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Honestly, if steam has to cut the 30% fee, its just more money for the Devs. Cross Plattform dlcs? Hell yeah.
I honestly dont See the problem with the lawsuit. Sure, its a loaoboll'ks mayt`, but why the fuck not? After all, why shouldn't steam get even better than it already is?
Seems very unlikely. Are their fees bullshit? Yes. Is Steam a monopoly? Sure. Have they achieved this through anti-competitive measures? Absolutely not that I'm aware of.
It's largely that they were just the first game store but it's also that they are continuously the best game store, on all fronts. While other game stores are tripping over themselves to make the experience shittier, unable to complete the simplest of tasks like logging in or launching a game.
It's not necessarily bad for what would happen to Steam, but the precident that it would set. Why should a company be forced to change its prices and policies just because some pieces of shit other companies cannot successfully compete?
... I know when stated so plainly, that would include very common and sensible laws like antitrust laws, but what part of Steam having the same cut they've always had is antitrust?
It's alleged that they require games sold on other platforms which have a lower cut are not allowed to set their price lower than on steam (i.e. pass those saving on to customers). There are arguments for and against these allegations being true so I'll let the court decide.
It's alleged that they require games sold on other platforms which have a lower cut are not allowed to set their price lower than on steam
That's based on a single email from 10 years ago that was most likely just worded wrong
It's patently false. EGS offers games for free or simply lower prices all the time, even when said games are on both platforms
I will preface with. I know nothing about how things work.. but I suppose there might be potential in if that goes through that there's less money to put towards things like Linux development and may have to raise price on steam machine even more.. that's just a potential negative that comes to mind
They might make this an excuse to do those things, sure, but Valve has more money than they know what to do with.
One thing to remember is that the push to Linux is a preemptive act of self preservation, so that will not falter unless they change strategy. Gaben talked years ago about not being beholden to Microsoft to host their platform and seeing the introduction of a Microsoft app store + locked down apps as trouble on the horizon. The fact that Linux is what the community wants is a happy coincidence, companies are not your friends.
But again, I have enough hope in God and saviour gaben to cut his salary if things get stiff
They're more likely to force them to add age verification
After hearing other sides, I kind of take steam side on this lawsuit. For one, cross-platform DLCs are not technically possible. The DLC has to authenticate with the base license access, the cloud saves and every other system. It's the same way on consoles. You can't buy the PS5 game and then expect to buy the DLC on Xbox or something.. it's just not how that works.
As for the not allowing the games to be permanently priced cut on other stores, steam offers discoverability like no other platform offers as well as the achievements the reviews the workshop. It prevents someone from listing their game on steam for all the benefits it offers but then sending users to other platforms to get it cheaper.
There have been things steam has done wrong in the past that have been righted with lawsuits but I don't really feel like this particular thing is a anti-competitive practice as much as just having a more feature-rich platform and not letting that be taken advantage of without getting something back.
The only real issue I have with valve is using drm but that's not changing anytime soon