Microsoft Will Give More Revenue To PC Developers
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Image: Xbox
Game developers on the Microsoft store will soon get a greater cut of the profits, Microsoft announced today. The change comes at a time when many developers and storefronts are rethinking the way profits are split.
“As part of our commitment to empower every PC game creator to achieve more, starting on August 1 the developer share of Microsoft Store PC games sales net revenue will increase to 88%, from 70%,” Head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty wrote on the Xbox blog. “A clear, no-strings-attached revenue share means developers can bring more games to more players and find greater commercial success from doing so.”
PC and PS5 are Developers’ Favorite Platforms, Stadia and Similar Services Get Little Love Apr 28, 2021 18:51 EDT
As anyone who regularly visits this website well knows, gamers love to play favorites when it comes to platforms, but what about the folks who actually make games? Which platforms do developers prefer? The Game Developers Conference puts that question to game makers every year, and this year’s “State of the Game Industry” poll has yielded some interesting results.
GDC asked around 3000 developers “Which platforms most interest you as a developer right now?” and PC was the winner, getting the nod from 58 percent of those polled. Next up was PlayStation 5 at 44 percent, Nintendo Switch at 38 percent, Xbox Series X/S at 30 percent, and the general “VR headsets” at 27 percent. Down near the bottom of the list was Google Stadia with 6 percent.
Roland Li April 29, 2021Updated: April 30, 2021, 7:11 am
Fans at a Fan Expo event in Canada before the pandemic. Fan Expo San Francisco has booked Moscone Center in the fall of 2022. Photo: Fan Expo HQ
San Francisco is expected to get a new comic convention in 2022, the first such event since 2017 and a sign of recovery for the city’s battered tourism industry.
Fan Expo HQ, the biggest comic convention organizer in North America, has committed to hosting the event for five years at Moscone Center. The first edition of Fan Expo San Francisco, which doesn’t have a finalized date, is scheduled for three days at Moscone West in the fall of 2022. It will have capacity for up to 50,000 attendees, assuming public health restrictions have been lifted.
The PS5 follows closely behind on April 28, 2021, 21:05 10 comments
Stronger than ever: Despite AAA publishers occasional insistence that PC gaming is dead or on its way out, that couldn t be further from the truth these days. Steam and the Epic Games Store have millions of users and continue to grow every year even game devs themselves prefer the platform over consoles, according to a recent Game Developers Conference (GDC) survey.
While consoles remain a force to be reckoned with in the gaming sphere, the GDC s latest State of the Game Industry report claims that a whopping 58 percent of polled devs find the PC to be the most interesting platform.
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More than 3,000 games industry professionals weighed in on what has been a tumultuous year as developers adjusted to remote work, dealing with pandemic stress and being increasingly isolated, while creating entertainment known for helping people get through feelings of loneliness, isolation, and anxiety.
The survey results show that while the pandemic caused delays for close to half of respondents, studios overall grew or stayed the same over the last year, and that work-life balance evened out after a rough first few months, with most developers now working standard 40-hour work weeks.
The survey also showed interesting shifts in larger industry trends, including greater disapproval of the 30% revenue share many digital storefronts employ, justifying newer, more developer-friendly revenue share models being introduced by Apple, Google, and Epic. There’s also growing interest in developing games for PlayStation 5, with PC continuing to reign as the platform of choice.