Microsoft Store’s Promised Larger Revenue Split in 2018 Is Reportedly Nowhere to Be Seen

Over seven months ago, Microsoft announced in a blog post that it plans to introduce a new revenue share model for the developers publishing their apps on Microsoft Store. The new model was supposed to go into effect sometime in 2018, but we are already in 2019 and the new model is nowhere to be seen. Although the company had never shared a specific date for the new revenue share model, but it had noted that the developers will receive a new version of App Developer Agreement “later this year (2018)” and it will reveal the date, but the new agreement has also not gone out until now, revealed an online report. Clearly, the company has failed to do something it had promised.

According to a report in IT news website Petri, all the developers that the publication contacted regarding the updated revenue share are still getting the older 70 percent payouts and have not received any new developer agreement.

Such misses are rare for the tech giants, but this case in particularly interesting because Microsoft's original announcement had generated a lot of positive press for the company. The company was hailed for offering the developers a bigger pie of their revenue generated on the Microsoft Store, something that still remains a gripe for the app developers on Google Play and App Store.

According to the company's original announcement, the company will let the app developers keep 95 percent of the revenue generated by the purchase of apps as well as in-app products. The increased revenue sharing was not applicable on games or the Xbox Store. Also, if the company helped the developers get a new customer via a promotion or a bundle, then the developers will only get 85 percent cut, which is also better than what is offered by Google or Apple. There is another catch for the developers, though. Microsoft only promises to offer the 95 percent cut for the purchases made using a deep link to the application, for the customers reaching to the app via any other method will get the 85 percent share.

With the new revenue model, the Redmond-based company was hoping to attract more developers to its platforms. However, if the company continues to miss on its own promises, it is only going to push the developers away.

The sign-up page created by Microsoft to keep the developers notified about the revenue share model has not been updated since the original announcement and still indicates that the model will go into effect “later this year (2018).” Microsoft is yet to officially reveal the updated information on when the new revenue share will be available.