Why Devs Pick Steam's 30% Fee Over Epic's 12%
Steam is still top in the PC game world, even with a 30% cut of the money made, which is a lot more than the 12% Epic Games Store takes. Chris Zukowski, a games market expert, says that many devs like this deal because of how Steam users tend to buy games.
The "Hoarder" User Group Idea
Zukowski thinks that Valve has built a group of "hoarders." These are people who buy lots of games they may not play now, or ever. This way, they fix a big problem in today's fun world: not enough time. Valve sells to a "maybe one day" when a person might play the game, tapping into the want to own rather than the need to play now.
For devs, this means Steam is full of buyers ready to spend on games, no matter how many they already have. This makes it a strong draw to put their games there.
Proof of Buying Habits
This idea is shown by how users act. A check of games from a Steam Next Fest showed a clear thing: for a typical game, many would-be players add it to their wishlist instead of playing the free trial. This shows they'd rather get it later than try it now.
A real case of this is a team member here who has 6,062 games on Steam but only played about 20% of them. Most of these were bought by him, showing a huge pile of games still to play.
The Power of Big Sales
This buying and piling grow big because of Steam's huge sales, like those in big season events. These sales push people to buy lots of games, making their game list even longer.
This special buying setting, where shopping is a key part, helps us see why devs are fine with giving Steam 30% of sales. This place has a crowd that's always ready to buy, making the bigger cut worth it for the business.