Define an offer, record current channel terms, compare explicit unit economics and test purchase behavior before reviewing observed player outcomes.
Write what a player receives, what is paid, what remains available without payment and how support will work. Choose the intended channels and territories before making a price scenario. Review how purchase prompts, ads or recurring payments affect the actual session, and identify the evidence needed to test the offer with intended players.
For each proposed channel, record the currency, tax treatment, platform/payment deductions, refund assumptions, fixed costs and per-unit variable costs relevant to your plan. Copy values from the agreement or account materials you can verify, with a date and owner. Separate cash receipts, booked revenue and profit so a comparison does not mix definitions.
For a single product under stated unit economics, use the break-even calculator with fixed cost, per-unit price and per-unit variable cost on a consistent basis. Change explicit assumptions to compare scenarios; a contribution of zero or less cannot recover fixed costs through more identical units. For an operating game, compute period ARPU from distinct users and ARPDAU from summed daily active users across the same period.
Use the channel’s supported test environment to exercise purchasing, cancellation or refund handling where applicable, entitlement restoration, duplicate events and loss of connectivity. Verify the displayed offer and receipt match the intended terms. Record cases by exact build, configuration and action; include the observed user-facing result and issue reference.
Align the store page, screenshots, price presentation and support information with the candidate build. Review the channel’s release checklist and any applicable review process. Document who approves the offer, the release candidate and any accepted limitation, then retain the actual submitted version and review feedback.
After a defined observation window, reconcile channel statements with your own revenue definitions, refunds and support records. If examining return behavior, use an original cohort and one exact follow-up day under a stated activity rule. Combine these measurements with player feedback and purchase failures to select a specific change, with an owner and a later review window.
Draft and download the offer, verified channel terms and decision record.
Compare fixed costs and per-unit contribution for one explicitly defined product scenario.
Calculate observed-period revenue per distinct user and active user-day.
Record purchase and entitlement test cases against exact builds.
Calculate an exact-day return percentage for an observed original cohort.
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Steamworks documents review of store presence and the submitted build. Use the current product checklist and account agreement when preparing a release.
Use a consistent period and currency within each comparison.
| Measure | Required basis |
|---|---|
| Unit contribution | Price and variable cost for the same defined unit |
| Break-even quantity | Fixed costs divided by positive unit contribution |
| Period ARPU | Revenue divided by distinct users in that period |
| ARPDAU | Revenue divided by summed active user-days in that period |
| Exact-day cohort return | Original eligible members active on one specified later day |
Enter verified channel deductions and costs yourself. The linked arithmetic does not supply legal or tax classifications, demand forecasts or a universal store revenue share.
Label assumed values and replace them with observed outcomes when available.
Include operational and support effort in the decision even when the revenue model looks simple.