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As far as I understand it, Steam only requires that you sell your game for the same price on other marketplaces if you're selling Steam keys. If you're selling

As far as I understand it, Steam only requires that you sell your game for the same price on other marketplaces if you're selling Steam keys. If you're selling a non-Steam license then you don't have to match prices at all and can sell for cheaper on Epic, Itch, GoG, etc. Can someone let me know if I'm misunderstanding? If that is actually the case then I don't see the devs' case having any merits whatsoever.

CodeWriter23 3y ago
Can you actually sell a game on Steam without using Steam Keys? If so, what other knock-on effects (e.g., piracy) are the devs having to deal with?
- kemayo 3y ago
  You don't have to use Steam keys to sell a game on Steam. Steam only issues those keys if you request them -- you only need them if you're selling your game somewhere other than Steam (or doing something like fulfilling Kickstarter preorders). If you don't request any keys, that just means that your game is only selling through the Steam store.
  - CodeWriter23 3y ago
    Thank you.
- caslon 3y ago
  You seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding, here. You can sell Steam keys on other platforms. Plenty of developers sell Steam keys on Itch, for example. You get to keep 100% of the revenue from an off-Steam Steam key sale. 100%! The only limitation is that they don't want you selling the keys for peanuts on other platforms. If your other platform is handling distribution, you can go nuts. Just don't charge 50% less on other platforms if you are depending on Steam for distribution.
  - CodeWriter23 3y ago
    Thanks, and you're totally correct, I did not understand.
kemayo 3y ago
I crawled through the Steam partners documentation for a bit, and the only thing I can find about price-equivalency is in the Steam Keys section: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/keys#3 https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/keys#3 As you say, it's basically "if you're selling Steam keys elsewhere, you need to be treating your product on Steam itself generally equivalently". It's written to sound flexible -- you can discount on different storefronts at different times, so long as Steam gets the same discount eventually. I didn't turn up anything for just selling your game without selling the Steam keys, but it's a big site so I might have missed it. (Or it might be buried in an actual contract somewhere, etc.)
nodja 3y ago
This is correct, also the steam keys are free to generate. I.e. when you buy a steam key from sites like greenmangaming, valve/steam gets $0. Steam could easily not provide the keys service or charge their cut as keys are claimed, but they decided to take the loss.
ThatPlayer 3y ago
> If you're selling a non-Steam license then you don't have to match prices at all and can sell for cheaper on Epic, Itch, GoG, etc. Wolfire (the one suing Valve in this case) is saying Valve threatened to remove their games from Steam if they did this. http://blog.wolfire.com/2021/05/Regarding-the-Valve-class-action http://blog.wolfire.com/2021/05/Regarding-the-Valve-class-ac... > 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.

CodeWriter23 3y ago

Can you actually sell a game on Steam without using Steam Keys? If so, what other knock-on effects (e.g., piracy) are the devs having to deal with?

kemayo 3y ago
You don't have to use Steam keys to sell a game on Steam. Steam only issues those keys if you request them -- you only need them if you're selling your game somewhere other than Steam (or doing something like fulfilling Kickstarter preorders). If you don't request any keys, that just means that your game is only selling through the Steam store.
- CodeWriter23 3y ago
  Thank you.
caslon 3y ago
You seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding, here. You can sell Steam keys on other platforms. Plenty of developers sell Steam keys on Itch, for example. You get to keep 100% of the revenue from an off-Steam Steam key sale. 100%! The only limitation is that they don't want you selling the keys for peanuts on other platforms. If your other platform is handling distribution, you can go nuts. Just don't charge 50% less on other platforms if you are depending on Steam for distribution.
- CodeWriter23 3y ago
  Thanks, and you're totally correct, I did not understand.

kemayo 3y ago

I crawled through the Steam partners documentation for a bit, and the only thing I can find about price-equivalency is in the Steam Keys section: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/keys#3 https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/keys#3 As you say, it's basically "if you're selling Steam keys elsewhere, you need to be treating your product on Steam itself generally equivalently". It's written to sound flexible -- you can discount on different storefronts at different times, so long as Steam gets the same discount eventually. I didn't turn up anything for just selling your game without selling the Steam keys, but it's a big site so I might have missed it. (Or it might be buried in an actual contract somewhere, etc.)

nodja 3y ago

This is correct, also the steam keys are free to generate. I.e. when you buy a steam key from sites like greenmangaming, valve/steam gets $0. Steam could easily not provide the keys service or charge their cut as keys are claimed, but they decided to take the loss.

ThatPlayer 3y ago

> If you're selling a non-Steam license then you don't have to match prices at all and can sell for cheaper on Epic, Itch, GoG, etc. Wolfire (the one suing Valve in this case) is saying Valve threatened to remove their games from Steam if they did this. http://blog.wolfire.com/2021/05/Regarding-the-Valve-class-action http://blog.wolfire.com/2021/05/Regarding-the-Valve-class-ac... > 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.