In the second instance, Warner Bros. found itself in a similar situation. In 2017, as the publisher was preparing to launch Middle-earth: Shadow of War, the company was allegedly informed by Valve that pre-orders for the game had been removed from Steam. Valve's reasoning was that the price was “significantly higher than what was available at other retailers for the same version of the game.” David Haddad, president of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, allegedly tried to resolve the situation directly with Valve so as not to face its ire.

I am honestly struggling to see the issue with this one. Seems to me that Valve wanted the pre-order price to be lowered on their on platform to reflect how it was elsewhere. To me that looks pro-consumer, but perhaps I’m looking at it from the wrong angle? But both examples given just seem (to me) to be them trying to get the same price or product for their platform’s consumers as other platforms and not them driving up the price on other platforms. If someone has a better angle with which to view this, please share it.