Graphs like this revealing exactly how much revenue Valve takes from distributing on Steam gave Epic a favorable reputation at first by offering a competitive environment for developers to prefer publishing their games on Epic over Steam. Then, Valve updated their revenue split by offering a lower margin depending on the game’s sales figure. Essentially giving AAA developers an incentive to stay on Steam over going 100% over to Epic. Giving Valve a negative reputation for seeming greedy with the content on their platform.
However that all changed when people remembered 40% of Epic is owned by the shadiest gaming company in the world (Tencent) and have been conducting backdoor deals for exclusivity and collecting data on anyone with Epic’s client installed (including sensitive data on Steam profiles that Valve stores on local systems rather than on servers for privacy’s sake).
Even then, revenue split through Steam is only valid when those games are bought directly through Steam. Publishers have free reign to distribute Steam keys on third party websites like Green Man Gaming or Humble Bundle (or even give them away on Reddit) without any revenue split to Valve.
As for Origin, it’s always been deemed spyware by even the competitors. Bethesda has advised their offices to not install Mass Effect 3 on their computers because the client actively scans all files within the system. It only took a smash-hit Battle Royale like Apex Legends to catapult Origin to the level or popularity it’s at now.
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