CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ransom demand

Re:CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ran... by ArkanExplorer on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @06:41AM (#26076331)

These are just symptoms - the fundamental underlying factor is the 30% commission taken by Valve, Microsoft, Sony, Apple, Google.

Take these values down to 10-15%, and the game development business becomes a lot higher-margin, encouraging new entrants and supporting better salaries and conditions for staff.

The other problem is that games are unique that they are entirely B2C, retail products. As a result, the full taxation burden falls on them. Its not uncommon for developers to actually receive only 50% of spent revenue, after global sales taxes, platform commissions, refunds, chargebacks are taken into account.

By contrast general IT companies - if providing B2B services (including advertising) - have a much lower commission and taxation burden.

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Re:CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ran... by villasv on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @06:46AM (#26076382)

And the evidence for that diagnostics is...? Got any reference that links margin to company culture?

The few people I know from the mobile gaming industry tell me the margins are insanely high. They’d spend x on ads and get back 2~5x in microtransactions. Also development costs were even lower than marketing costs.

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Re:CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ran... by ArkanExplorer on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @06:55AM (#26076459)

This is the conclusion of the American Federal Trade Commission...

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-01-08-ftc-wary-o...

""heavy taxation" by Apple and Google means developers are forced to use monetisation models that "rely on surveillance, manipulation and other harmful practices.""

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Re:CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ran... by villasv on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @07:13AM (#26076593)

This is a suggestion from someone from the FTC, not a study. It would be nicer to have data instead of opinion.

For instance, PC games have microtransactions too. Many top-toxic companies are are mostly in the PC ecosystem and don’t have to pay to be on PC.

Yet you still listed Microsoft as one of the companies squeezing developers.

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Re:CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ran... by shultays on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @06:59AM (#26076491)

Seems a stretch, publishing was costly pre steam as well and there were always a cut

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Re:CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ran... by Netcob on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @06:44AM (#26076356)

With the exception of small indie developers, I'm too cynical to believe that the difference would end up benefiting the staff.

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Re:CD Projekt Red has been subject to a cyber attack and ran... by ArkanExplorer on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @06:57AM (#26076468)

On Steam, larger developers are charged a 20% commission, whereas Indie developers are charged a 30% commission.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-12-03-indie-deve...

You are put at a fundamentally poorer economic position if you quit your AAA job and make Indie games and release them on Steam.

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