Paul Kilduff-Taylor

Here is a (theoretical) run-down of what a solo-dev gets from $1.000.000 gross revenue on Steam: Gross: $1000k Chargeback, VAT (~20%): -$200k Steam Cut (30% of 800k): -$240k Publisher (~40% of 560k): -$224k Taxes (Austria, ~45% of 336k): -$151k Result: $185k (18% of gross)

Fun fact: 75% of indies on Steam only release one game. Which is interesting... because once you ship your first game, youve already done the hardest part. The pipelines exist, connections are made, lessons are learned. A second project in theory, should be easier to produce.

It is 100% true that great men and women of the past were not sitting around moaning about their feelings. I regret nothing.

And this raises that SAME much bigger question with this stuff happening. WHY ARE TAXPAYERS dollars being used to fund video games ...at all? When a studio receives hundreds of thousands of euros in government subsidies before the game even releases, the incentive structure changes completely. They have ZERO incentive to sell any copies. Normally, devs have to convince customers to buy their game.. I mean, before commies started taking over the planet. That’s the natural market feedback loop. If players don’t want it, the studio loses money and learns from the mistake. At least they used to... But when governments step in and start subsidizing projects under these ridiculous vague labels like “cultural value,” suddenly the studio is already partially paid before a single copy is sold. That removes a HUGE amount of normal 'pressure' to actually make something players want. Instead of designing for customers, the real audience becomes grant committees and cultural review boards deciding which projects qualify for funding. This explains so many wokie style games that are constantly being rejected by the gaming community at large continuing to release. That’s how you end up with situations like this. Developers chasing government approval instead of player demand. ...And this isn’t just an Italy problem. Europe and Canada have been pouring tax money into game development for years through cultural subsidy programs, among many other countries. It is becoming a serious problem. The result is exactly what you would expect: projects getting funded bc they satisfy the same old bureaucratic rules instead of because gamers are excited to buy them. Games should succeed or fail based on whether players want them, not whether a government cultural committee signs off on them. If a game is truly great, it shouldn’t need taxpayers to bankroll it in the first place.