Valve has made the weighty decision to revise its Steam Distribution Agreement, as well as its overall revenue share tiers in a bid to further incentivize bigger,  more successful developers. Previously, Valve had been taking a 30% cut from all games that use its Steam distribution platform. Now, moving forward (and retroactively from October 1st, 2018), the cut Valve takes will now drop to 25% once the game’s revenue hits $10 million, dwindling down to 20% once the earnings hit the $50 million mark. This revenue includes the base game sales as well as DLC, in-game purchases, and Steam marketplace fees.

“The value of a large network like Steam has many benefits that are contributed to and shared by all the participants,” Valve’s Erik P. said in a recent statement, courtesy of ResetEra. “Finding the right balance to reflect those contributions is a tricky but important factor in a well-functioning network. It’s always been apparent that successful games and their large audiences have a material impact on those network effects so making sure Steam recognizes and continues to be an attractive platform for those games is an important goal for all participants in the network.”

Our hope is this change will reward the positive network effects generated by developers of big games, further aligning their interests with Steam and the community.”

Valve also chose to update its sales data confidentiality clause as well. “We’ve heard you,” the statement begins, “and we’re updating the confidentiality provisions to make it clear that the partner can share sales data about their game as they see fit.”

Overall this seems like a smart move on Valve’s part in an attempt to deter companies like Bethesda from releasing a AAA game – such as Fallout 76 – without the use of Steam’s distribution software. While Bethesda has said that they won’t be doing something like that again, Valve’s added incentives certainly won’t go unnoticed among the other big name developers.

So, thoughts on Valve’s revenue share policy change? Let us know in the comments section below, and as always, stay tuned to Don’t Feed the Gamers for all the latest gaming and entertainment news! Don’t forget to follow DFTG on Twitter for our 24/7 news feed!