4 ms·

Valve is certainly better than others, but they do prevent publishers from selling their game for less outside of Steam (if they sell that game on Steam), and I

Valve is certainly better than others, but they do prevent publishers from selling their game for less outside of Steam (if they sell that game on Steam), and I think that is anti-consumer.

maccard 3y ago
If you're going to make statements like this, at least be correct. Valve don't prevent yoou from selling your game for less outside of steam, they prevent you from selling _steam keys_ for less outside of steam. You're perfectly free to host it on your own website for $10 less.
- rezonant 3y ago
  (See update at bottom for a source supporting parent's claim) That's not correct from what I've read. You are more than welcome to ask for a source instead of accusing me of falsehoods. "To help maintain its monopoly power, Valve uses what is known as a Platform Most Favored Nations (“PMFN”) clause in its agreements with game publishers which prevents game publishers from selling their games on other on-line gaming sites with lower costs, fees, and/or sales commissions for less than the game publishers sell their games on the Steam platform" https://www.masonllp.com/case/valve-mass-arbitration/#:~:text=To%20help%20maintain%20its%20monopoly,sell%20their%20games%20on%20the%20Steam%20platform https://www.masonllp.com/case/valve-mass-arbitration/#:~:tex... Nothing about that refers to Steam Keys. I did do some cursory searching to find sources which disagreed with this interpretation but was unable to find any. There's always the possibility that the class action lawsuit was misguided or incorrect- so if you have any sources that say otherwise, please provide! ..Or I suppose, some examples of games that sell for less (excluding temporary sales) on other stores than they do within Steam. EDIT: Elsewhere someone provided this Ars Technica article where an unidentified source at Valve said this does only apply to Steam keys, which is likely what you are referring to: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/05/why-lower-platform-fees-dont-lead-to-lower-prices-on-the-epic-games-store/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/05/why-lower-platform-fe... So it's definitely a contested fact.
  - maccard 3y ago
    To be fair, it probably falls under speak to legal, but it's in the SDA on steamworks.
- opan 3y ago
  That can't be right. You can routinely find good deals on Steam keys using ITAD (isthereanydeal.com) which just searches a bunch of key sites for you and compares prices. So are all these sites breaking some rule then?
  - maccard 3y ago
    Most of the key sites are reselling bundled keys, doing region nonsense or are outright fraudulently purchased and laundered. There's a blog post from an indie studio that is roughly titled "don't buy our game from those sites, please just pirate it instead"

Valve is certainly better than others, but they do prevent publishers from selling their game for less outside of Steam (if they sell that game on Steam), and I think that is anti-consumer.

maccard 3y ago

If you're going to make statements like this, at least be correct. Valve don't prevent yoou from selling your game for less outside of steam, they prevent you from selling _steam keys_ for less outside of steam. You're perfectly free to host it on your own website for $10 less.

rezonant 3y ago
(See update at bottom for a source supporting parent's claim) That's not correct from what I've read. You are more than welcome to ask for a source instead of accusing me of falsehoods. "To help maintain its monopoly power, Valve uses what is known as a Platform Most Favored Nations (“PMFN”) clause in its agreements with game publishers which prevents game publishers from selling their games on other on-line gaming sites with lower costs, fees, and/or sales commissions for less than the game publishers sell their games on the Steam platform" https://www.masonllp.com/case/valve-mass-arbitration/#:~:text=To%20help%20maintain%20its%20monopoly,sell%20their%20games%20on%20the%20Steam%20platform https://www.masonllp.com/case/valve-mass-arbitration/#:~:tex... Nothing about that refers to Steam Keys. I did do some cursory searching to find sources which disagreed with this interpretation but was unable to find any. There's always the possibility that the class action lawsuit was misguided or incorrect- so if you have any sources that say otherwise, please provide! ..Or I suppose, some examples of games that sell for less (excluding temporary sales) on other stores than they do within Steam. EDIT: Elsewhere someone provided this Ars Technica article where an unidentified source at Valve said this does only apply to Steam keys, which is likely what you are referring to: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/05/why-lower-platform-fees-dont-lead-to-lower-prices-on-the-epic-games-store/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/05/why-lower-platform-fe... So it's definitely a contested fact.
- maccard 3y ago
  To be fair, it probably falls under speak to legal, but it's in the SDA on steamworks.
opan 3y ago
That can't be right. You can routinely find good deals on Steam keys using ITAD (isthereanydeal.com) which just searches a bunch of key sites for you and compares prices. So are all these sites breaking some rule then?
- maccard 3y ago
  Most of the key sites are reselling bundled keys, doing region nonsense or are outright fraudulently purchased and laundered. There's a blog post from an indie studio that is roughly titled "don't buy our game from those sites, please just pirate it instead"