this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2024
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$843 million lawsuit against Valve already has its own website: "The Steam Claim" accuses the biggest store in PC gaming of "overcharging" players (www.gamesradar.com)
submitted 6 months ago by Dadifer@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world
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[–] trafficnab@lemmy.ca 15 points 6 months ago (1 children)

As far as I know, this only applies to Steam keys: developers are allowed to generate Steam keys for free to sell on their website (Valve does not get 30% of these sales either) with the restriction being they cannot be cheaper than the price on Steam

I don't think there's ever actually been any proof that Valve disallows selling games for cheaper elsewhere as long as you're not selling those freely generated Steam keys

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Proof? What would proof look like?

Do you expect companies to just leak contracts they signed while under NDA?

[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Not the companies. But some anonymous whistleblower? Sure

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Like the anonymous whistleblower who went to a lawyer and triggered this lawsuit?

[–] trafficnab@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This suit seems to just be vaguely, "30% is too high", along with requiring that DLC for a game bought on Steam also be bought on Steam, it was the Wolfire case back in 2021 that alleged they're not allowed to sell their game for cheaper on other platforms

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

According to Shotbolt, the developer and digital distribution company is "shutting out" all competition in the PC gaming market as it "forces" game publishers to sign off on price parity obligations - supposedly preventing them from going on to offer lower prices on other platforms.

[–] trafficnab@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This is true and public knowledge though as I said (details seen here in the "Steam Key Rules and Guidelines" section), if anything Valve is giving devs a lot of leeway by allowing them to do that at all, not only are they giving up their 30% cut but are also then distributing and committing to updating those copies of the game for free

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

The allegation says nothing about steam keys. The lawsuit is alleging that they are contractually prevented from selling the game cheaper elsewhere.