Valve are in the legal spotlight again following the EU Commission Fine with a few more Steam troubles, as a new lawsuit has emerged with a claim about an "abuse" of their market power.
First picked up by the Hollywood Reporter, which has the full document showing the lawsuit was filed on January 28, was filed by 5 people together and doesn't appear to have any major companies backing it. The suit mentions how Valve require developers to sign an agreement that contains a "Most Favored Nations" provision to have developers keep the price of their games the same on Steam as other platforms. To be clear, they're talking about the Steam Distribution Agreement which isn't public and not what we can all see in the Steamworks documentation which talks about keys.
This means (if the claim is actually true) that developers cannot have their game on itch, GOG, Humble or anywhere else at a lower price, and so the lawsuit claims that other platforms are unable to compete on pricing "thereby insulating the Steam platform from competition" and that it "acts as an artificial barrier to entry by potential rival platforms and as higher prices lead to less sales of PC Games".
As part of the lawsuit it also names CD Projekt, Ubisoft, Devolver Digital and others.
It argues that if developers could legitimately set their own prices across different stores, they could lower their prices on stores that take a lower cut and "generate the same or even greater revenue per game as a result of the lower commissions, while lowering prices to consumers". They even directly bring up posts on Twitter from the Epic Games CEO, Tim Sweeney, like this one from 2019:
Steam has veto power over prices, so if a multi-store developer wishes to sell their game for a lower price on the Epic Games store than Steam, then: 1) Valve can simply say “no” 2) Pricing disparity would likely anger Steam users, leading to review bombing, etc
What are your thoughts on this? Should Valve be forced to allow developers to set their own prices, and not require their price to be the same as other stores?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
The outcome of this will be interesting - the actual court judgement.
Windousico Feb 1, 2021
QuoteThe suit mentions how Valve require developers to sign an agreement that contains a "Most Favored Nations" provision to have developers keep the price of their games the same on Steam as other platforms.
Epic Games Store "sold" "Steam games" with a 100% discount and Valve did nothing. The Most-Favored-Nation clause is for Steam keys.
Quoting: Liam DaweQuoting: randylThe agreement does not state as such. Did you do some digging to find out what the agreement is or did you assume it's all private? You source the Hollywood Reporter which doesn't actually do good diligent investigative journalism and find out what the contract says. The lawsuit makes claims it hasn't substantiated and won't until it goes to court. The wording, at the very least, can be misleading, if not outright false.Even if I knew, I couldn't say in public for certain, because the agreements are confidential. It's under an NDA last I checked.
You can't break an NDA you didn't sign.
And Sweeney already talked about it publicly.
Quoting: kuhpunktYou can't break an NDA you didn't sign.No but it gives Valve an easy reason to ignore me. I'm not about to burn bridges, don't try to get me to.
Anyway, since there's some rampant fanboyism going on, I shall not be replying further personally on this one.
Quoting: Liam DaweQuoting: kuhpunktYou can't break an NDA you didn't sign.No but it gives Valve an easy reason to ignore me. I'm not about to burn bridges, don't try to get me to.
Anyway, since there's some rampant fanboyism going on, I shall not be replying further personally on this one.
I'm not trying to get to you. It's just about being objective here. That's not fanboyism.
Quoting: Liam DaweSorry but you're clearly not objective about any of this.
Pointing out simple objective mistakes/false claims in the lawsuit = fanboyism?
Quoting: Liam DaweThe lawsuit is talking about the main Steam distribution agreement though, not the Steamworks Steam Keys agreement. They're two different things. As far as I can tell, the Distribution Agreement is confidential and so we cannot see it. This is where the MFN clause is contained.
Allegedly contained.
The ambulance chasers are the only ones that have said there's an MFN clause; there's no independent evidence to show that there really is one, their other claims are - charitably - questionable, and things like EA's games being cheaper on Origin than Steam would suggest that there isn't one.
The contract will be shown at trial, likely under seal, should it go that far. This case seems much more like a means of generating negative publicity for Valve, with a side of the off-chance that paying the litigants to go away is cheaper than going to court so they'll get a payday. MFN clauses aren't universally upheld, even if there is one, in any case
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 1 February 2021 at 6:27 pm UTC
Not curious question.
chears all ;-)
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