Open any gaming PC, and chances are the blue icon of Steam is sitting right there on the desktop. Not hidden, not optional, but almost expected. Over time, Steam has gone from being just another launcher to becoming the default storefront for PC gaming, almost like a built-in part of the experience. The Monopoly Nobody […]
Valve’s cost of hosting is pennies. They’re one of the most profitable companies in the US. They could lower that number to 5% and still have plenty of margin, I’d bet.
Surely you can’t mean this literally. They host downloads of hundreds of GB that get served to tens of millions of users. The bandwidth costs alone are going to be insanely high, putting aside the storage costs as well.
But anyway, I’d love to see them lower it to 5%. I think if they can afford to do that, they should take the lead.
I guess they meant “pennies per game sale”, in which case 30% could be quite a generous cut. But, of course, buyers can download the game many times, and forever, so it’s really hard to measure what’s a fair cut.
To me, it’s not a monopoly because Steam doesn’t require exclusivity, and there are other stores (including physical a stores).
You’d make that bet, but I wouldn’t. And only one of us is guaranteed to have money walking out of the casino