument: If the parity would have increased game prices to include Valve’s cut, AAA games would have gotten 30% more expensive many years ago. But they didn’t.
Absolutely this. The 30% split is not only standard (xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo) but it has also hasn’t changed in a VERY long time. Any and all increases in price of games are entirely independent of the cut. Also the cut offers competition (such as the absolutely horrendous epic store) who can offer a smaller split (which they do) to remain an attractive option for game publishers. But do they drop the price on epic??? NO. It’s the game publishers greed not the store they publish on driving up prices. And blaming steam is not just looking a gift horse into the mouth but beating it with a baseball bat.
Valve is not the one setting the prices. The publishers/developers are. One could argue that they are increasing their prices becauses of Valve’s cut, but they aren’t. A Ubisoft game for example costs the same on Steam as it does on the Ubisoft store, which is obviously not taking any cuts for its own games.
Also, 30% is the industry standard. Here is a nice overview IGN made in 2019. https://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2019/09/GameRetailerCuts_infographic-1.png
Edit for the price parity argument: If the parity would have increased game prices to include Valve’s cut, AAA games would have gotten 30% more expensive many years ago. But they didn’t.
Ubisoft is a good example because they have withheld their games from Steam so plenty of samples to look at to see how they priced games themselves.
Have you seen the price of Square Enix games?
They need to pull their fucking heads in.
Absolutely this. The 30% split is not only standard (xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo) but it has also hasn’t changed in a VERY long time. Any and all increases in price of games are entirely independent of the cut. Also the cut offers competition (such as the absolutely horrendous epic store) who can offer a smaller split (which they do) to remain an attractive option for game publishers. But do they drop the price on epic??? NO. It’s the game publishers greed not the store they publish on driving up prices. And blaming steam is not just looking a gift horse into the mouth but beating it with a baseball bat.