In the ongoing saga of the Wolfire versus Valve lawsuit, which is continuing, we've been able to see a funny little look behind the curtain and Tim Sweeney was not happy with Valve.
I generally have to disagree on it being disrespectful. There’s an inherent cost in any business relationship that has to be accounted for with low volume partners. Every company that offers volume discounting does it for this exact reason – the price per piece doesn’t change, but the other costs can be spread over more pieces.
Could Valve eat some of this cost to promote indie development? Absolutely. But it’s not disrespectful to price your product with volume discounts.
I generally have to disagree on it being disrespectful. There’s an inherent cost in any business relationship that has to be accounted for with low volume partners. Every company that offers volume discounting does it for this exact reason – the price per piece doesn’t change, but the other costs can be spread over more pieces.
Could Valve eat some of this cost to promote indie development? Absolutely. But it’s not disrespectful to price your product with volume discounts.