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PlayStation's CEO drastically underestimates the Steam crowd's patience, thinks PC gamers will buy a PS5 for exclusive sequels (www.gamesradar.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 5 months ago (3 children)

The hilarious thing is that Sony could open their own pc storefront selling steam keys, keep their 30%, and the only restriction would be maintaining price parity with the same game on the Steam storefront.

For a. Company like Sony that already has all the payment processing and customer service knowhow, this would be far easier for them than most.

Yet they can't or won't bother because suits are fucking stupid.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 months ago

Shit, I assumed that valve somehow got a cut of games from keys as well, but looking it up (briefly), it looks like you're entirely right and they don't.
That makes it even more bonkers that companies keep trying to siphon off the market share, since you could just take your market proceeds as bonus revenue as long as valve got their share of what they sell.
I'm assuming that's a big chunk of how things like humble bundle make their money?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Pretty sure generating buttloads of steam keys for resale on a different platform to keep valve from taking their 30% is a violation of steam's TOS?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Nope. There's rules about pricing parity but you can generate and sell as many of your own keys as you want.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

You can't actually, they won't let you generate more keys if you sell fewer units through Steam directly (probably not 1:1, they don't state precise numbers as it's up to their discretion).

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Here's the relevant part of their website for reference:

If you request an extreme number of keys and you are not offering Steam customers a comparable deal, or if your sole business is selling Steam Keys and not offering value to Steam customers, your request may be denied and you may lose the privilege to request keys.

I find it hard to believe Sony would run afoul of these guidelines. I'm not sure what they mean by "if your sole business is selling steam keys". Maybe referring to shovelware 'developers' that use steam for laundering money, if I had to guess.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Parity in this case would likely mean nearly everyone just buys directly from steam. No doubt Sony would infect the gaming process by injecting their launcher no matter what you do, but steam will get their 30%.

I don't know what Sony could offer on their own storefront that plays well with parity rules to make people choose it over steam.

But the thought of them operating their own store front and offering steam keys with every sale won't happen. Valve have stopped that in the past.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

When? Who did they stop?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

But Sony would run afoul of these guidelines.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

How so?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Greedy company choking on itself in every possible way? Sony is known for that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That's... Not an answer at all.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago

Can I refer you to this article, that we are commenting under? For an example?