Recently we wrote about how Wolfire Games (Lugaru, Overgrowth, Receiver) engaged in a legal battle with Steam owner Valve in regards to alleged anti-competitive behaviour.
Wolfire's David Rosen has now written up a blog post to explain their feelings on why. It's worth noting that Rosen was one of the original founders of the Humble Indie Bundle, later spun off into its own Humble Bundle company and then sold to IGN. Rosen then, you would think, has a reasonably good grasp on how all this works on the business side. It's somewhat amusing that the blog post starts with "Dear gamers", which probably isn't going to do them any favours in such a legal battle.
Rosen mentions how they felt they had "no choice" as they believe "gamers and game developers are being harmed by Valve's conduct" and they're not doing it for personal gain. Rosen said after wanting to have Overgrowth listed at a lower price on a newer store, they "personally experienced the conduct described in the complaint". Speaking to Valve, Rosen said "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" and so that "would make it impossible for me, or any game developer, to determine whether or not Steam is earning their commission".
So the problem here isn't specifically the 30% cut Valve take but rather Valve forcing price parity, or developers face being removed from Steam.
Rosen believes that Valve are "taking away gamers' freedom to choose how much extra they are willing to pay to use their platform" and that it's believed "this is part of why all competing stores have failed".
We did reach out to Valve yesterday for a statement to no reply.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: Guestwow everyone here is a game developing expert and a marketing expert and a legal expert!
I wonder where do you all find the time to play games?
You created a template, don't you?
I find weird that in the first article the lawsuit seemed to be more focused on the market position and the cut that Steam takes from devs. But now, in this PR like response, it seems that the problem is an about extortion related to their market position. At this point I think it will be better that Valve releases to the public their price policy and anyone that was threatened by Steam regarding prices in other stores publish that threat (if possible).
Last edited by x_wing on 8 May 2021 at 12:06 am UTC
Quoting: PangaeaI'm sorry to hear he has a split personality disorder. I wish him well.
Wait... is there something I am missing here? I did not see this in the blog post. Maybe I am just blind...
BTW, I have both versions, since I prefer the no-DRM, no-background APP of GOG!
Last edited by lelorrain on 8 May 2021 at 12:33 am UTC
i wanna see how other stores react, when he sells his game on steam for a lower price, than... lets say epic
sweeney would be the first one who sues EVERYBODY
Quoting: lelorrainIt works only one way with Steam. A good example is the large discount Steam offered recently on "Horizon Zero Dawn", but it was NOT discounted on GOG, still at the initial Cdn$60 which was the same as on Steam ...
See the post above that leaked a piece of the policy. It says they don't want to create disadvantage to Steam users, so if publisher offers discount elsewhere, they should do it on Steam too.
If the publisher offers discount on Steam but not GOG, really it's on them for being unfair. You can't really expect Steam to force them to put the game on sale on GOG because it went on sale on Steam.
Quoting: lelorrainIt works only one way with Steam. A good example is the large discount Steam offered recently on "Horizon Zero Dawn", but it was NOT discounted on GOG, still at the initial Cdn$60 which was the same as on Steam ...
BTW, I have both versions, since I prefer the no-DRM, no-background APP of GOG!
Nobody is telling the publisher to not put HZD on sale on gog...
rustybroomhandle May 8, 2021
See my example about Prey (with Steam key) being only $20 on Amazon full price, vs whatever the Steam price is.
TheRiddick May 8, 2021
Quoting: TheRiddickI kind of get why Tarkov devs are selling on their own website atm, at least while in development. They need that extra %30 and if it was on steam the game would cost a fair bit more which isn't fair to the player base.
What extra 30%?!
Quoting: CyrilQuoting: Guestwow everyone here is a game developing expert and a marketing expert and a legal expert!
I wonder where do you all find the time to play games?
You again?
Well he's clearly an expert at spotting experts. Maybe he works in HR?
But seriously, I wonder if I'm actually allowed to talk about games with strangers. I'm certainly no gaming expert. An enthusiast at best.
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