> For someone earning minimum wage, a $100 donation - which seems tiny to me, used to Silicon Valley salaries - is over a day's worth of take-home pay.
In the US federal minimum wage is 7.25. Try 2-3 days of take home pay.
> Note that services like Apple and Microsoft's marketplaces at least provide some value for your $99: They host your game, they perform basic quality certification, etc. In this case you aren't getting as much for the expense.
Steam hosts the games for you and provides basic quality certification. How are the services different?
You're not getting any of those Steam services for $100. All you get is a Greenlight page. Apple and MS don't charge you a per-game fee, it's for a developer account. That is a significant difference because many developers have a back catalog of multiple games, all with followings potentially large enough to justify a release.
Getting any of the perks Valve offers as part of a Steam release would come later, once you sign a deal, and would probably involve you giving up other things, like a cut of your revenues or paying them up front fees for whatever cert they do. Hard to know since their terms are very secret.
In the US federal minimum wage is 7.25. Try 2-3 days of take home pay.
> Note that services like Apple and Microsoft's marketplaces at least provide some value for your $99: They host your game, they perform basic quality certification, etc. In this case you aren't getting as much for the expense.
Steam hosts the games for you and provides basic quality certification. How are the services different?