The American multinational technology company Microsoft will reportedly make a big reduction in its charges for video game developers who publish games in its online store from August.
According to the report, developers can now keep 88 percent of the revenue that they make from their games, up from 70 percent earlier. This move is expected to make Microsoft’s store more attractive to independent developers and smaller gaming studios.
“A clear, no-strings-attached revenue share means developers can bring more games to more players and find greater commercial success from doing so,” says Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios at Microsoft.
Earlier, the share of revenue that developers get to keep has come under greater scrutiny across the sector. Google and Apple have faced antitrust questions for the 30 percentfees they charge developers whose programs appear in their app stores.
Last year, Fortnite creator Epic Games sued Apple alleging that the iPhone maker violated antitrust laws by forcing developers to use their payment systems.
In legal filings, Epic has accused Apple of trapping people in its mobile device world and collecting an outsized commission at the App Store that serves as the only source of digital content.
Apple counters that it has no monopoly when it comes to digital games and that the suit is part of an effort by Epic to portray the technology giant as the ‘bad guy’ so that it can revive flagging interest in Fortnite.
Epic had tried to bypass the fees by letting customers pay for items in its Fortnite video game directly through Epic and that caused Apple to block Fortnite from their app stores last year and the companies are now locked in a legal battle.
