On April 30, Microsoft announced on Thursday that it would slash the commission rate charged by its app store to game developers from 30% to 12%, effective August 1. The move is obviously to compete with steam and attract developers and studios to bring more PC games to their platforms.

These changes will only affect PC games, not Xbox games in the Microsoft app store. Microsoft didn't explain why it didn't lower its Xbox Commission, probably because the console's business model is very different from PC's. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo all subsidize game hardware to make game consoles cheaper, and offer marketing agreements in exchange for a 30% share of software sales.

Microsoft's Commission on PC games has been cut by a large margin, which is equivalent to the revenue share provided by Epic Games to PC game developers. At the same time, it has also brought greater pressure on valve to reduce steam's commission. Valve still charges a 30% commission rate at its steam store, but when sales reach $10 million, the rate drops to 25%; Over $50 million, the rate fell to 20%.

Despite the high commission rate, steam still dominates the game developers, but many people think that 30% is unfair. A recent survey of 3000 game industry professionals found that most game developers think steam shouldn't charge such a high percentage. Microsoft's move will only further increase the pressure on valve.

A few years ago, Microsoft finally started to support traditional Win32 games in its store, but this change itself did not help the windows store compete with steam. The 12% bonus may attract more developers to put their own games on the shelves of Microsoft stores, especially when the company improves the poor experience of end users.

Microsoft is revolutionizing its windows app store, which could pave the way for developers to be able to submit any windows app to the store, including browsers such as chrome or Firefox. These store improvements may even allow third-party business platforms to be used in applications, which will be a huge shift.

In addition to the app store, Microsoft needs to significantly improve PC games. Xbox game bar is a very popular improvement, but services like steam and discorde are more popular than Microsoft products. Many PC game developers are also facing the challenge of the proliferation of hackers and plug-ins, and Microsoft has not done enough to help game studios protect their games.