$843 million lawsuit against Valve already has its own website: "The Steam Claim" accuses the biggest store in PC gaming of "overcharging" players
$843 million lawsuit against Valve already has its own website: "The Steam Claim" accuses the biggest store in PC gaming of "overcharging" players
The lawsuit is said to represent 14 million UK gamers
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Smells like a smear campaign. Some idiots try to get some fake-ass grass roots movement going.
Bold move, let‘s see how it plays out for them.
I actually was sort of on board after I read the article. Why should a publisher be penalized if they offer a lower price on a different platform?
They don't really though. They're talking about selling steam keys in a different platform, not selling the game on a different platform (like Epic Games for instance). You can sell the game for cheaper on Epic or GOG if you want to.
When new video game stores were opening that charged much lower commissions than Valve, I decided that I would provide my game "Overgrowth" at a lower price to take advantage of the lower commission rates. I intended to write a blog post about the results. But when I asked Valve about this plan, they replied that they would remove Overgrowth from Steam if I allowed it to be sold at a lower price anywhere, even from my own website without Steam keys and without Steam’s DRM.
From the source cited by the article.
https://overgrowth.wolfire.com/buy-now/
Buy Overgrowth On humble bundle
So why is the game still on steam then if that "cited" information was accurate? The humble bundle sells the game without DRM.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/25000/Overgrowth/
Something stinks here... and it's not Steam.
So why is the game still on steam then if that “cited” information was accurate?
Because Steam is the largest storefront with the biggest userbase and forfeiting those sales is a death sentence for developers.
The source makes a claim that selling off platform without DRM would get them delisted from Steam.
I found you a link showing they do exactly that.
So the developer is either lying... or the source is lying.... or the article writer is lying.
The source makes a claim that selling off platform at a lower price than Steam would get them delisted. You linked the Steam page ($19,50) and the Wolfire.com page ($19,99), so what's your point? Reread the post.
[...] they [Steam] replied that they would remove Overgrowth from Steam if I allowed it to be sold at a lower price anywhere, even from my own website without Steam keys and without Steam’s DRM.
... You're making shit up and lying at the same time. Here, lets squash this bullshit argument once and for all. Please somehow make this make sense. It's not only cheaper... but a choice of WITH or WITHOUT steam drm and the developer is already doing it.
OFF STEAM with or without steam DRM: $19.95
ON STEAM: $19.99
Edit: I can add more arrows if you'd like.
I'm not making shit up though, I'm literally citing the source of the article that this entire comment section is writing about.
Maybe Humble Bundle has a deal with Steam. Maybe Steam doesn't care about going after a developer for selling a game five cents cheaper on another storefront. I don't know, and I'm not going around accusing people of wrongdoing on the basis of some kind of conspiracy theory ("something stinks").
If the lawsuit turns out to be fake, that's good, and users are safe. If it turns out to be true, then great, they'll make Steam to change their practices, just like they forced them to allow users to refund their games under certain circumstances.
I'm sure as hell not jumping into a comment section spending my time defending a multi-million dollars corporations that already overpays lawyers to do that.
(Btw I saw the game on Steam as 19,50 and forgot to check the currency; it's actually euros on my screen and I was comparing it to the 19,95 dollars from Bundle, so yeah, my bad.)
I’m sure as hell not jumping into a comment section spending my time defending a multi-million dollars corporations that already overpays lawyers to do that.
I'm not defending anything. Nothing I've said was in defense of Steam. However it was the most basic of fact check for this "Developer" or "source". Which has shown/proven to already be bullshit. YOU are amplifying that message for some reason without doing the most fundamental of a fact check.
And yes... when I detect bullshit... I'm going to call it out. Bullshit stinks.
Do they? Haven't felt like that s the case as a long time user of /r/gamedeals and isthereanydeals which is all focused on game sales.
They don't. The thing most people who have never published a game on steam don't know is that valve gives you infinite steam keys (for free) that you can give or sell as you wish. This is to allow studios/publishers to give keys to whoever they want, and also allows them to sell those keys on their own or third-party websites. This is a HUGE deal, Valve is letting studios/publishers sell games on a separate site without charging anything while hosting the game themselves. The only condition to those keys is that they can't be sold cheaper than on Steam.
That's a completely different thing from what you're claiming. This means that games can be cheaper on GoG, Epic, etc as long as they don't give you a steam key together (which they could, for free).