Steam owner Valve accused of ripping off 14m UK gamers (www.bbc.com)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

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Valve Corporation is being accused of using its market dominance to overcharge 14 million people in the UK.

"Valve is rigging the market and taking advantage of UK gamers," said digital rights campaigner Vicki Shotbolt, who is bringing the case.

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[-] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 32 points 5 months ago

It says Valve "forces" game publishers to sign up to so-called price parity obligations, preventing titles being sold at cheaper prices on rival platforms.

Ms Shotbolt says this has enabled Steam to charge an "excessive commission of up to 30%", making UK consumers pay too much for purchasing PC games and add-on content.

This is actually the norm on a lot of platforms unfortunately. Apple. Google Play. Not at all unique to Valve.

[-] Zedstrian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Just because it's the norm doesn't mean it's not excessive. In contrast, Apple's implementation of a 30% cut is even worse, since with an iPhone you can't just install an app from another source (and even when you can in the case of the EU, there are recurring costs for doing so). Since Steam accounts for the majority of PC video game sales, with AAA titles only not releasing on it when they have a clear financial motive not to, Valve's use of a price parity clause effectively makes it the arbiter of what the industry standard markup on PC should be.

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this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024

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