When it comes to the gaming industry, the billions bandied about regarding AAA titles often lead many to think that if your game scores a hit, you're essentially set for life. Unfortunately, the sad reality is that indie developers often have to end up pinching pennies or outright in a deficit despite strong sales. Omer Develioğlu, the co-founder of Northend Games, offered a candid breakdown of how $560,000 in income over five years for sales of his games ended up as just $134,000 split two ways, with $73,000 in his and the co-founder's pockets. In the end, the co-creator got only $15,000 per year and continues to drive his 2012 Mazda, hardly the riches one would expect.

The $560,000 gross figure refers to sales for two titles: Northend Tower Defense and Deepstone Rift (Early Access), both sold on Steam, for a grand total of 135,000 units. In an accompanying video, Develioğlu mentions that an impressive 53.3% of sales come directly from China.

Unfortunately, he also says that the country's customers are very demanding, and that the refund rate there is disproportionately large. Thus, $134,000 goes right away towards said refunds, with a rate of 22%, "way above" the purported standard of 10-15%. For what it's worth, the Chinese refund rate is corroborated by both older and recent third-party figures. Current tally: $426,000.

Then there's Steam itself. The platform is widely beloved by gamers everywhere for its value-add features like the Workshop, but also for the basic notion of not making the other platforms' questionable business decisions.

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