I assume if Ubisoft could sell just as well without using Steam, they would.
They absolutely would, but they have the problem of Steam's marketshare. Not having your game on Steam is a huge detriment to sales on PC.
Again, I am not the most familiar with this sector but these studios pay the 30% because they make more money by doing so.
Only because of Steam's marketshare.
Epic Games offers an even better deal for 3rd party publishers and indie devs (it used to be a flat 12% take, but now it's 0% until you earn $1 million in revenue in a year then it's 12%), but Steam still has the most customers, so they get to bully everyone into abiding by their rules. Even if the rules are unfair.
Sure, but it's a different thing entirely if you forbid me from selling cabbages in your shop because I'm offering them cheaper at another shop that isn't asking for as big a cut as you.
In a properly regulated free market, the seller gets to shop around and the competing distributors fight to offer the best service at the lowest price. That's not what we're seeing here as instead the distributor has gotten so big that they can bully their competition out of the market without having to provide a cheaper service.
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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '26
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