> Why haven't any of the big names released a true "app store" where anyone can get a game into the store for maybe $100...?
This seems like an interesting model. Charge developers a flat fee (FEE) up front. Take a cut of each sale (PER) as well, but only after (FEE/(COST*PER)) sales have been made. For example, using a fee of $100 and a percentage of 20%, the first 500 sales of a $1 game would see all of the money going to the developer. Thereafter, the store would take 20 cents for each sale.
This model seems like it would encourage developers to only submit games that they deem to be high quality. Players would have less shit to wade through, giving them more incentive to try out new games.
Perhaps $100 is not high enough to achieve this goal, but I bet there's an ideal number that discourages low quality submissions while leaving the door open for small-time developers.
I'll go with $1000. If you want to waste the time of millions of steam users, putting something in front of them and taking up precious space in the "new" queue, then you should have some minimal level of confidence in what you've built.
Same thing goes for the App Store. I don't bother browsing Steam or the App Store any more. It's all just crap. The first ten, the first hundred, the first thousand retro games might have been interesting, but no longer.
If Valve wants to turn Steam into the Dollar Store, I guess that's their business. Apple's App Store is already there.
This seems like an interesting model. Charge developers a flat fee (FEE) up front. Take a cut of each sale (PER) as well, but only after (FEE/(COST*PER)) sales have been made. For example, using a fee of $100 and a percentage of 20%, the first 500 sales of a $1 game would see all of the money going to the developer. Thereafter, the store would take 20 cents for each sale.
This model seems like it would encourage developers to only submit games that they deem to be high quality. Players would have less shit to wade through, giving them more incentive to try out new games.
Perhaps $100 is not high enough to achieve this goal, but I bet there's an ideal number that discourages low quality submissions while leaving the door open for small-time developers.