If a developer wants to sell a game on the Amazon Appstore they have some pretty tough decision to make. The Amazon Appstore has a good reach with consumers even if it just launched this year. The problem is that according to the IGDA, a game industry body, Amazon can change how they pay the developer for their game without getting the developers permission.
Amazon’s terms and conditions state that Amazon can choose to pay the dev 70% of the purchase price of the game or 20% of the developer’s list price, whichever is greater. That means that the developer could end up being paid only 20% of its minimum list price without having to be asked by Amazon each time according to the IGDA.
Another potential issue according to the IGDA is that a game making it to the top 100 could have its price slashed as much as 75%. The rub is that games low on the list might now see enough sales volume to offset that slashed price. That could mean that the developer makes less money though the game is in the 100 most popular.