Starting Aug. 1 Microsoft Will Start Giving PC Game Developers a Large Share of Sales

Today Microsoft has shaken up the world of PC gaming with a big cut to the amount of revenue it takes from games on Windows in a way bringing the war to Valve’s Steam store turf. Therefore, in an effort to bring more games to Windows 10, Microsoft is updating its store terms to give PC game developers a larger share of game sales. Starting Aug. 1, game developers will take home 88% of their sales revenue. 

Typically, developers take home about 70% of profits from each game sold on various platforms. But recently, that’s been changing: Like Microsoft, Epic Games takes a 12% portion. In March, Google Play said it would reduce its cut for the first $1 million in revenue each year from 30% to 15%, following a similar move from Apple last year. And Steam takes 30% of all sales made for the first $10 million sold. 

On Microsoft’s end, the change doesn’t require any exclusivity agreement, Sarah Bond, corporate vice president and head of game creator experiences and ecosystem, commented on Wednesday. The goal is to encourage more people to develop games for the PC and to include PC when developing across all platforms, she said. 

The news comes about a week after Microsoft unveiled its new cloud services program ID@Azure, which gives independent game studios, startup game developers and individual creators access to Microsoft’s cloud tools as they build and grow their games. New tools like these have made it easier to build games that can span PC, mobile, and console, Bond said. 

“The idea that a game is built for just one platform is slowly starting to melt away,” Bond said. “In the future, games will be enabled to play everywhere, and this is part of making that possible.”