Comment by RxBrad@infosec.pub on I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store

Nothing more disappointing to me than seeing a game I might enjoy… and then it’s only available on PC on Epic Games store. Why can’t it be available on Epic, Xbox game store and Steam? It’s so annoying, like you have no choice but to use Epic… which I would literally do ANYTHING not to use.

Look at all those downvotes from people who took offense to this comment, and WANT Steam to have a monopoly.

Yes, corporations bad. But don’t forget: Steam is a corporation, too.

yeah but the thing is, Steam isn’t even trying to be a monopoly, all of Steam’s competitors just seem to have a hobby of shooting their own foot, repeatedly. Steam is trying to make the gaming experience easier and more fun, and excelling at it!

unlike some other platforms, Steam doesn’t do exclusive deals, literally the only Steam exclusives are Valve’s own games, everything else is up to be decided by devs

Steam itself seemingly isn’t trying to have a monopoly.

But damned if there isn’t a massive, very-loud Internet contingent that desperately wants them to have that monopoly.

If your immediate trigger reaction is seething anger when someone says, “I got a good deal on a game from Epic”… maybe that’s not healthy. The “Lord Gaben” meme isn’t meant to be taken 100% literally.

i don’t get angry at things that don’t affect me lol

i do worry for steam’s future, it’s only this good because “Lord Gaben” has made many great decisions, it may not be a democracy but a good “dictator” is often more effective than a democracy. But what happens if/when Steam goes to shit for whatever reason? the internet will implode

They’re in a class action lawsuit now over price fixing. They’re kicking games off Steam if their publishers offer games at lower prices on cheaper stores. They’re trying to be a monopoly.

… That’s not price fixing.

Do companies that don’t use steam offer comensuratelty lower prices?

They don’t offer lower prices on Epic because Valve bullies publishers into matching the price with Steam. Valve threatens to delist the game from Steam if a lower price is available elsewhere, using their market dominance to prevent smaller stores from competing the only way they realistically can – on price.

I literally said “companies that don’t use steam”. If a publisher opted to not use steam, it should have lower prices, right?

Except we see games not released on steam still selling for the same $60 for a full feature game that we do everywhere.

The lawsuit already has several public examples of communications between Valve and publishers where Valve is all “whoah whoah you can’t be selling that cheap on another store!”. Publishers want to offer lower prices. The economics make sense, passing on some of the savings to consumers will result in an increase in revenue, this is also what the expert economists in the lawsuit are going to be testifying.

If you’re big enough to not be using Steam, you’re what, Ubisoft or EA? (and even these are using Steam these days.)

That would seem to be price fixing by its very definition. (EDIT: Note that I’m not making any judgment on this class action. The reality of pricing on IsThereAnyDeal would suggest that there is no such rule that prices can’t be lower outside of Steam.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing

manufacturers and retailers may conspire to sell at a common “retail” price; set a common minimum sales price, where sellers agree not to discount the sales price below the agreed-to minimum price

And the question is irrelevant. Other companies can still benefit from external price fixing.

Price fixing is, as your highlighted bit says, a conspiracy to not compete on prices. Valve isn’t conspiring with their competition to fix prices, nor does valve even set the price.

The lawsuit alleges that it’s anticompetitive, not price fixing.

I personally don’t think it’s anticompetitive , given the number of popular games that don’t use steam. I just think that epic has a worse product, which isn’t valves fault.

From the actual lawsuit documents (emphasis is mine):

Valve’s monopolization and attempted monopolization have the purpose and effect of fixing and inflating prices in the relevant market.

EDIT: Uh… Exactly what part are we downvoting here? All I did was quote the lawsuit.

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