I make games and this literally happened to me this morning

If you want to support me, a wishlist of my current game will mean the world to me: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2336120/Do_Not_Press_The_Button_To_Delete_The_Multiverse/

But please don't spend money on my previous games, I recognize that they aren't that good I don't want to burden anyone financially with them (I loved every minute of making them, but I was still a noob back then).

I will advertise this to my friends, they have lots of young people in their circles that go through games at a good pace. This looks right up their alley.

I released a game like three years ago and it's earned $97 in that time.

I feel your pain

Buy it yourself, get over 100, cash out
- Haha, I've considered it. I'd really like to at least be able to buy pizza for the gang who helped make the game.
Tell us the game now.
- Concord
Whats the game? :)

My bank: "We have a new valuation on your home! Open your app to see it!"

...

"It's down 2%!"

hah same energy

For context: I make indie games and have released two so far and I'm currently working on the third one which is weird as fuck. So the way that Steam works is, they don't send you money anytime you make a sale, but they send all of it at the end of every month. Now September is almost over and I got an e-mail titled "Steam Payment Notification" and I get all hyped up. I open it and read it that the Payment Notification is actually that there is no Payment since I didn't make $100 in sales. Way to hype me up and bring me down, Steam.

Other games include "be a rock" and "pizza synthwave" and this is the weird one.

Wish listed.
Youtube and twitch work this same way. When I was starting there were months where I didnt make any money because I didn't meet the minimum. Hoping next month meets the requirement for you boss 🙏
- Does the balance at least accumulate until you do hit the threshold, or is the money just gone?
Whats the game? :)
Does Steam take a cut for distribution?

If not, while this emotionally sucks, they've a solid operational policy.
- Yes, their cut is 30% which is a lot, but they are pretty much the only big platform out there. Epic games has been trying to get in the game but so far they are not close. Their cut is 15%.
I see you settled on a design for the toaster. Love the mustache.
- Thank you : )

They don't seem to have an issue sending $10 refunds to my bank account, I wonder how much it actually costs them

Complete guess here, but refunds are probably handled differently by the banks compared to new payments, i.e. undoing an error is probably free(ish), but paying people is how they get you
The bigger cost is probably the processing time, limiting to $100 probably drops the number of payments by 80%.
Especially when they're making bank charging 30%.

I feel you, on Twitch is 50$.

How do people make money there?
- They don't. Their payouts leaked a couple years ago, of the thousands of streamers there's a few hundred that make minimum wage or better. This pattern holds true for YouTube, only fans, etc.
- I can't even begin to understand how hard it is to make it on Twitch. I assume probably the top 1000 streamers make the real money and the rest 99,5% probably make like $50 per month...
- subscribers and something called bits of which i dont know the purpose.

I've been waiting like 20 years for my money from NewGrounds. I was at $80 last time I checked a while ago.

Do they just keep your earning in your account until one month your total outstanding earnings breach the 100$ threshold and you'll receive all your earning in one transaction or does this money get swallowed by steam?

I think they keep your money until reach the threshold. Steam aren't scummy so I'm pretty sure there is no shady stuff going on with your money.
- Yeah i was about to ask that. If they just took all amounts below 100 for themselves that would be super fucked up and probably illegal.

Policy schmolicy. Withholding even one cent you are owed is fucking shitty.

This sort of thing is pretty common in various industries, they let the money accumulate until it reaches a threshold.
- Common doesn't mean not shitty

~~if this is true I'd recommend sending GamersNexus an email with the details as they might be able to help considering their past actions to hold companies accountable~~

Edit:
Steam policy rip, see comments down below

It's true, but it's Steam policy. If you haven't reached the threshold for the month, you are not getting a payment. I guess I just have to sell more games and do better next time. I mean with Steam Sale events I will probably get there eventually.
- It's true, but it's Steam policy. If you haven't reached the threshold for the month, you are not getting a payment.
  
  damn, guess that's just how it is if you want to sell games on Steam I guess then :/