Discord has launched itself into selling games after becoming the most common platform for PC gaming. It stated that it would establish as a marketplace where developers of all sizes can participate in and publish their games. Its initial offer is 90/10, a handsome ratio with which developers have more share than on any other platforms.
According to a company’s statement, the decision to form a marketplace is the result of a finding. It found out that it did not need to cost up to 30% to distribute games. Discord can build and run tools for developers and let them keep most of the money while doing so.
This new expansion is realized while there is a shift in the game-publishing landscape.
In nearly a decade, Valve’s Steam has been holding the largest market share in the field and offer 70% for developers. However, as publishers think they should have more of the profit, they started making their own platforms over the last few years.
It seems like things are moving toward offering more for developers. Epic Games has recently announced that it is setting up its own store in which publishers can have 88% of the share from what they make. These developers are the ones who actually created the products after all. So with Epic Store and Discord platform, publishers can expect to gain more and more from making games.
According to the company, this new plan is to encourage developers to put most of their effort into what really matters, which is to designing great games and developing vibrant communities. Discord’s platform and the like may benefit small developers as it is getting easier for them to distribute their products.
Larger game companies like Bethesda and Blizzard are also making platforms of their own that offer built-in infrastructure for downloading, security, and patching games.