[georgeecollins]

2008? I started making retail software in 1995 and believe me in those days stores often only took 10 - 20% of the retail price for CD-ROMs because they drove buyers into the store.

My point was that "distributors" or retailers never took 50% as the original post suggested.

If you believe that the reason desktop software has a higher anchor price point than mobile is the multiple layers, please explain why the price point on the Steam store is so much higher than the app store.

[r00fus]

But did retail press your disks and prepare your packaging? Did they provide analytics?

Your Steam analogy is flawed due to selection bias - Steam is about games, and games are more similar to movies than apps. People want entertaining content (and a good amount) for that initial price.

Does Steam allow for freemium? What about ad-driven games?