There are countless games on Steam, from expensive AAA productions to small indie games from solo devs. For developers who offer their games on Steam, there are various rules and conditions from Valve. One of these conditions ensures that a developer has been reminded for 7 years that he is not making any money from his game.
What is behind the memory? An indie developer shared on Reddit that he received an email from Valve advising him that he would not receive a payout from Steam for August 2024. He therefore did not reach the minimum required for a payout.
Another indie developer commented under the post, reporting that he has been receiving the same email every month since 2017. He also shared his screenshot via imgur.com, which shows the email history with Valve and confirms his statement.
What’s special: the developer doesn’t expect any income from Steam. He has been offering his game free-to-play since 2017 and has not sold anything on the platform since then. So the developer has been reminded every month for 7 years that a F2P game doesn’t make money.
Valve is currently working on a new game. We introduce it to you in the video:
This is Deadlock – The new MOBA shooter from Valve
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Minimum amount is intended to protect indie devs from costs
What’s this about the minimum income? A requirement for developers on Steam is that they must earn at least $100 before they can receive a payout. This is intended to protect developers from being disadvantaged by possible costs and bank fees, says Valve.
However, that doesn’t mean that Steam simply keeps the developers’ income and enriches itself. Instead, the money is held and collected until developers reach the minimum. Valve says:
Because there are costs associated with each and every payment we make, as well as potential bank fees that will be charged to you when you receive the payment, it would be detrimental to you if we paid out small amounts of money. Therefore, we may hold your payment until you have earned a minimum of $100.
Valve via Steamworks
Steam also offers developers the option to set a minimal amount if bank fees take up a large portion of the payouts for sales on Steam.
The developer says he asked Valve several years ago to stop emailing him and simply keep the money or donate it to charity. However, they refused. The most recent email in the screenshot is from the morning of the day the recording was taken, so presumably September 28, 2024.
Valve not only has various conditions on Steam that affect the payment of revenue. There are regulations for designing a game’s Steam page.
One of these conditions states that a Steam page must have at least 5 screenshots showing the game. But Valve itself didn’t stick to this rule with its latest game: Valve is breaking its own rule on Steam for its new multiplayer game Deadlock