It’s not the gamers, it’s a commission and there is a lot of misinformation on their website (it can be viewed in English). gameclaim.consumercompetitionclaims.com
Also tweakers.net a Dutch tech enthusiast website had a good post about it, most of the commenters do not agree with this as well tweakers.net/…/steam-laat-klanten-te-veel-betalen… (Dutch only so you’ll have to use a translator if you want to read it)
People keep forgetting that in the olden days, the left over cut for the publisher was about 40% of the game value, the rest went to warehouse, shipping, and the retailer all got something. The rough estimate left over cut for the developer was 10~15%.
Now a days as a developer you can sell directly to the customer through Steam, and you don’t need a publisher or a network if you only sell on Steam. So that 10~15% cut went to 70% (till x amount of revenue and then it gets lower).
Next to Steam not being a monopoly and Valve providing all the other companies the blueprint for a success in the PC market, none of the competitors follows it, or compare to the customer service of Steam. And it seems that none of those other billion dollar competitors (Microsoft, Amazon and Epic) wants to invest in a solid platform to stand up to Steam.
ski11erboi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Is there any actual proof of valve taking actions to limit competition or are they just popular because they have a good business model?
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
They don’t limit competition, but it’s a more open question whether they are engaging in a form of price fixing.
Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
The problem is if valve is price fixing then it would mean any company that limits the use of their service to others via fixed pricing agreements would also be price fixing.
If a company is no longer allowed to have control over their own service when used by others then functionally you cant have second or third parties anymore. It would basically break the very concept.
Cause yes valve does prevent you from selling your game on other platforms at a cheaper rate, so long as you are doing so via steam key or when valve servers will be the source of distribution. This keeps coming up over and over and its wild that people seem to think that valve should not be allowed to limit the abuse of their own servers.
The only example ever floated of them doing this with out steam keys or them being the distribution source was a single email from steam support to a developer. That has been proven over and over to have been a miscommunication and not actually an enforced policy.
Theres a lot of questions on how healthy it is for valve to be so dominate in the market and to have such a wide reach. But the fact is that other companies keep leaning on valve for distribution or build their entire company around it either legitly or though majority theft cough g2g cough.
Everyone else MADE valve into the market dominator either willing or via ignorance and bad business. It valve ever does turn fully evil we are fucked yes. But no one ever seems to want to actually try to fix the problem of everyone else being stupid as fuck. Instead just trying to legal valve into oblivion.
THE_GR8_MIKE@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Seems to me the only fixing they’re doing is fixing the prices lower than other clients.
Rather than what you usually hear with price fixing, where prices go up. Like Amazon with Levi jeans.
ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 3 weeks ago
Yes, but all the valve fanboys will argue anyone who mentions the multiple price fixing lawsuits (which are not related to using steam key sellers, but they’ll endlessly post that TOS clause anyway) against Valve into oblivion.
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
A pending lawsuit is a merely a claim, not a proven fact or hard evidence. Swamping an entity with lawsuits doesn’t mean the defendent is guilty, because you can sue for anything.
We’ve already seen this happen with Monsanto, Disney, Nintendo, etc. where they go after smaller entities by smothering them in lawsuits to drain their coffers. It doesn’t matter if some lawsuits get thrown out or whether they’re valid, they just need to squash the competition.
And Microsoft, Apple, Nintendo, Sony, Epic, Ubisoft, EA, etc. all have financial reason to see Valve fall. Linux adoption is a threat to Microsoft and Apple, the PC market is a threat to console manufacturers, and having a pro-consumer store as the dominant player in the market limits what anti-consumer practices other storefronts can do.
Don’t just blindly trust claims and speculation, especially when there’s a lot of finilancial incentive to lie. Wait for lawsuits to actually get resolved.
Flames5123@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Yes here: wolfire.com/…/Regarding-the-Valve-class-action/
They have the proof in the claim, but I don’t know if it’s public yet.
I agree that steam should enforce STEAM CODE sales to be the same price, but this is just a download of the game. I hope steam just fucked yo here and misunderstood; otherwise, it’s completely anticompetitive and is illegal based on the contract the developer signed from valve.
gmtom@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I know from experience valve coerces developers into participating in their sale events, basically saying there game won’t get promoted on the store or in searches unless they agree to sales.
Which considering they already take a massive 30% cut of developers earnings, is very scummy. Lots of indie Devs that already struggle to make money and already sell their games for super cheap are basically forced to cut their profits even further just to get some visibility on the platform.
Datz@szmer.info 3 weeks ago
I believe you, but they were asking for proof. Sources.
If 30% is massive, what do you propose the cut be? Epic said their 12% cut was unsustainable already.
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I’m very skeptical of that. The Factorio devs famously refuse to ever put the game on sale, and has even increased the price over time to account for inflation. Yet they’re one of the most popular games on Steam