A former Steam developer criticizes Valve's policy and claims that the company was killing the computer game by imposing a 30% commission on publishers, a rate deemed too high, which has the effect of reducing the margin and the creativity of the studios. This situation explains the rise in popularity of the newcomer Epic Games Store, which he says is setting the record straight.
Richard Geldreicha, a developer who served at Valve between 2009 and 2014, has obviously kept a hard tooth against his former employer. In a series of tweets, he expresses bluntly all the good he thinks of Steam which he says "was killing the game on Computer." A rather surprising assertion that he supports the argument of the harmful commission for developers. With 30% commission rate, we are above the limit of indecency. This is the same criticism that is made to Apple by many developers, including Spotify.
Steam vs Epic Game Store: a former developer of Valve has chosen his camp
Richard Geldreicha's statements come amid a growing rivalry between Steam and its new competitor, Epic Game Store. Epic wins more and more exclusives (Metro Exodus, Borderland 3), which is not the taste of Valve and even less players.
"I think gamers will complain for a long time, because these exclusives will not stop there. This could continue beyond the next year. Steam will stay on independent or second-rate games while Epic Store will snatch AAA titles. That's the direction the market is going in right now, "said the developer on his Twitter account.
According to him, Steam will increasingly make developers flee to the Epic Store which charges only 12% commission, leaving 88% of revenue to the studios. It's a lot more interesting for them than the 30% collected by Steam. A 12% commission will allow developers to invest more in their games thanks to their larger margin. "Valve has for a long time abused partners and its employees," concludes Richard Geldreicha visibly very against his former employer.
