Microsoft's policy to give app developers up to a 95% cut of Store revenues, announced in April 2018, is now in effect; games will keep previous 70/30 split
Tom McNamara / CNET :
Context & Ripple Effects
The policy Microsoft announced in April 2018 — up to a 95% developer share on non-game apps, up from 70% — took months to actually go live; by January 2019 coverage flagged that the new pricing still hadn't been implemented (the new pricing hadn't been implemented yet). Today's report confirms it is finally in effect, closing the gap between promise and delivery.
The carve-out matters as much as the headline number: games stay on the legacy 70/30 split even as non-game apps jump to 85-95%. That leaves Microsoft exposed on exactly the category where rivals are moving — Discord has committed to a 90/10 split for its PC game store opening to all developers in 2019.
First-order effects
- Non-game app developers publishing through Microsoft Store immediately keep up to 95% of revenues instead of 70%, changing the economics of shipping Windows apps there today.
- Game developers get nothing new right now — their 70/30 split is unchanged, making Microsoft Store the priciest major option relative to Discord's announced 90/10 terms.
Second-order effects
- Discord's 90/10 game-store terms put direct pricing pressure on Microsoft's games carve-out, forcing the question of why its Store charges games triple what a challenger does.
- Steam and other PC storefronts now face a competitor willing to use take-rate cuts as a recruiting tool, turning revenue share into a visible point of comparison for developers choosing platforms.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the games exemption becomes untenable: by 2021 Microsoft did cut its PC games take to 12% to compete with Steam (reducing its PC games cut from 30% to 12%), and court filings showed plans to extend that to Xbox (planned reduction for Xbox games too) — suggesting the 2018 app move was the first step in dismantling the 30% standard across its stores.
The trend: Platform take rates are shifting from a fixed industry standard to a competitive lever, with Microsoft cutting them category by category — apps first, then PC games, then console.