With the speed at which news comes out in the gaming industry we sometimes miss important or news worthy things. Some of these things we want to talk about in a way that is both easy for you guys and allows us to get all the facts together as some of these stories develop quickly. Sometimes we also just cover topics that we find interesting and want to discuss.
Discord offers 90/10 split for developers
Beating out the Epic Store, Discord announced an offer to publish games at a90%/10% split in the upcoming year. Epic last week announced there store would be an 88%/12% split, both stores saying the current standard of 70%/30% would hurt indie developers.
Ozzy’s Thoughts: I’m going to lend a minor amount of nerd knowledge on you. Neil Degrasse Tyson, among other scientists today, have mentioned in passing how another “Space Race” could once again benefit mankind. Of the many technologies we discovered as mankind tried to race to the moon, all eventually reached everyday people. Laptops, GPS, memory foam, and even the cordless vacuum just to name a few.
When I saw this Discord post, it immediately brought to my mind this idea of a Space Race. But instead of trying to race to the Moon or Mars, store fronts are now actively trying to give studios, especially smaller ones, the chance to show off what they can do for smaller, niche games.
It’s the start of a new race. Instead of a race to “millions of dollars” and numbers sold, it’s a race to how much (good) content and quality of a game can be made, regardless of how many they sell. Now stores have to start defending themselves on “why you should sell through us.” If you’re still going to do the 70/30 split(Steam, I’m looking at you) you have to give them a reason to do so. Yes it’s a wide audience but if a niche game is only going to sell enough to pay off the game, it’s not going to develop any further. While another store that gives them a bigger cut, will let them keep working on the game longer and who knows, develop even further beyond what they expected.
Subnautica free on Epic Store until the 25th
This is more of notification than a rant. Speaking of niche games, I personally feel that Subnautica is a great gem to be played. Go as fast or slow as you want, explore, get scared of jumping in the water, it is genuinely a great game to play. Unknown Worlds is also working on a stand alone expansion (Subnuatica:Below Zero) that I wholeheartedly look forward to.
For a limited time, Subnautica is free on the Epic store so I suggest you grab it. It was worth the $20 I bought it when it was near the end of Early Access, I believe it’s now still worth the price at $25 (yes they only raised it $5 after launch) so now you have no excuse not to get this game since it’s free for the time being.
Be warned, you hear a distant roar: swim for your life.
