We’ve been talking a lot about both Steam and the Epic Games Store lately. With the timed exclusives Epic Games has been able to secure many PC gamers are not very happy with them. Well one former Valve developer has said that Steam’s 30% cut was unsustainable and that Epic Games is fixing that.
In a series of tweets, former Valve dev Richard Geldreich claims that Steam was killing PC gaming with its 30% tax, a tax that was more or less unsustainable. And that this 30% cut made quite a lot of money for Valve and distorted the company. This accusation could explain why Valve has not released a big PC game in the past few years.
Steam was killing PC gaming. It was a 30% tax on an entire industry. It was unsustainable. You have no idea how profitable Steam was for Valve. It was a virtual printing press. It distorted the entire company. Epic is fixing this for all gamers.
— Richard Geldreich (@richgel999) April 5, 2019
So Steam was first – so what? At the time, Steam’s 30% revshare looked good compared to the 50% revshare from retail. Now – it’s ridiculus and oppressive to game developers. Valve became abusive to its partners and employees. It took them for granted.
— Richard Geldreich (@richgel999) April 5, 2019
Geldreich goes on to predict that Epic Games will most likely keep signing exclusives…
I think gamers are going to remain mad for a long time, as these exclusives won’t stop anytime soon. Could last 1 year or more. Steam will be for indy/2nd tier/shovelware/porn, Epic and other launchers for AAA. This seems to be where the market is heading at the moment.
— Richard Geldreich (@richgel999) April 8, 2019
Geldreich does however agree that the Epic Games Store currently lacks many features…
I think they hear gamers loud and clear on that. They really should have added more features to EGS before launching.
— Richard Geldreich (@richgel999) April 8, 2019
What do you guys think? Was the 30% too much? Will Valve change things now that there is another big player?
