$843 million lawsuit against Valve already has its own website: "The Steam Claim" accuses the biggest store in PC gaming of "overcharging" players - eviltoast
  • Franconian_Nomad@feddit.de
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    6 months ago

    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.

    • Dadifer@lemmy.worldOP
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      6 months ago

      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?

      • SuperIce@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        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.

        • Aielman15@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          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.

            • Aielman15@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              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.

              • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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                6 months ago

                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.

                • Aielman15@lemmy.world
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                  6 months ago

                  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.

                  • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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                    6 months ago

                    … 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.

      • stardust@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        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.

      • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        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).