A new lawsuit was filed earlier this month in the UK that alleges Valve, owner of Steam, has been overcharging 14 million PC gamers and abusing its dominant position in the UK.
Essentially, this hinges on whether demanding price parity with other platforms is anticompetitive… I think that’s going to be a tough hill to climb, especially as they’re only asking to not be undercut as a supplier. There’s no requirement to sell exclusively through Steam, and Steam even allows developers to give Steam keys on other platforms, including with game bundles that have a total “value” well below Steam sale prices.
Like, I use Steam daily, and buy multiple games most months in game bundles, but in the last few years, I’ve only made a handful of purchases on Steam. One game and my Steam Deck Dock were my only Steam purchases this calendar year, and my Steam Deck OLED and two games were my only purchases last year, but in that time I added about 150 new games to my Steam library.
I don’t think people realise how generous steam is by allowing Devs to sell steam keys on other platforms and still handle all the distribution and updates and everything for a key they didn’t get paid for, and all they ask is you give the same or better deal to customers who purchase direct through steam
Yeah, exactly. Steam gets very little money from me (well, aside from the Deck), but I get all the benefits from their services. Not sure how that’s monopolistic…
Essentially, this hinges on whether demanding price parity with other platforms is anticompetitive…
No it’s not. This hinges on whether you can sell the generated free Steam keys on other sites for less than the price you have set on Steam.
You can absolutely sell your game on another site for less. You can’t sell your game on another site for less and make Steam pick up the infrastructure costs.
The only claim anyone has ever documented is detailed in the article.
An accusation doesn’t necessarily mean they’re right though. Something people get confused on often is Steam Keys, which are completely separate to Steam Store purchases. Valve do ask developers not to “give Steam customers a worse deal than Steam Key purchasers”
You can read through all the claimants key documents if you like 😉
So far no one has ever shown Valve asking for price parity with other outlets, and this doesn’t appear to be any different. Just a lawyer looking for a payday.
Essentially, this hinges on whether demanding price parity with other platforms is anticompetitive… I think that’s going to be a tough hill to climb, especially as they’re only asking to not be undercut as a supplier. There’s no requirement to sell exclusively through Steam, and Steam even allows developers to give Steam keys on other platforms, including with game bundles that have a total “value” well below Steam sale prices.
Like, I use Steam daily, and buy multiple games most months in game bundles, but in the last few years, I’ve only made a handful of purchases on Steam. One game and my Steam Deck Dock were my only Steam purchases this calendar year, and my Steam Deck OLED and two games were my only purchases last year, but in that time I added about 150 new games to my Steam library.
I don’t think people realise how generous steam is by allowing Devs to sell steam keys on other platforms and still handle all the distribution and updates and everything for a key they didn’t get paid for, and all they ask is you give the same or better deal to customers who purchase direct through steam
Yeah, exactly. Steam gets very little money from me (well, aside from the Deck), but I get all the benefits from their services. Not sure how that’s monopolistic…
No it’s not. This hinges on whether you can sell the generated free Steam keys on other sites for less than the price you have set on Steam.
You can absolutely sell your game on another site for less. You can’t sell your game on another site for less and make Steam pick up the infrastructure costs.
This is the first I’ve heard it that way. I haven’t read the contract though, so I can’t say I’m correct with confidence.
The only claim anyone has ever documented is detailed in the article.
You can read through all the claimants key documents if you like 😉
https://steamyouoweus.co.uk/updates/
So far no one has ever shown Valve asking for price parity with other outlets, and this doesn’t appear to be any different. Just a lawyer looking for a payday.