Topic: Developer vs. Seller Earnings

I'm curious about something. I just bought Splinter Cell: Blacklist for Wii U because it was only $19.99 at Gamestop. I'm excited because I've finally been able to get one of the many third-party games I've been interested in, and I'm glad I was able to get it new to support Ubisoft (although I'm sure one additional purchase of a months old game that had lackluster sales in the first place probably won't do much to convince them that these types of games are wanted on Wii U). Anyways, I also used a gift card that I got by doing online surveys, so I basically paid Gamestop nothing for it. Also, it is still more expensive and even still the full $59.99 some other places, so I'm assuming this price drop was Gamestop's decision and not Ubisoft's. With all of that, how much does Ubisoft actually get from me buying this game? I want to support these types of games and third-parties that I am interested in, so how much support have I just given them? Do they still get whatever commission they would have received from a $60 sale since they (possibly) did not tell Gamestop to drop the price to $20?

According to this interview the people behind Diablo and Diablo 2 would get $14 back for every $60 box.

The developer profits happen after the development cost is recuperated. Once those costs are recuperated they can, and often do, discount the software .... if they're smart. The sellers are given this discount as a mark down, which if they're smart they pass it onto the purchaser as a discount as well. There are a lot more details to the process but that should give you an idea of why many great games will discount to very low prices at some point.

From 60 bucks 27-34 goes to publisher/developer, eventually it goes like KittenKoder explained with lowering the price.

Some Gamestop managers say they only get a small percentage from new games.

In some cases, a developer is paid a certain amount to make a game, then the publisher is the one who handles costs, discounts, etc. There are also some bonuses if the game sells well. It all depends on the contract between developer and publisher

This works for over the counter games ... but we no longer need publishers in the new market for many games. The closest to "publisher" for games sold over the internet, in most cases, is a site they pay to advertise on and have the download package hosted, which more are making their own sites now. It's the reason many publishers and labels are part of that group trying to squish the internet. That's why I left out that detail in my explanation, the world is changing, and it's changing a lot.