Microsoft has refuted reports that it will reduce its Microsoft Store cut from 30 per cent to 12 per cent for console titles.
According to leaked confidential documents from Microsoft, which date back to January 2021, the tech giant had planned a 88/12 per cent revenue split for console and PC publishers and developers on the Microsoft Store. Microsoft pockets 30 per cent of all revenue earned from a game on the platform, much like its rivals Sony and Nintendo on their respectively stores.
In the document, Microsoft stated that “all games will move to 88/12 in CY21” for both PC and console. It later noted that there was a “proposal under Gaming Leadership Team consideration” to adopt the new model in exchange for “the grant of streaming rights to Microsoft”, likely in reference to the tech giant’s xCloud service.
However, a Microsoft spokesperson has since said in a statement to The Verge that the company has “no plans to change the revenue share for console games at this time”, while not specifically commenting on the leaked documents. In a later statement, the company confirmed that it will “not be updating the revenue split for console publishers”.
Last week, Matt Booty, the head of Xbox Game Studios, announced in a blog post that the company will transition from taking 30 per cent of all revenue on PC titles to just 12 per cent beginning in August.
He said the move is part of Microsoft’s “commitment to empower every PC game creator to achieve more” and that “a clear, no-strings-attached revenue share means developers can bring more games to more players and find greater commercial success from doing so”.
In other news, it was revealed last week that Epic Games is reportedly intentionally withholding Fortnite from the xCloud streaming service as the companyed “view[s] Microsoft’s efforts with xCloud to be competitive with our PC offerings”, said Epic Games’ vice president of business development Joe Kreiner.
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