Comment on Legal action over 'unfair' Steam game store prices given go ahead
RamRabbit@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
alleges Valve “forces” game publishers to sign up to conditions which prevents them from selling their titles earlier or for less on rival platforms.
Given Epic is gives away games for free. This assertion about Valve is laughable.
That doesn’t conclude anything.
Are these the same games that are part of this lawsuit? If they are not, then what does Epic giving away different games conclude that this is a false premise for the lawsuit?
Critically think about that statement, it’s not logical.
Valve forces price parity with all platforms. So if they have lower charges, that saving cannot be passed on to the customer and so stops price competition.
I thought that only applied to steam keys?
You can sell your game for whatever you want elsewhere, but if you want them to be able to install via steam, you can’t undercut steam itself.
I did too but when I had a quick search around that’s what I found. I think it’d be reasonable to apply steam keys, valve is providing the full service there.
I did too but when I had a quick search around that’s what I found.
Source.
kuberoot@discuss.tchncs.de 5 hours ago
Valve gives you free steam keys for your game on request, which you can sell off steam, without paying Valve a cut. This has a specific rule that disallows selling those keys for a lower price. However, not sure if it’s this case, there was an email submitted as evidence from a Valve employee telling a game developer that selling their game for less in general would be undercutting steam, and something they wouldn’t want. If the email is real and not a misinterpretation, Valve indeed was/is pressuring developers to not sell games cheaper elsewhere.
Also, sales and giveaways are exempt from the steam key price parity rule, which I would assume epic’s free games would fall under, if you applied the rule to that despite not involving steam keys.