Comment on Dutch gamers file €220 million claim against Valve, operator of game platform Steam

• iamthetot@piefed.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Well, no, it’s the opposite. The accusation goes that Steam strong-arms people into keeping prices on Steam the lowest (or tied for lowest) available if they’re selling the same game on another storefront. For example, Ubisoft cannot sell a game on their own platform for cheaper than they will also sell it on Steam.

  Again, allegedly.

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  • qarbone@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Of all the accusations against Steam, I’m most amenable to that one. I think devs should be able to sell on their personal storefronts for cheaper, if they’re going to the effort of setting up a storefront at all.

    Selling on GOG or Epic for less does feel some type of way too, but I can’t say I’d block devs from doing that either.

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    • HandMadeArtisanRobot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I think that only applies to selling Steam keys on other platforms. They’re free to price the games however they want, but they can’t sell keys cheaper somewhere else.

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      • Cyv_@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        That’s basically the crux of the accusations. Valve says it’s only for steam keys, other devs say they’ve been told not to sell their game for less elsewhere, even if they don’t include a steam key. I guess we’ll see as the case continues.

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      • imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        That is what everyone takes wrong about the case. Two points I want to mention

        • allegedly, they force other storefronts to match the price on steam or their storefront regardless of what type of key it is (Valve claims it is only for Steam keys)

        • Nobody stops Ubisoft or EGS or whatever to sell their games on their storefront. OR even 3rd party publishers can avoid selling on Steam (look up EGS and Borderlands 4/Metro Exodus case). Literally nobody says they should sell on Steam.

        What annoys me that everyone took “they force them even with own keys to match the price” as a factual truth just because of EGS, Ubi and some other company claimed so. The case is not closed yet. There is no verdict. Nothing is ruled out. And somehow tons of people are angry at Valve?!

        Who do we trust more out of the box? Valve or EGS/Ubi? Sharpen your pitchforks only after the fact are known, people…

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    • Bratosch@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      But wouldn’t that be malicious from the dev side? “Hey, don’t bother with Steam because it’s more expensive. Come buy it here instead”. Just don’t sell on Steam if that’s an issue, but we all know they want to piggyback on the exposure/trust associated with Steam.

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      • qarbone@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        I’m seeing it as “pay the Steam price for Steam integrations like achievements, if you care about that” and “pay the cheaper price for just the game.” People could “abuse” it for free marketing but I don’t think most people would do that.

        And you just gotta eat those costs; sorta like how there will be some level of public aid fraud, but that doesn’t mean you cancel food stamps.

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      • HailSeitan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        How is competition that benefits consumers in the form of lower prices “malicious”?

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  • CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    The thing is that this is in Steam’s TOS when it comes to steam keys. You can sell steam keys but not at a lower price than on Steam. Which is extremely fair – selling a steam key still means you’re using Steam’s infrastructure, you don’t have to manage the downloads & updates. It does not apply in a situation where you manage your own store with its own infrastructure

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    • iamthetot@piefed.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      But that’s the crux. The accusation is that Steam has an unwritten policy that applies to non steam key sales, and uses their near monopoly to enforce it.

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      • CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        I’ve read about that, afaik we don’t know how much of a policy it is vs. some random employee going rogue. Hopefully it all comes to light with these lawsuits

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