Randy's statements suggest that small developers are getting ripped off through their royalty rates. Without breaking any non-disclosure agreements, let me just say that our royalty deal was great, and is in line with what I understand that other digital distribution services are offering. We were able to recoup our development costs for our first game within the first week of sales, and sales were straight profit from that point on.

Randy also pointed out the conflict of interest present in Valve being both a game developer and a game distributor. I agree -- there could be a potential conflict of interest here. But the reality of dealing with Valve just doesn't bear it out to be a problem. Tripwire Interactive's two titles on Steam, Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 and Killing Floor, are both direct competitors to Valve’s own games Day of Defeat: Source and Left 4 Dead, yet all of these titles have been very successful on Steam.