{"rewrite":{"id":"r_5806d857e6559db8e19ca8a1","clusterId":"c_612950cc6ee2e6e3b5a8cb32","slug":"northend-games-co-founder-says-13-percent-of-steam-revenue-reached-him","model":"deepseek-v4-1-flash","headline":"Northend Games Co-Founder Says 13 Percent Of Steam Revenue Reached Him","summary":"Omer Mustafa, co-founder of indie developer Northend Games, posted to Reddit's r/gamedev on October 7 that his two Dustland titles earned 560,000 dollars on Steam over five years, but only 73,000 dollars reached him. He listed refunds, Steam's 30 percent cut, U.S. withholding tax, publisher payments, and Thai income tax as deductions. Some questioned the calculation, calling it clickbait.","whyItMatters":"The breakdown puts a number on an indie complaint that is usually argued in the abstract: with a 22 percent refund rate and a 30 percent store cut, gross Steam revenue can shrink to a sliver before the developer is paid.","webCardHtml":"\u003cp\u003eMustafa released two Dustland games: Dustland: Position Battle in September 2024 and Dustland: Ore Vein Defense Line in early access in December 2025. Both are distributed for PC via Steam, and both carry a Mostly Positive user review status. The largest single deduction he reports is refunds, 134,000 dollars off the 560,000 dollar total, a 22 percent refund rate. He attributes the rate to the Chinese market, which he says accounted for more than 60 percent of sales for both titles. His own share is half the 146,000 dollars left for Northend Games.\u003c/p\u003e","blueskyPost":"Omer Mustafa's 560,000 dollars over five years came from two Dustland titles, which means the 13 percent figure is a per-creator average spread across a catalog, not a single game's margin.","twitterPost":"Omer Mustafa's 560,000 dollars spans two Dustland titles, so the 13 percent is a catalog average, not one game's margin.","threadsPost":"Omer Mustafa's 560,000 dollars was earned across two Dustland titles over five years, so the 13 percent he kept is a catalog-wide average, not what a single game returns. That distinction matters for any indie reading the number as a per-title payout rate.","newsletterBlurb":"Omer Mustafa, co-founder of Northend Games, posted a revenue breakdown to r/gamedev showing that his two Dustland games earned 560,000 dollars on Steam over five years while his own share was 73,000 dollars, about 13 percent. The largest deduction he reports is refunds at 134,000 dollars, a 22 percent rate he ties to Chinese players. Some readers questioned the method behind the numbers.","attributionJson":"[{\"source\":\"Automaton\",\"url\":\"https://automaton-media.com/articles/newsjp/20261009-472691/\",\"title\":\"Game developer who earned about 88.5 million yen on Steam reveals that only 13% of sales remained in his hands; debate heats up over the \\\"trickery\\\" visible in the numbers\"}]","lintFlagsJson":null,"lintHits":0,"costUsd":0,"inputTokens":4735,"outputTokens":647,"status":"published","repairAttempts":0,"nextRepairAt":null,"factsAttemptedAt":1791526929,"createdAt":"2026-10-09T06:17:09.000Z","publishedAt":"2026-10-09T06:21:06.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-09T06:21:06.000Z"},"cluster":{"id":"c_612950cc6ee2e6e3b5a8cb32","canonicalTitle":"Steamで約8850万円売り上げたゲーム開発者、“売上の13％”しか手元に残らなかったと赤裸々事情公開。しかし数字に見え隠れする「カラクリ」巡り議論白熱","representativeArticleId":"a_477997d0b07c5cda175b5cc1","sourceCount":1,"writtenSourceCount":1,"writeAttempts":0,"isSolo":true,"entitiesJson":"{\"anime_titles\":[],\"manga_titles\":[],\"work_titles\":[],\"studios\":[],\"people\":[\"Omer Mustafa\"],\"type\":\"news\",\"domain\":\"games\",\"is_roundup\":false}","contentType":"news","status":"published","firstSeenAt":"2026-10-09T04:51:49.000Z","lastSeenAt":"2026-10-09T04:51:49.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-09T06:21:06.000Z"},"attribution":[{"source":"Automaton","url":"https://automaton-media.com/articles/newsjp/20261009-472691/","title":"Steamで約8850万円売り上げたゲーム開発者、“売上の13％”しか手元に残らなかったと赤裸々事情公開。しかし数字に見え隠れする「カラクリ」巡り議論白熱"}],"entities":{"anime_titles":[],"manga_titles":[],"work_titles":[],"studios":[],"people":["Omer Mustafa"],"type":"news","domain":"games","is_roundup":false},"keyFacts":null}