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Two Steam games generated $560,000 across 135,000 sales in five years, but the co-creator only took home $15,000 annually, leaving him driving a 2012 Mazda — high Chinese refund rates, Steam's 30% fee, and publisher cuts eat most of the profit Just like that raccoon washing his cotton candy and watching it melt. When it comes to the gaming industry, the billions bandied about regarding AAA titles often lead many to think that if your game scores a hit, you're essentially set for life. Unfortunately, the sad reality is that indie developers often have to end up pinching pennies or outright in a deficit despite strong sales. Omer Develioğlu, the co-founder of Northend Games, offered a candid breakdown of how $560,000 in income over five years for sales of his games ended up as just $134,000 split two ways, with $73,000 in his and the co-founder's pockets. In the end, the co-creator got only $15,000 per year and continues to drive his 2012 Mazda, hardly the riches one would expect. The $560,000 gross figure refers to sales for two titles: Northend Tower Defense and Deepstone Rift (Early Access), both sold on Steam, for a grand total of 135,000 units. In an accompanying video, Develioğlu mentions that an impressive 53.3% of sales come directly from China. Unfortunately, he also says that the country's customers are very demanding, and that the refund rate there is disproportionately large. Thus, $134,000 goes right away towards said refunds, with a rate of 22%, "way above" the purported standard of 10-15%. For what it's worth, the Chinese refund rate is corroborated by both older and recent third-party figures. Current tally: $426,000. Then there's Steam itself. The platform is widely beloved by gamers everywhere for its value-add features like the Workshop, but also for the basic notion of not making the other platforms' questionable business decisions. Having said that, Gabe Newell's enterprise has also been on the receiving end of criticism thanks to fees starting at 30%, which only go down for amounts over $10 million and beyond. As Develioğlu's games are nowhere near those figures, 30% it is: $127,000 for Steam, and $297,000 for the devs... or so you'd think. Next up, there's the U.S. withholding taxes. The developer lived in Iraq and moved to Thailand, a country that has a tax agreement with the U.S. to prevent double taxation. Even still, Uncle Sam's slice is 5%, bringing the total down to $287,300. Now, it's time for one of the more controversial aspects: the publisher's cut. According to Develioğlu, his Asian publisher took care of PR, distribution, and marketing in the China, Japan, and South Korea regions. The fact that the majority of the game's sales came from China could mean the publisher did a good job, but the cut was hefty: $115,000, seemingly in a sliding scale, leaving take-home at $172,000.... before local taxes. Develioğlu doesn't clear up what the publisher's cut, perhaps due to an NDA. The most logical option is that the $115,000 fee refers to the sales in Asian countries. Given that 53.3% of sales are in China, and that the publisher also handled Japan and Korea, this would mean a percentage cut of around 35-40% of net income. Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. As an exercise, we ran the figures assuming no publisher, only 15% of sales in Asia, and a lower refund rate. Interestingly, the net amount was nearly the same. Thailand's offices also want in on the action, and take 15% away from Northend Studios, a mercifully low rate as it's a digital product. Even still, it's $26,000 off the cash pile, now reduced to $146,000. Finally, Develioğlu split this 50/50 with his co-founder at Northend Games, for a grand personal total of $73,000 for five years' work, or roughly $15,000 per year of work. As the developer notes, he lives in Thailand, and this comparatively small amount is still more than the country's average wage, letting him make games as a full-time occupation. (For reference, the average wage in Thailand is around $5,280 a year). But as he says, despite making half a million dollars in sales, instead of buying a Lamborghini, he still drives a 2012 Mazda. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds. Bruno Ferreira is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. He has decades of experience with PC hardware and assorted sundries, alongside a career as a developer. He's obsessed with detail and has a tendency to ramble on the topics he loves. When not doing that, he's usually playing games, or at live music shows and festivals. - Narfhead That's good, actually. People don't need to make silly, unnecessary decisions and flaunt their wealth purposelessly. It's actually quite clever of him to live in a third world country where the cost of living is lower, I've heard that sort of advice on a lot of libright forums.Reply - TerryLaze tntdyno said:just don't sell in China, and avoid publishers......and marketplaces In other words, just don't sell at all... China was still the biggest money maker for him. Reply - PEnns "..high Chinese refund rates" Is it possible his games are not that great or the Chinese find his games lame?? Reply - bit_user Narfhead said:It's actually quite clever of him to live in a third world country where the cost of living is lower, I've heard that sort of advice on a lot of libright forums.The phenomenon is sometimes referred to as "digital nomads", where content creators and developers with 100% remote-work jobs relocate to somewhere with a lower cost of living and usually better weather. However, the locals in most popular destinations for digital nomads have become rather hostile to these expats, for driving up real estate prices and sometimes maintaining an exclusive community. This sort of thing recently got a lot of attention, when some foreigners got banned from Bali for operating a running club where they supposedly blocked locals from participating: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1l1m6e08e2o It's not just that, however. There has been tension in many such places and lower-profile backlash by locals. Reply - Afevis PEnns said: "..high Chinese refund rates" Is it possible his games are not that great or the Chinese find his games lame??Yeah, one quick look at both games' steam page & you can see most of the top reviews are complaints about how buggy both games are & how the dev hasn't addressed any of the issues in the 3 years the games have been out. (The games are also just basic auto-battlers, not something niche with a captivating story or unique mechanics.) The high refund rate is definitely for a reason, and it seems the dev just doesn't want to admit that they might be part of the reason their game is having issues selling... You can't churn out shovelware, abandon it, and then expect people to not be grumpy about you taking their money for a broken product. Reply - bit_user tntdyno said:just don't sell in China, and avoid publishers...Presumably, they didn't have a better option. They're clearly not dumb. Reply
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