Steam seems like such a weird situation. Because like, yeah, it's obviously fucked for them to use their market influence to control prices like that. But also, if things were left up to "competition" without regulation, what we'd probably see is the game digital marketplace looking something like how film streaming went. New platforms who can take the loss having lower prices to pull people from Steam, then upping the prices once they have a share of market control. Which is likely what they were trying to do that drew Steam's ire, considering we're talking about Ubisoft and Warner Bros, not John Doe's Lil Local Game Shop. It's not like Ubisoft is a good and wholesome company who would be doing lower prices out of the goodness of their heart.

As it is, game prices as a whole are FUBAR and this aspect of it is more window dressing than anything else, as far as I can tell. Cause when you can look at a big game release and face down special edition, season pass, MTX, lootboxes, and more, the base price of the game is kind of beside the point. The pressing issue is that game publishers get away with creating what are essentially virtual casino experiences meant to keep you playing for as long as possible and spending indefinitely, not because you are rich and can afford it as "whale" spenders were sanitized by capitalist-captured games media, but because you have poor impulse control and are more easily manipulated into spending beyond your means.

Which game platforms are available to host this nightmare of an experience seems little important to me, next to that being such a normal part of the industry now.

So, not surprised that Valve acts capitalist, but also, not going to sympathize with Ubisoft, ya know.