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Valve/Steam is being sued for his monopoly

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Info about the person taking legal action: https://steamyouoweus.co.uk/about-us/

The main issue seems to be "a publisher or developer would not be able to list a game on another platform as well as Steam, unless the prices offered on Steam is the same or lower." - not great if true, even if most other platforms on PC are rubbish compared to Steam.

The other seems to be the "inability to purchase add-on content from another distribution platform or the developer itself Valve has illegally tied these products and limited consumer choice" - that is the same for any digital distribution platform not just Steam... although you could argue its possible to use websites like CDKeys / Loaded to purchase games & DLC far cheaper than Valve sell them for on Steam. So I'm not sure I totally agree with that, a good chunk of my digital Steam and Xbox library was purchased like that.

Steam has done far more for PC gaming than any other digital distribution platform has to date and are also directly responsible for PC gaming not essentially been locked to just Windows anymore. So its kinda hard to see Steam / Valve as the bad guys.
 
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I would welcome an actual competitor to steam, but it doesn't seem like anyone is interested in genuinely trying. Steam is a storefront, game library, community, modding platform, and at this point a compatibility layer all in one. Combine that with frequently offering cheap games and you have a storefront that is hard to beat
 
InsaneNutter said:
The other seems to be the "inability to purchase add-on content from another distribution platform or the developer itself Valve has illegally tied these products and limited consumer choice" - that is the same for any digital distribution platform not just Steam... although you could argue its possible to use websites like CDKeys / Loaded to purchase games & DLC far cheaper than Valve sell them for on Steam. So I'm not sure I totally agree with that, a good chunk of my digital Steam and Xbox library was purchased like that.
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This is nonsense anyway, you can buy DLC for certain games elsewhere and use on Steam.

I play Fall Guys, I've bought a dlc costume for it on psn and I can use that same costume on Steam because my accounts are linked. The free dlc that was launched with the mobile version, I grabbed that on Android, but can use it on Steam. Showbucks (premium currency) can be bought and shared on all platforms (except switch).

Same deal with Rocket League.

There's no restriction on this by Steam, if the devs want to implement some sort of account linking to let you link platforms and share dlc, they can.
 
That 30% is going towards development of things like proton, dxvk, mesa and so on. They also pay for the infra of the distro I use (Arch) so I pretty much consider it a donation to charity.
 
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I don't see and never saw Valve as the 'bad guys'. They did a lot for Linux gaming community, a lot. I myself don't get games there, if I would, I'd get something on GOG and only there. As much as their platform is not for me, they became the best and yes. Nowadays when you mention PC gaming, everyone acutomatically means Steam. This problem tho? I want to see proof that Valve's clients are paying too much for PC games. What is this claim based on?

Competition? What competition? Every other platform lacks with literally everything. GOG is a complete different story, their lack of DRM is already encouragment enough to buy a copy there and not on Steam if only it's there. They're doing things different and on top of that their preservation program. Any other platfrom for PC? You surely don't mean Epic Games Store which does everything wrong on so many levels. Steam was and will continue to have monopol on the PC market because there's absolutely no competition.
 
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InsaneNutter said:
The main issue seems to be "a publisher or developer would not be able to list a game on another platform as well as Steam, unless the prices offered on Steam is the same or lower." - not great if true, even if most other platforms on PC are rubbish compared to Steam.
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I don't know where I read that from, but it was talked about even before the lawsuit. It does appear to be true, and to some extent I think it makes sense; if you're going to piggyback off Steam for distribution but actually pocket all of the income with keys (and potentially give a smaller share to some middleman), it feels unfair.

If the argument is about alternative game distribution platforms, while it is a slippery slope, it is not uncommon for goods to be sold at different prices in different places as well as vice versa. That's definitely a hot topic, and I don't know how well it would fare in court.

As for arguing about Valve being the "good/bad guy", I don't think it's relevant or productive at all. If Valve gets sued, they will have to adapt to the UK market, potentially changing some policies globally, and ultimately continue to operate as usual. Linux support will continue to be something they will pursue, as well as predatory microtransactions, unfair shares to CS2 creators and anything else they do. This lawsuit is only about Steam and their place in game marketplace competition, and they're a large enough company that $1B wouldn't bury them.
 
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InsaneNutter said:
The main issue seems to be "a publisher or developer would not be able to list a game on another platform as well as Steam, unless the prices offered on Steam is the same or lower." - not great if true, even if most other platforms on PC are rubbish compared to Steam.
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As far as that goes, as long as you have a version of the game that does not use the Steam infrastructure, you're free to sell it for however much you want. Though there have been reports, that sometimes Steam has been a bit overzealous with this and banning games that had versions that didn't use Steam.
 
Steam doing something shady? Oh, wait, no. They're pissy because Valve is making things better for the customer. How weird... I wouldn't be surprised if Sweeney got the ball rolling on this one, too. They're really butthurt about software distribution and pricing fairness. FOH
 
Reiten said:
As far as that goes, as long as you have a version of the game that does not use the Steam infrastructure, you're free to sell it for however much you want. Though there have been reports, that sometimes Steam has been a bit overzealous with this and banning games that had versions that didn't use Steam.
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Nintendo also has a price parity policy for Switch, and even worse, it forces the prices between physical and digital to be the same, at least it used to before the switch 2 days. Hence the high eShop prices. It's not as uncommon as you think. Also, what competition does Steam have? Gog (no launcher is the reason why it has any pull), Fortnite launcher with weekly bribe games? Why would I look elsewhere when Steam exists?
 
InsaneNutter said:
Info about the person taking legal action: https://steamyouoweus.co.uk/about-us/

The main issue seems to be "a publisher or developer would not be able to list a game on another platform as well as Steam, unless the prices offered on Steam is the same or lower." - not great if true, even if most other platforms on PC are rubbish compared to Steam.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the clarification. Heard about this on youtube, so I'm glad I don't have to look for the gist of the actual lawsuit (not sure on the second aspect, so I'll focus on this one).

So here's the issue: say I'm a developer and I put the game on steam for sale for 10 bucks. That means I earn around 7 bucks for every unit sold (steam takes 30%).
Epic only takes IIRC 12%. So if given a choice, I'd obviously would rather have people buy it on epic. But how would I achieve people buying it there, given that steam is as popular as it is? The simple answer would be to put it up for 9 bucks on epic; I'd still get paid more for every unit sold. But if I do that, I get kicked from steam.

I get that most claim that it's not a monopoly because "there are alternatives", but that's not the issue (MS is succesfully sued quite some times for being a monopoly, despite the existence of linux and mac). I get that steam is the most popular and I agree to that, but that's not the issue either ("popular" isn't a legal term).

The problem, as outlined above, is that this proverbial "I, the developer" is restricted in setting the price somewhere else. It's an attempt to get that part scrapped, NOT to somehow ruin valve (unless I'm seriously missing something).

Now...I've attempted to look at it from the eyes of the culptor, but really? I think they'll fail. Not because I'm a valve fanboy, but because the argument simply isn't strong enough to be upheld in an objective court.
* up until steam came along, the percentage fee on games (in the nineties) was a whole lot higher. Sure, you'd get things like a box, manual, a disc and crappy copy-protection to go with it, but steam's success with developers was exactly that they charged a LOWER percentage. Initially for less service (see the goodies earlier), but they built out features that are commonplace, popular and even deemed essential.
* valve can (and will?) argue the existence of their rule in that a game on steam gets exposure: they provide forums, a userbase, workshop, ... Valve can argue why they take 30%, but that's not the issue here.
* what valve is not (and I presume want to avoid becoming) is a front. Steam may be popular, but a cheaper price elsewhere will get people buying it elsewhere (free epic game, anyone? :P ).
* but wait...does that mean you can't sell your games anywhere else? Of course you can. Heck...steam allows developers to generate steam keys for their games. These can, and in some places get, sold on multiple occasions. Yes, it still ties developers to the steam ecosystem. But it IS an argument against the wrongdoing the culprit is claiming. It's rather the opposite: you can't really claim to be tied to steam when they make it easier to distribute your game.
 
For those who might not be aware, the 30% cut is nothing exceptionnal. Nintendo also get a 30% cut from publisher, same for Playstation, etc. As far as I know, EGS is the only one who only gets a 12% cut, they are the exception.
 
emigre said:
They're being sued by a campaigner...

Seriously, we need put sources in USN.
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I've seen this in Youtube comments where people are acting like it's the UK government suing, AFAIK the most that's happened is that the case has been allowed to proceed.

This type of lawsuit isn't even new:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-62631533

Noctosphere said:
For those who might not be aware, the 30% cut is nothing exceptionnal. Nintendo also get a 30% cut from publisher, same for Playstation, etc. As far as I know, EGS is the only one who only gets a 12% cut, they are the exception.
Click to expand...

There's been a push against it in recent years, especially on mobile platforms where third party payment processors are/were prohibited. Although the complaints I've seen have always been from the devs/publishers, not the actual public.
 
tech3475 said:
I've seen this in Youtube comments where people are acting like it's the UK government suing, AFAIK the most that's happened is that the case has been allowed to proceed.

This type of lawsuit isn't even new:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-62631533



There's been a push against it in recent years, especially on mobile platforms where third party payment processors are/were prohibited. Although the complaints I've seen have always been from the devs/publishers, not the actual public.
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UK is not suing, they only allowed the sue to proceed.
As for the complains about the cut, they can whine as much as they want, but if the case is moving (lowering the cut) then the price must lower too (80$ -> 70$?) Otherwise, the gamers community will be the next one to be whining
 
Noctosphere said:
UK is not suing, they only allowed the sue to proceed.
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That's what I said, unless you mean you're just confirming it.

Noctosphere said:
As for the complains about the cut, they can whine as much as they want, but if the case is moving (lowering the cut) then the price must lower too (80$ -> 70$?) Otherwise, the gamers community will be the next one to be whining
Click to expand...

I'd find it funny if Valve actually mandated that prices be lowered in accordance with a reduction in the 30%, if only to see how companies respond because if they do complain then everyone can call out the BS that it was for the consumer.
 
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tech3475 said:
That's what I said, unless you mean you're just confirming it.
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I don't know why I wrote that TBH. Was I confirming or did I misread something? No idea, but yea, you were right 😹

tech3475 said:
I'd find it funny if Valve actually mandated that prices be lowered in accordance with a reduction in the 30%, if only to see how companies respond because if they do complain then everyone can call out the BS that it was for the consumer.
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Honnestly, I wonder. Of course, games are more expansive to produce nowaday. Of course, the price has to follow inflation. However, even if this is all logical arguments, you just won't be able to shove it down the thorat of any gamers. If they really wanted to increase prices with inflation, they should have done it decades ago. They can't just use this argument and start increasing AAA games price tag by 10$ every 2 years. We are already closing to 100$ each games. This is a line no gamers ever want to reach. For a gamer, a 100$ games is no longer about having fun, it's about commitment. And not all gamers want to commit part of their life to a single game. Most of us only want to have fun and have a nice escape from reality.
 

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