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Court rules Gabe Newell must appear in person to testify in Steam anti-trust lawsuit
(www.pcgamer.com)
this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
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David Rosen of Wolfire Games (Receiver, Overgrowth, Lugaru) is alleging that steam reps have threatened to de-list his game if he lists it as less expensive on other platforms. Specifically not just steam keys but other distribution platforms.
Which is hard to believe, considering how many times I've bought steam games on other (legitimate) platforms that were cheaper than on steam, that are still on steam today and werent removed for being cheaper on another platform.
Sure, but Valve essentially reserve the right to no longer sell your game if it's offered cheaper elsewhere. See the quotes on pages 54 through 56 of the complaint.
Which is a dick move on valves part.
Remember folks, Valve isnt the peoples company.
All the good things it does, it does only because of regulation pressure or lost lawsuits.
No corporation is "the peoples corporation", but some corporations treat their customers with a lot more respect and fairness in pricing/policies than others.
Yes, but people have to be reminded of that with "sweetheart" companies like AMD and Valve, because they get too deep in the koolaid and forget it.
Fyi I like valve but im in no way sworn to them.
I think the justification would probably be that if they continued listing the item:
I don't feel like valve does everything because of lawsuits. Open sourcing proton wasn't due to a lawsuit. Releasing Cs2 as a free upgrade to csgo wasn't due to a lawsuit.
On the other hand and in response to your comment, I think the regulatory fix is that platforms must display their platform fee clearly and separately to the publishers price.
Wine and dxvk was already opensource. They couldn't have closed it even if they wanted to.
Minor note about only a single point here
CS2 as an “upgrade” to CSGO has been less than well received from what I can tell. If they wanted it to be free it should have been a new game and left CS:GO in place. Removing a game many of us paid for in favor of a newer, different game isn’t something that should be praised, and should be called out as the anti-consumer move it was.
It isn't the peoples' company, but nor is it a publicly traded company that is obligated to pursue profits above all else. It's Gabe's company, and he gets to run it as he sees fit.
Ultimately Wolfire's argument falls apart not because Valve is setting the terms, but because their claims about Valve's position in the industry and supposed abuse of power don't hold much water.
They also make nice hardware, but they don't do that out of the goodness of their hearts of course
TIL: valve is run by robots.
All those Humble Bundles for a start.
I believe it is in the Steam marketplace agreement, and applies to all games. Are you referring to sales on other platforms, or to the full listed price?
That hasn't been my experience, could be a regional pricing thing.
HumbleBundle...
Not only that, but games you’ve actually heard of, too
Oh shit. I love David Rosen. I also live GabeN...
I should be the judge.
Yeah, it sucks when mommy and daddy fight.