Going gold?

[Kikuchiyo]

Originally Posted by Vevster

Kikuchiyo,
Just explain me how Forbes figures (30% -70%) can be accurate when I showed you financials from two publishers showing a profit margin (gross margin) of 50% or 60% .

To reach an average of 50% with Forbes figures, that would mean EA sells as much through Steam than on boxes (70+30)/2 = 50 ; at the same average price
I do not think that is the case. Therefore, the 30% figure seems highly doubtful

To reach 60% average (Ubi) , that would mean 3 sales on steam to 1 box (70+70+70 +30)/4; at the same average price.
Not possible either.

Again, look at the figures I presented from two publishers, and tell me how that works with what Forbes say. Figures from the publishers are official ones (listed companies)

You're mixing some suff here: you talk about the % given to publishers then conclude that Steam gives more to studios (devs).

Problem is, Steam gives only something per copy sold (your own words).

A publisher (EA, Ubi etc...) sometimes (often) prefinance the game.
So you do not have to compare only the % given after release, but also incluse the advance on royalty paid to make an hones comparison of what the devs receive. I hope you agree with that...


Anyway, I personnally like steam, use it, am grateful because I think they helped the PC market and like that retailers are whining about it while at the same time often refusing to put PC games on their shelves.
Think what you want about the figures, they do not compute in the case of those given by Forbes.

I did address your figures from the large dev/publisher houses of EA and Ubisoft, but perhaps it wasn't clear. Their figures would be a skew to the statistics that Forbes is showing for the simple fact that they both publish and develop games so their profit margins would be a conglomerate of both aspects. Basically they can take in a much larger profit from in house development on both retail and DD sales which would seriously affect their margin of profit by the end of the year, and what's more is they don't pay out to developers, that they act as a middleman publisher for, until the end of a fiscal quarter. That means they collect interest on that money in the intervening time and can count that as additional profit.

I didn't say that Steam gave more to developer's than publishers at any point. I said the profit margin for a developer that went solely with DD rather than DD and a Publisher would see a higher profit margin per unit sold.

As do publishers. If you believe that publisher pay a developer per boxed unit produced you are sorely mistaken. They pay out to developers a percentage of sales.

As to the prefinance aspect the publisher then takes that money back off of the initial sales until the loan is paid off, because financing is a loan after all.

Edit: Sorry for the multiple edits I just dropped some talking points unintentionally and wanted to address them.