Selling Games Directly to Players is the Future

Market Outlook Business Commentary Guest op-ed by Skelius Mortalis

Earlier in the video game industry, games couldn’t be sold without enlisting a publishing company. Nowadays, publishers are there for the most part to promote your game and offer upfront payments and/or investments. The catch? Those publishers take roughly 30-50% of the developer’s profit for that service. Add on top the fact that these games are distributed on major platforms, which may take ~30%, then, applying sales tax of around 20%, depending on the country, and the developer's profit margin may only be in the single digits!

Today, the games industry overall is suffering from greedy publishers having a stranglehold on a handful of platforms. But that's changing — and fast: Epic is winning its lawsuits against Apple, and also is taking on Google to bring us alternative mobile stores with better pricing. The main outcome is that soon, new appstores will be all over the place. Mobile distribution and self-distribution will explode.

Devs right now have a golden opportunity to sell directly to players by self-distributing games, utilizing alternative stores to avoid common platform fees. Instead of 30%, you could pay merely 3% – for a Merchant of Record service. You can then accept payments from players directly. By avoiding publishers, you outsource your marketing, driving players to your own community spaces and webstore.

Take the example of Path of Exile –or– Genshin Impact. They took the tough, risky step of trailblazing in self-distribution. Based on their evident success, it's now more accessible and convenient for any game dev to consider. “But big platforms have the large player numbers”, you may say. The reality is that those numbers are only to be expected for games placed in thousands of Wishlists very recently, showing momentum. For without it – none of the players (in an already oversaturated market!) will ever see the game on their discovery queues and bundles.

In practice, one doesn't even need to leave the platforms, as Epic Games Store supports self-distribution and third-party payment options. Similarly, Steam doesn’t have exclusivity; it freely allows you to self-distribute Steam Keys for your games. Or, you could do one better and create your own community and platform just like Grinding Gear Games did with Path of Exile, approaching Steam just for the traffic — Steam doesn’t take their 30% from that!

I believe that any game focused on online-play should build a community first. Once it has that community, take just a few steps to monetize it, saving capital for developers to build a truly great game! Instead of signing with investors & publishers who would seek to take control and steer it towards being a weaker, more dismal product, contributing to the decline of the overall scene.

My point is: I was in a few indie companies. Their main problem was they existed to survive instead of becoming sustainable businesses. Be smart about it! Take power into your own hands by building communities, truly made feasible by teaming with a Merchant of Record provider. Especially for live service or larger games. Freeing you up so that you can focus on what matters most — making great games!

— Skelius Mortalis

Skelius Mortalis is a professional Business Development Manager. You can reach Skelius on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/skelius/

Views expressed are the author's own and have GBAMFS' principle endorsement as being consistent with our Mission: Player / Dev empowerment. Not a paid placement. Copyright GBAMFS 2025. All Rights Reserved.