Well yes, but also tariffs and the rising cost of components, such as memory are going to play into this. It’s only going to get more expensive.

Is it a monopoly though. Monopolies are there to protect the consumer, not really the seller. A developer does not need to use steam at all. I really don’t think steam can control the pricing like that. Like, if steam started to raise prices on people buying the games, then I feel like people would still jump ship. Places like gog and itch.io exist. There are plenty of game stores as well, Microsoft, Nintendo, ea.

The problem developers have is they feel if they make a PC game, that they have to put it on steam and no other platform or they won’t make money. But the developer still has choices and I feel like steam is pretty reasonable with their cut and the tools they offer developers. A developer can even sell their game on a different platform at the same time they sell it on steam. They can even sell steam keys on their own website if they wanted to.

To call steam a monopoly is a bit of a stretch. People still have plenty of choices and steam isn’t circle jerking their consumers.

This is why I can’t stand Kickstarter and why I won’t ever use it again. It’s no risk to the people asking for handouts and it’s the people giving their money away that take on all the risks.

You pay for something, but you may never actually see it. The product fails and you get nothing. The product succeeds and you get the product you were hoping for, but it may not be 100% what you expected. Also, it’s not like you would get anything more than that, you are not an investor.

If I’m an investor, I take a risk and I could possibly lose all my money that I put into it, but at the tail end of that, if it’s successful, I will get my money back, plus more. Same risk, but better outcome.