The IGDA is pleased that Amazon has shown a willingness to clarify its distribution terms, so that all versions on the Amazon site are consistent. However, the majority of our concerns remain unaddressed.
Amazon is still reserving the right to pay developers just 20% of their minimum list price at any time, without notification or advance approval. Additionally, Amazon is still unilaterally preventing developers from ever making an exclusive promotional deal with another marketplace.
In summary, Amazon’s terms still enable it to steeply discount a game developer’s content without permission — a tactic Amazon could easily use to force game developers to absorb the cost for Amazon to compete with other appstores.
We are not impressed with Amazon’s recent gesture, nor is this matter the result of a misunderstanding. We believe that Amazon’s terms, as they currently stand, represent a threat to game developers.
We encourage everyone to join the conversation. Please make your feelings known directly to Amazon and through your network, blogs and websites.
Please make a petition to Amazon that people can sign with the push of a button. Such petitions are a typical advocacy strategy, and would save thousands of developers the work of figuring out “exactly” what they’re complaining about. That is to say, Amazon may figure it out when thousands of developers say the same thing.