In a move that will likely mean little to end-users, Google said it has no plans to adjust the 30 percent revenue share through Google Play store. Google’s CEO said the Google Play revenue share isn’t changing anytime soon, and market disruptors were nothing to worry about.
In an earnings call from February 4, transcribed by Seeking Alpha (via gamesindustry.biz) CEO Sundar Pichai affirmed that no changes would be made to the company’s Google Play app store.
“On Google Play thousands of developers rely on it to safely and seamlessly distribute their game to billions of Android users worldwide. And we invest a lot in our infrastructure to continuously make sure their overall experience is safe and results in high engagement for the developer’s back. So I think there’s a value exchange there and it’s been the industry standard. And so, I think we will continue down that path… but obviously always adapt to where the market is.”
Pichai’s statements came after the executive team was asked whether it was the right cut for the Google Play store. These questions come after Epic Games released Fortnite on Android without going through the Play store. Epic Games went with this route as a way to avoid giving Google 30 percent of its revenue, the standard revenue split for digital distribution stores.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said the 30 percent store tax was too high a cost for the company. Sweeney said the cost to run a service like Google Play is far less than the 30 percent cut Google, Steam, Apple and other services regularly get. Epic Games put its money where its mouth is when it launched the Epic Games Store in December with a relatively slim 12 percent cut for Epic.
Google’s rebuke of any shift in revenue split comes after Valve announced that Steam would shift its revenue cut for games that earn a certain amount. Discord, the chat app, is also pushing a games store with a 90/10 revenue split—even better than Epic’s 88/12 percent split. The Google Play revenue share matches its biggest competitor, Apple’s App Store, and it’s looking like neither will shift anytime soon.
