From August 1st 2021, developers will receive an 88% share of all Microsoft Store PC game sales, an increase from the previous 70%.
The announcement comes from an Xbox Wire post from Matt Booty, Head of Xbox Game Studios.
“A clear, no-strings-attached revenue share means developers can bring more games to more players and find greater commercial success from doing so,” said Booty.
Microsoft’s previous store cut, 30%, has long been the standard across the industry. However, in recent years this cut has come into question – Perhaps most famously when Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney criticising Apple for its 30% cut (the Epic Games Store launched with a 12% cut).
Booty also revealed that Halo Infinite will support multiplayer cross-play and cross-progression when it launches later this year.
In the post. Booty addressed Microsoft’s investment across the PC gaming ecosystem, underlining its desire to build “communities around games, not devices.”
PC players will be able to play together with players on Xbox One and Series consoles, and multiplayer customisation and progress will cross over all platforms. The PC version of the game will include “highly desired” features such as support for ultrawide and super ultrawide screens, triple keybinds, a wide variety of advanced graphics options and more.
It’s yet another sign of Microsoft’s increasingly platform-agnostic approach – one that’s more interested in getting PC gamers on Game Pass than it is in getting them to buy Xboxes.
“We’ve talked often about our “player-first” approach to gaming over the last few years,” said Booty in the post. “In the past, that may have meant different things to different people, especially for those who identified strongly with being a console gamer, a PC gamer, or a mobile gamer. If you were to walk the (virtual) halls at Xbox today, I think you’d find that to us, the idea of the “player” has come to mean someone who plays many kinds of games on many different devices.
“PC gaming is part of this; “player first” has to apply for PC, as well, and to that end we’ve been making investments across the PC gaming ecosystem to ensure that PC is a key part of how people can play games.”
