Portion of profits to Beamdog from Steam sales

Madrict

Hello,

I have been playing and loving BGEE and BG2EE (purchased through steam) for ages now, and have always stuck to them and never tried Icewind Dale due to the fact I love having established NPC's in my party that I can interact with and romance etc.

Anywho, I thought today, even though the BG series is more to my liking, I would still like to support Beamdog as they have done such great work with the EE's for BG. So I went over to steam and purchased Icewind Dale EE for the hell of it (I may play it at some stage just out of curiosity).

That got me thinking, if the point was rather to support Beamdog, maybe I should have bought it directly from them? So I guess the question is, do they lose much if one of their games is purchased through steam? I would like them to receive maximum profits for any future purchases.

It was purely a convenience thing, and I didn't even think of it until after I had bought it. I like having everything centralised on Steam.

Anywho, go Beamdog, love your work!

moody_mage

It's rumoured Steam take 30% of each sale. So yes to support Beamdog you should ideally buy direct as then they would retain that difference in price.

Bear in mind there are likely other IP holders of the BG series who all need a % cut from each sale as well.

procco

I wouldn't say they "lose" anything, but yes they do get a smaller amount of your money through Steam. I do remember one of the devs saying Steam is much more profitable now that Atari is out of the picture, though, so don't feel bad.

wubble

If beamdog were getting a really bad deal they wouldn't sell through steam
, after all they have their own distribution service and a loyal fanbase. Steam just opens the games to a wider market.

reedmilfam

I think they sell a lot more, quantity-wise, by being on Steam, than without. Lower profit margin, but way higher volume.

Dee

As with any retailer, you make less money per unit sold than if you sell directly to the consumer. The trade-off is that you don't reach as wide a consumer base, because a lot of consumers may only shop at that one retailer and not think to look at other options.

If you want to really show your support for the work that Beamdog is doing, you can buy directly from us on Beamdog.com - but if you prefer to keep your game library consolidated on Steam (as a lot of players do), we won't hold it against you for going with the platform of your preference.

reedmilfam

Or just send loads of cash, via PayPal, directly to @Dee. I'm told he'll make sure it gets to BeamDog (after his finder's fee, of course)...