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High refund rates, particularly from Chinese players, Steam's 30% commission, and publisher cuts consumed most of the revenue. The story has reignited debate about how little indie developers actually earn from seemingly successful games.","why":"The stark gap between impressive sales figures and the developer's meager income exposes the harsh economics of indie game publishing.","tone":"negative","entities":["Steam","Valve","Tom's Hardware"],"summarized_at":"2026-10-18T17:35:02.253338Z","meta":{"via":"scan","lang":"en","link":"https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/pc-gaming/two-steam-games-generated-usd560-000-across-135-000-sales-but-the-co-creator-only-took-home-usd15-000-annually-high-chinese-refund-rates-steams-30-percent-fee-and-publisher-cuts-eat-most-of-the-profit-leaving-the-co-creator-driving-a-2012-mazda","term":"video game","generic":0.04,"comments":7},"nw":0.42,"promo":0.04,"kind":"news_event","importance":1.53,"hidden":false,"hide_reason":null,"judged_at":"2026-10-17T00:31:35.056651Z","title_en":"Indie dev earned $15K a year despite $560K in game sales","section_name":"Culture","category_name":"Gaming","timeline":[{"captured_at":"2026-10-15T19:32:10.667245Z","rank":6,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-15T20:54:11.080341Z","rank":6,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-15T22:16:51.934282Z","rank":6,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-15T23:38:52.385010Z","rank":6,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-16T01:01:38.177647Z","rank":6,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-16T02:24:14.953452Z","rank":5,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-16T03:46:33.847449Z","rank":6,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-16T05:08:33.885066Z","rank":6,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-16T06:31:10.678952Z","rank":6,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-16T07:53:31.600662Z","rank":6,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-16T09:15:31.905587Z","rank":6,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-16T10:37:32.651872Z","rank":6,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-16T11:59:51.474618Z","rank":7,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-16T13:21:51.867768Z","rank":7,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-16T14:44:12.977868Z","rank":7,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-16T16:07:04.382766Z","rank":7,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-16T17:30:08.706407Z","rank":8,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-16T18:52:07.445300Z","rank":8,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-16T20:14:07.454345Z","rank":8,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-16T21:36:07.457896Z","rank":8,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-16T22:58:46.685034Z","rank":9,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T00:20:46.491057Z","rank":9,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T01:42:46.579801Z","rank":9,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T03:04:46.285474Z","rank":9,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T04:26:46.339607Z","rank":9,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T05:49:08.202123Z","rank":9,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T07:11:07.907905Z","rank":9,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T08:33:08.054496Z","rank":9,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T09:55:08.374434Z","rank":10,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T11:17:08.378080Z","rank":11,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T12:39:07.950764Z","rank":11,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T14:01:11.569479Z","rank":11,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T15:23:28.761332Z","rank":11,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T16:45:28.852384Z","rank":12,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T18:09:10.383948Z","rank":12,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T19:31:10.510589Z","rank":12,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T20:53:53.130175Z","rank":12,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T22:15:53.228061Z","rank":12,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-17T23:37:53.436189Z","rank":10,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-18T01:00:14.364924Z","rank":11,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-18T02:22:12.380321Z","rank":12,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-18T03:44:12.360982Z","rank":11,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-18T05:06:12.394412Z","rank":11,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-18T06:28:12.562522Z","rank":11,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-18T07:50:12.650274Z","rank":11,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-18T09:12:33.185531Z","rank":11,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-18T10:34:32.869331Z","rank":11,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-18T11:56:32.940732Z","rank":11,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-18T13:18:33.313091Z","rank":11,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-18T14:40:50.913351Z","rank":11,"volume":8},{"captured_at":"2026-10-18T16:03:11.339075Z","rank":12,"volume":8}],"posts":[{"platform":"hn","url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50045370","author":"sbulaev","title":"Two Steam games made $560K but the co-creator took home $15K/year","snippet":null,"posted_at":"2026-10-11T17:07:08Z","likes":8}],"elsewhere":[],"window":"7d"}}