Opus Magnum is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!*

Opus Magnum is the latest open-ended puzzle game from Zachtronics, the creators of SpaceChem, Infinifactory, and SHENZHEN I/O. Design and build machines that assemble potions, poisons, and more using the alchemical engineer’s most advanced tool: the transmutation engine!

*Offer ends December 14 at 10AM Pacific Time

The monthly crowdfunding service Patreon has announced that it is altering the way it collects service fees, a decision that has drawn some level of concern from game developers, artists, and other creators that rely on the platform for support. 

On paper, the change will mean that creators take home a bigger chunk of each Patreon pledge and that overall fees will decrease. Previously creators covered the fees which, according to Patreon, could fall anywhere between 2 to 10 percent of a pledge.

The upcoming change instead lowers those fees to a flat 2.9 percent plus $0.35 fee that is instead paid by the user making the pledge. While creators previously took home only 85-93 percent of any given pledge, the new system locks that income in at 95 percent by tacking the service fees on as an additional charge, not included in the pledge amount.

But since the new system places the fee on each individual supporter’s pledge, those contributing small $1-$5 pledges to creators see their monthly costs rise and many Patreon users are worried that some lower-tier pledges will vanish as a result. 

While creators will still lose 5 percent each pledge to Patreon, the upcoming change charges the ‘patrons’ contributing to a campaign a 2.9 percent plus $0.35 service fee for each individual pledge they make. So a user pledging a single dollar is now paying $1.38 per pledge while a user pledging $10 would instead pay $10.64. 

The biggest hit, however, comes to those supporters that currently pledge small dollar amounts to multiple creators monthly as someone pledging $1 to 10 different creators is now paying $13.79 a month versus the previous $10.

As Engadget points out, many Patreon creators say that those smaller and more affected pledges often account for a sizable chunk of their monthly earnings. As such, many are worried that their monthly income will dip significantly if those patrons aren’t able or willing to stomach the additional fees.

In the blog post detailing the change, Patreon expressed that the decision was ultimately made to help creators take home a more predictable paycheck each and every month.

“We want you to know that we approach every change with a creator-first mindset, aiming to help creators grow their businesses. In preparation for this change, we ran experiments and months and months of research to understand patrons’ potential reactions and we found that many patrons were happy knowing that this change will send more money to creators,” said the post. “While some patrons may leave in the short-term, we know this will help creators earn more money in the long term.”

Update: Patreon has updated their blog with a deeper explanation of its most recent change in service. “[We] spent nearly a year reviewing the numbers and running experiments to make sure the end result was creators either make more money, or keep their current earnings,” reads the updated post.

“We actually experimented with three different service fee structures, all of which were higher than the 2.9% + $0.35 we selected. As it turns out, patrons weren’t nearly as sensitive to the amount of the fee as we predicted, but we ultimately chose the lowest service fee that would offset the third party costs in all likely scenarios,” the post explains. 

“This was never (and still isn’t) about making more money for Patreon as a company. This is a strategic move to make our platform even better for creators and patrons in the future.”  

Many of gaming’s most compelling stories come from those who’ve helped to create our favorite Xbox One games. In our Inside Xbox One X Enhanced series, these creators will share the behind-the-scenes accounts of the work involved in enhancing these epic games for Xbox One X, how they’ve helped chart the course of the world’s most powerful console, and what that means for the future of gaming. Today, we’ll be chatting with Arkane Studios’ Dinga Bakaba, Lead Designer on the series-ending action game Dishonored: Death of the Outsider.

What specifically is your development team doing to enhance Dishonored: Death of the Outsider for Xbox One X?

We used the unique GPU power of the Xbox One X to leverage Dynamic Resolution with cutting edge graphics fidelity. Shadows quality, textures definition and level of details are at their best. The extra CPU power also helped us to make the framerate steadier even under heavy Dishonored-style combat situation.

How do these enhancements impact the gaming experience?

The immersion is magnified and the experience is true to the original intentions. Looks better, feel better.

Why did your development team choose to focus on these enhancement areas?

Given the powerful GPU and the 12GB GDDR5 of graphic memory we wanted to use it to reveal the deep and detailed world of Dishonored.

How do you expect fans of Dishonored: Death of the Outsider will respond to seeing/playing it on Xbox One X with these enhancements?

During development, many of us just stopped suddenly to watch, attracted by the gorgeous visuals. Some people were getting very close to the screen just to see how many details their eyes could catch in the distance. We can’t wait to see the reactions of the players. We expect them to be astonished by the visuals and thrilled by the whole enhanced experience.

How has the process been to get the game up and running on Xbox One X?

It was pretty short and straightforward. Leaving us some space to push the limitations back again and again.

What enhancement were you most excited about to explore leveraging for Dishonored: Death of the Outsider on Xbox One X?

4K UHD, definitely.

What does 4K and HDR mean for your game, games in the future and development at your studio?

4K is a game changer and soon it will become the new standard. Death of the Outsider shows some very detailed geometry which is magnified in 4K, revealing details, no aliasing and a crisp picture.

HDR provides a vivid and life-like color panels, which is something we are excited to leverage in the future.

Thanks to Dinga for taking the time to chat with us about Xbox One X Enhanced. We’ll be bringing you more interviews with more developers in the future, so stay tuned to Xbox Wire!