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Well about that 'refund policy' . In recent days found a email from steam telling me off for making refunds on 5 games I purchased in the last month saying ' the refund policy is not to be abused for free trails and we reserve the right to refuse anyone that is suspected of doing so' 😡
They are punishing Valve for being smart. Even if Valve didn't take 30 percent the greedy publishers would still charge $70 to $120. Even if this lawsuit wins against Valve its still not going to stop greedy publishers from overcharging for games Publishers will just take a bigger cut of the profit. If you go on the PSN and Xbox stores you'll see that games also range from $70 to $120 so what Steam does is not unusual. If they are going to sue Valve they might as well be fair and sue Microsoft and Sony as well since they determine the baseline prices of games each new console generation.
Exactly my thoughts, Lady Decade should be careful she is not just fighting for people who wants to be in steams position, nothing to do with whatever she is talking about
When you buy a Steam game you're also paying for the future ability to download it, and store your saved games. Yes game prices should come down if digital only.
No actual avid gamer with a steam account cares about suing Steam. Where else can you buy triple A games for 2 or 3 dollars on sale? Sour grapes from competitors are behind the lawsuit, 100%. Steam is extremely consumer friendly. This entire lawsuit sounds like BS. In all my years of gaming I have never been able to buy more games for less money than on Steam. I have never been restricted to buy only on steam, nor have I ever seen any substantial difference in DLC prices across platforms. Steam is not a monopoly and none of this stops gaming companies from selling their products directly to consumers which most of them do. Prices on Steam are routinely cheaper than on any other platform so I am calling BS on this lawsuit. It does sound like a good way for a big law firm to make a lot of money on a settlement. I would really like to know where else I can go to consistently get better deals and not from a shady company like Instant gaming. Nice try attorneys, we're not buying it.
You have to remember this is a billion dollar corporation not your friend. They are doing you absolutely no favours. Steam are in a position where they could cut their commissions and still make billions. They sell you cheap games old for the same reason everyone does, to keep money rolling in on old products. They aren't doing you a solid because they care about you
I agree with this point, 100%, and I don’t even have a STEAM account! The reason I don’t do STEAM is because I’m a console gamer and not a PC gamer. It’s nothing against PCs, I just can’t afford a PC right now. With this DLC thing, how is this different from Sony selling me a game and then DLC for that game, yet I can’t play this game OR its DLC on Xbox, unless I get the Xbox version of said game. This is a shameless lawsuit that I think will hurt the gaming industry a lot more than just destroying Valve. I hope this is shut down fast! STEAM is very consumer friendly. If their model is taken down by some scumbag lawyers, the game developers aren’t going to suddenly lower their prices. They’ll either keep it the same, or they will raise prices for several games and DLC. No one is forcing players to get games through STEAM. No company is forced to seek their product on STEAM. This is an open market where both gaming companies and consumers are free to choose to use or ignore this service. If STEAM is sued and Valve loses, our choices will be diminished and we will all suffer. 2024 is going down as the worst year since 1983/1984. What a shame.
Unfortunately Valve is dominant because the services of competitors are crap, specially game stores for consoles (which are always too expensive) . Nintendo is always selling the same games for 60 USD or more, Xbox doing the same (Forza is one that always has the same price and they try to fool you to believe that there are 50% promotions, the game is almost always in "promotion") and Sony is so bad that is not even funny anymore.
They have the best client, installation and more seamless integration with controllers that is half-way an actual consolized solution. A competitor will need to outdo their solution to have an actual chance, basically turn a PC into a console using a solid store frontend and client, but that seems hard to achieve based on what we see.
Yet the despite all this I’m not interested in Steam or PC because I want to be able to own my games and if Steam store goes down there goes your digital games.
@@Adamtendo_player_1 Physical games are dying and The only way to truly own your products is to have DRM-Free backups of them everywhere, which can only be done on an open platform like the PC. Fun fact, you can play most Steam games (without any third party DRM) free if you use a steam emulator like Goldberg Emulator. There's a reason why Nintendo Switch cartridges have a unique identifier, its so they can control your games.
To be fair i NEVER buy anything for full price since i got a pc...i always wait for at least a 50% doscout or more. Pc games should be 40 bucks max regardless if theyre new or not...were not buying a physical piece of media so take off that 20 bucks
Between 2000 and 1012 practically all phsycically released games (pc and console) always were around 50 to 60 euro when they were barely out on the market. They dropped to a price range between 15 and 40 after a year or two of being sold. It's strange how people think Steam is so much cheaper. It's almost the same deal as before.
Most AAA studios are filled with bloat. For example Amplitude studios game Humankind had more managers, HR and benefits, and auxiliary staff than programmers, artists, and musicians. If fact music was completely subcontracted to an outside music studio. Most of the cost of an AAA game is bloat especially if they waste money of a consultancy firm.
Vicki is delusional, prices on steam are set by the dev/publisher, who can create infinite steam keys (at valve's bandwidth cost) and sell them anywhere. They only charge the 30% fee if they are sold directly on steam, where people can take advantage of superior steam features like reviews and workshop. If they want to use keys that aren't using steams infrastructure, there is nothing stopping them. Many games release on multiple platforms. Also the price would not go down if that % was reduced. Digital games never got cheaper than physical ones.
Well you definitely come across from pirate softwares video. The lawsuits about price parity, tying COMBINED with the 30%. The 30% in and of itself is not a problem, it's a problem when COMBINED with those two other factors. My video is balanced. I haven't taken a stance for or against Steam. As it happens I actually LOVE Steam but I do find it really creepy how so many people have made loving Steam their personality and are personally offended on behalf of a corporate company.
@@LadyDecadeThat last sentence is very true, but it's not just Steam fans. It seems like I keep running into crowds this past month who make corporations the basis of their entire identity. Disney, car companies, bands and politicians. You can't say anything without sending someone into a desperate, emotionally charged tirade. I worry about what our society is missing that is causing a complete lack of personal identity in people.
@@LadyDecade Even though I'm not a fan of people making companies their identity and feel obliged to defend them no matter what, I did feel the price comparison was a bit unfair. Windows Gaming has been a dominating force on PC, bullying Mac and Linux users into the corner for far too long. They may be offering lower prices because: 1. It asserts their dominance and opens more unfair ways to rip people off of their money, as if charging people to use a software that is essential for their hardware (Windows OS) isn't unfair enough. 2. They are lagging behind in the competition and we've seen throughout the history whenever a company is behind they charge less prices and accuse other parties of over-charging, then when they've gained dominance, they charge even more than their competition. And Microsoft has done this way too many times and gotten away with it. Honestly speaking, I've been waiting for something like this against Microsoft for way too long without seeing any effective measure taken against them, so suddenly Valve getting a slap feels like there is malintent behind this lawsuit.
@@tokensoftokens If people lack a belief system or core foundation, yes, you will get people making materialism, people or corporations their identity. That's how we are wired no matter how people say they believe in nothing. It reflects otherwise in various ways.
So many people argue in bad faith to Valve's price parity. They aren't dictating industry wide pricing. If a publisher lists a game on Steam for $50 and then on another store front at $30 they are supposed to offer the steam users the same price. Sales and them selling steam keys are excluded. Like how she is taking the side that Steam is bad. They are the ones who lowered the industry standard to 30% and Tim Sweeny is even on record of saying that their 12% cut isn't sustainable. This is evident by how these store fronts differ. Everything Epic does is for the benefit of the companies, not the consumer. Their review system is a total joke, the ability to search, etc. Steam I can look at reviews right on the page, download mods from the workshop and much more. Also how is Valve controlling the prices of games on consoles. You figure a digital only game would be cheaper than a physical copy, but yet here we are. Also even with the lower cut on these other platforms, we don't see any of these games being cheaper. The prices for digital on the consoles, are also the same. And the consoles take even the same 30% cut, but hey its fine because of reasons. Nintendo doesn't even discount their old games on their platforms. Zelda Beath of the Wild is still $60 seven years later. Maybe the problem is the publishers being greedy. The lower cut on Epic and Microsoft store fronts aren't passed onto the developers and other employees, they are just pocketed by the higher ups. They use it as an excuse to make more money, and eye raising prices. Maybe the ire should be directed to them and their price gouging practices (dlc, loot boxes/gatcha, battle passes, etc.). Hell they have hired psychologists to find a way to make it as addicting as possible to open your wallet even more to them. Games seem to be about milking you out of every last penny you have. Maybe the lawsuit should be directed towards them.
" If a publisher lists a game on Steam for $50 and then on another store front at $30 they are supposed to offer the steam users the same price." No this is wrong. Steam is perfectly fine with this here, as long as the site selling it for 30$ is not giving out steam keys. Steam only requires parity when selling steam keys on other places. Other than that I agree with what you say.
I do not like them or their reviews. People rated 10/10 a game where you are a fish and do nothing. Then steam users love a game where...you just click a banana..........
Steam removed a game I like, because the dev might have written something trans- or homophobic. I haven´t seen his post, but Steam/Valve acts political and "works" with Sweet Baby Inc. Unfortunately Steam isn´t avoidable as gamer, even when you buy a CD/DVD and install it with your drive, you have to activate the key via Steam.......You don´t own a game anymore these days and many are angry of this digital only stuff and also with Steam.
I'm pretty sure the only people really upset by Steam are all of those other crappy digital stores that can't put a dent in Steam's market share. Tim Sweeny can just cry louder.
"games becoming increasingly unaffordable for gamers?" Whut? Most big games cost around € 60 for years now. A lot of good indies cost still around € 15 - € 25 and sales are still going rampant. We've had an 20%+ inflation these past 5 years and games hardly cost anything more. It's the only product or service that DOESN'T make me feel like I'm getting financially screwed. You saying this doesn't make sense to me at all. Edit: I do agree that some of the practices are dubious and should be adressed.
@@LadyDecade 12% is Epic and they had to admit its not proftable this way. get your facts straight, back to 1990 with retails calling for more than 40%?
Between 2000 and 1012 practically all phsycically released games (pc and console) always were around 50 to 60 euro when they were barely out on the market. They dropped to a price range between 15 and 40 after a year or two of being sold. It's strange how people think Steam is so much cheaper. It's almost the same deal as before.
Funnily enough with inflation and things. Game should cost even more than that. People that said 80 GBP is too expensive, it's because they are not used to do it and the inflation made the games' price raise. 60 GBP 10 years ago would be more like 75 GBP today. Its almost the same, just the number changed. Also, playstation, xbox and Nintendo take the same cut and usually don't have such sales. Valve is the dictator that we always needed, a loyal to their customers. Unlike epic who sells data, ubisoft having a terrible ui with poor performance and ea WELL
If monopoly and anticompetitive practices should be prosecuted why don't they start with Nintendo and Sony? I've always had a great costumer service and prices with steam. This is just a plot made by consoles companies because they want steam's profit and they always make their tantrums when they see steam has the same product for 30% or 50% less. I don't think steam will loose this lawsuit
But if the high commision prices Steam charges the developers would end up being paid by the end users, this would also mean the games should be cheaper outside Steam. Which is often not the case.
This is itself proof of outsized market influence. If there WAS a big difference in prices then you could argue the market is operating properly. But there ISN'T a big market price difference, which means price manipulation, which is illegal.
@@darinherrick9224I think you are seeing it the other way around, why are games not cheaper else where? Does steam mandate you have the games at the same price in other stores?
@@darinherrick9224 Yeah but that would mean there's price manipulation outside Steam as well. The video is about high prices being caused by Steam. If a developer is forced to sell at high prices on Steam but could offer it way cheaper elsewhere, why wouldn't they?
It is painful to spend $99 for the super deluxe version of a AAA-studio game... especially when it is riddled with glitches and isn't very good anyway. 💸
I also hate the idea of a $70 game, but to be fair a $50 Nintendo game in 1988 with inflation would now be the equivalent of $132.74!!!! Talk about a rip off... inflation, not the game 😹
I'm not angry with Steam, but charging $60 on an almost decade old game is highway robbery. These games would've ended up in the $5 bargain bin back in the day, and it's really greedy. It won't keep me from buying and playing games on Steam because no one else really does what they do, but I will always admit when they inflate prices on old games. I'm always in the market for a replacement, but no one's come out with one yet.
except steam doesnt set the price. they just charge the developer, not you. also if your buying an old game they have at least 4 sales a year and 2 publisher sales a year where its up to 80-90% off. at 90% off its cheaper than pirating becuase of the time you save on patches and updates.
@@jemiebridges3197 Does it really matter who sets the price? They're still overinflated. I've been using Steam for 17 years and I've followed the sales schedules every single year, but thanks anyway.
@@JT.PlaysGames Well it does mater if your problem with steam is them charging 60$ and inflating prices. Because thats not steam doing it, the devs can sell their games for 5$ if they wish and steam won't do anything to stop that.
This suit sounds like BS too me. Anytime I buy a game (though to be honest I hardly ever buy a game at launch) I usually buy it for steam for much cheaper than you can anywhere else whether it is from steam themselves or a third party site. Also, the bit about it being monopolistic is also BS since there are other game stores for PC like GOG, epic, and MS. This lawsuit sounds like a backhanded Epic funded attack on steam.
If steam goes to shit I will stick with emulation, GOG, and epic games store. it will not deter us to move to console. I hope whoever is trying to takedown steam will understand we will not bow to console. it can go to hell.
@@blumiu2426 I don't think it would destroy valve, but there is talk that microsoft would try to buy valve, and this lawsuit. People are clearly intimidated by Valve.
To be fair, the 12% commission fee was even stated by epic as inefficiant and from them as just a tactic to make steam lower their to hurt their income
It feels like to some extent the UK is trying to ride the coattails of the suits against Apple and Google Play stores and their high percentages (30% as well I think). But there are differences in the situations. Those two are VERY locked in (Google somewhat less so than Apple) and the way they force apps you get thru the store to have to do in-app sales thru the same store (like you can't by books in the Kindle app because of that). Tho I'm ticked with Amazon on that as well because they have their own app store you can use on Android, yet you can't get the Kindle app there. Let's be honest here too - Steam overall has probably SAVED gamers more money than cost them. I have a lot of games in Steam, mostly bought during sales. The only gamers being *maybe* hurt are the ones that buy early releases. And even if Steam loses, will it make a difference? Or will publishers keep the prices for new releases high since that's what we're used to paying but just taking a higher profit? Will the Steam sales not be as good in the future? I don't know how Steam runs those sales - do they still take a full percentage or do they reduce their cut along with the prices? At any rate they may not make the sale prices as low if they're percentage is reduced. I just don't see that this suit would end up actually benefiting anyone much.
So why is this a big deal all of a sudden? There's been a class action lawsuit in the US against Steam for a minute now...the only thing new is that it's over yunner now?
My steam deck is 2 years old the buttons stoped working so I asked steam if they could fix it. they was like we will RAM it just send it to us will fix it or send you a new one .
I don't know about other countries, but here in Brazil, games published by Microsoft are cheaper (in BRL) at Microsoft Store than on Steam. So technically it's possible to offer lower prices outside Steam with no punishment for it.
The price is set by the game devs. Steam recommends a price in other countries that a lot of devs use so they don't have to bother with figuring out the process themselves. Some devs put research into the living situation of other countries set the prices themselves.
@Kasparth - It's a valid legal complaint, that the exorbitantly higher fees that Steam is charging publishers is raising game prices across the board so you can't even FIND cheaper prices elsewhere!
If Valve loses this lawsuit. It just means Steam players will probably be charged more for games to cover the cost of the payout. Unless Valve has an insurance policy to cover it.
First, let me be clear I boycotted Valve's Steam distribution system for 10 years when it launched, I am by no means a Steam fanboy, but lets not be delusional, Steam is dominant because of all the shitty companies vying for market share they treat the customers the best. I personally prefer GOG as they actually let me own what I purchased. The fix is simple. Steam just needs to stop giving developers free Steam keys. Let the developers build their own licensing and content distribution system or just use Epic/GOG. Price parity is only a requirement if developers are selling Steam keys through third-party store fronts. As for the 30% that is a hold over from the physical game sales & distribution system. Retailers selling physical copies demanded that digital licenses enforce price parity as to not undercut their prices. Valve was able to demand the same for their distribution platform as it easily provides more services to both the customer, publisher, and developers than physical retailers. If developers don't like the 30% cut they can publish on Epic or even self publish/distribute. EA's Origin, Ubisoft's Connect, Blizzard's Battlenet, etc... Companies are already doing just that and no one is telling them they can't sell the games for cheaper. The argument for digital sales & distribution that disingenuousness companies make is that it will lead to lower prices, this NEVER comes to pass. Why would it? No, but the companies can now pocket more of your money bypassing the physical retail model. Also Steam does allow for regional pricing. This lawsuit has always been a bunch of BS.
Bear in mind it is misinformation to blindly say Steam taking the large cut they do and ending at "STEAM BAD!" Steam also has a degree of product discoverability that pushing potential sales right in front of your face, whereas Epic in particular doesn't. Bellular has covered this regarding his own company's game. It doesn't justify what Steam is doing, but you still get far more sales, and by extension far more money on Steam than if you use exclusively Epic. You can't just tear down Steam and fix the problem of Steam's dominance. There's also the fact I've know people who don't want 20 different game sales platforms/launchers, and only want to use Steam as much as possible, it being the original dominating force they already own everything. Making changes to this situation is going to be about like trying to push back the ocean with a mop.
She didn’t end the video with “steam bad!” at all. She actually highlighted why people find such value in the service, and they help small devs get some visibility. She emphasized that yes, improvements can be made to make their business practices more fair to all consumers. Be interesting to see the outcome of this law suit. If this was In the US, I think Valve would win.
@@dwood1149 The US usually waits until something is at it's worst or can't be ignored to take action. Or the monetary benefit doesn't outweigh the other risks. I'm sure it's the same in the UK, just maybe not is as easy to get away with or they like sticking it to foreign companies more.
Before clicking on the video, I figured the lawsuit would be about the price parity clause more than the 30% royalty. While I believe that Steam's service is currently the best digital PC game retail service available right now, I'm intrigued to see how a loss for Valve would affect retailers of _other_ digital products with similar clauses in their partner contracts. I make fonts and at least one of my fonts is sold commercially through the online retailer MyFonts and they have a similar price parity clause but also take a 50% cut of sales rather than Valve's 30%. If I wanted to sell my font for a different price somewhere else, I'd also have to change the price on MyFonts as well to match.
To an extent yes. Tho there is a huge amount of misinformation about the price parity clause. The price parity clause only applies to selling steam Keys on other sites, and only because those steam keys will cost valve money while not giving any return. Pretty much devs can create keys for their game completely free of charge. If they sell those keys on their own website valve takes 0% of those sales but still gives the dev all steams features. So steam requires that the price for keys and the price to buy directly from steam remain the same. They are even quite lenient about it saying that you can sell keys for less as long as you are gonna offer the same price to steam users in a reasonable timeframe.
The biggest game prices inflation was when PS3 or 4 and it's X counterpart hit the shelves. In other words console games were much more expensive than PC versions. People were ok with it. No wonder prices are going up and up.
There is no records in history appointing to less taxes and fees resulting in lower prices for consumers. Prices never go down, only up. A game that cost 70$ stil going to cost 70$ the difference is that the companies will profit further and steam would get less from it. Percentage based math points to holding the prices down instead of inflating. Because if you sell you product with a higher price you would get a higher fee. So it helps the prices to stay manageable
I was thinking of getting a Steam Deck but they seemed a bit overpriced. Is there something else, equally as good for cheaper that someone can recommend? Ideally I'd like to use Retroarch on it also
So people are trying to say that we the consumers that buy the games, that are happy with steam are paying too much for games?! Seriously. look at console game prices. They are the same if not more, higher prices than steam. Steam also has steam sales where we are offered games at a great discount. This is all BS.
What you are missing is you are comparing an open market (PC) to a closed market (console). If Steam is acting like a console then it IS anti-competitive.
If Steam are found guilty I can think of at least 3 digital store fronts that are equally as guilty if not worse. The PC is an open platform. Valve isn't locking you down to Steam exclusively. There are many other options out there to buy video games on PC. Where Valve doesn't get a penny from those transactions.
This is like arguing the collusion between Apple and Amazon price fixing digital books wasn’t illegal because there are other ways to buy digital books. Sorry. You’re wrong. This is a monopoly and you’re a sucker.
Only Steam really supports Linux, only Steam is available on Chromebooks. Until other companies cares only about Windows machines, I will leave my money in Valve store.
The prive for product must be the same = no fair? How is THE same price on different platforms is UNFAIR? Also, steam provides ALOT more then other platforms.
Although Steam is my prefered plataform its feature set is unmatched, and I will alllways get the steam version of a game. I get, the argument that some users are not hable to get savings pass on to them from other vendors, if steam did not required price parity. Some users just don't care for those extra niceties offered by steam, and will rather keep extra in their wallets.
@@JohnnyProctor9 Nah, I am ok waiting a few months for a game to receive patches. by then, many games have received discounts and are more stable. No need to have a bad experience upon a game release.
So the 30% is stoping conpetition? The same plataform (windows) has multiple stores one can use including one that comes pre packaged with said plataform, and somehow developers and buyers still chose steam. I wonder why? Its a mistery. This lawsuit should fall flat. They are the best because they provide the best services and have consumer in mind. This is dumb.
yeah becuz the law sue is just a money grap same as the sony law sue. when u look at the website it sus AF. don;t seem like they care at all, the one who is backing this is vivki from the child protective agency whitch makes no sense when gambling is an issue that they could have target steam for but she didn't
@@LadyDecade and the same goes for price parity, its a contractual condition exactly as the price, devs know what they are accepting, if the market doesnt offer a more appealing deal that puts the devs in the position for chosing between that or epic for instance its not steam's fault,its the other stores fault. Thats like saying an exclusivity contract is holding back conpetition.
@@diogocoelho3450just because something is in a contract it doesn’t make it correct or legally enforceable. Forcing a party to not do business in the way they want with another party particularly when you’re a market leader is anti competitive.
Trying to convince me or anyone with a brain that steam is the bad guy here is insane. 30% is not outrageous and is irrelevant to the consumer considering steam sales
I doubt this law fare will get much traction in the UK. Steam has reduced the price of gaming to consumers from most objective viewpoints and the UK has the "man on the Clapham omnibus" precedent.
One thing I’ll say that steam has gone for it is modding community as I have seen some crazy mods online, anyway great video as always and keep on saying it as it is, Lady D.
STEAM is being attacked by its competitors through a shyster law firm. This lawsuit has the potential to ruin gaming for all of us, and I don’t even have a STEAM account! The reason I don’t do STEAM is because I’m a console gamer and not a PC gamer. It’s nothing against PCs, I just can’t afford a PC right now. With this DLC thing; how is this different from Sony selling me a game and then DLC for that game, yet I can’t play this game OR its DLC on Xbox unless I get the Xbox version of said game and/or DLC? This is a shameless lawsuit that I think will hurt the gaming industry a lot more than just destroying Valve. I hope this is shut down fast! STEAM is very consumer friendly. If their model is taken down by some scumbag lawyers, the game developers aren’t going to suddenly lower their prices. They’ll either keep it the same, or they will raise prices for several games and DLC. No one is forcing players to get games through STEAM. No company is forced to sell their product on STEAM. This is an open market where both gaming companies and consumers are free to choose to use or ignore this service. If STEAM is sued and Valve loses, our choices will be diminished and we will all suffer. 2024 is going down as the worst year since 1983/1984. What a shame.
No one forces gamers to get games through Steam and I've never said that Steam isn't overall a great service but the suit DOES have a point - three points - price parity is an issue and you don't have to use Steam at all for that to affect you.
Steam should survive as it offers both the customers and developers services and promotion, but given they operate on an open platform like the PC is (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo apply their own, much more restrictive rules on proprietary hardware) they can't force developers to pay 30% commission AND basically make the default retail price for the whole market. I guess 1 billion lost could convince them to be more fair, to everybody's gain but them. Is the parity rate even legal? I stick to GOG if no online play is involved, but everybody's Steam library is quite big and needs to be preserved.
I don’t think Valve overcharged me at all. In fact, I got such great deals on Steam that I have a giant backlog of games I’ve bought, but never played. And I’m not the only one!!!
Steam is more consumer friendly than most is more designed to build out the independent developers. Retail outlets had control over the markets and what content could be in games for over 50 years. That 30% is likely the cut cost of distribution. The only thing that I see wrong is the price fixing that you can't sell it cheaper anywhere else. Steam's strategy paid off well and the only real competition is GoG which I would rather use for classic games. Their biggest drawback is that the storefront doesn't really sort by make and model so sometimes you buy a product that you can't play which is bad. But I think Metroidvania's wouldn't exist without Steam but yes I think they are in the wrong. They have a monopoly. They are willfully ignorant of money laundering on their sites and why steam purchases exist and suddenly eastern European countries make a game that launders illicit funds or hacked funds as they push for steam or Amazon gift cards. That is what the UK could go after as they don't have the right protocols in place for it and it is possibly a large chunk of their revenue.
Headquarters don’t matter, they do business in the UK so all operations in the UK have to abide by UK law. The court’s decision is legally enforceable. This topic came up a million times with Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition and here we are again.
It's wild to me how Steam is ripping off their customers... and their customers defend the ripping off. I blame lack of financial literacy, and really good marketing by Valve. It's not your friend. It's a company. YOU are the cash cow they are milking.
Not just a lack of financial literacy, there’s an obvious lack of attention span and critical thinking. A lot of comments here haven’t watched the video fully and are leaving completely irrelevant comments.
I promote them every video. You know the keys are all for Steam right? You are deluded if that's what you drew from this upload. I've uploaded pieces critical of all the big platforms recently.
remember there r people buying 150$ early access pre-ordered AAA game when they could just waited for reviews and release date for 60$ and even wait longer for a sale. so expect people to believe the BS.
@@matthewcheng4158 Yeah, if we care about the price of games the last place we should be looking is the stores comissions, but pricing itself. Don't want $ 70 games?, $100 games?, well, just don't buy $70 and $100 games. If enough people did, they'd be gone in six months.
Really valve dosen't force any dev or publisher to sale on steam we just won't buy it if it's not offered on steam they have earned our loyalty thus far I have been on steam for 19 years I can't say that for any other platform I'veever used!😅
All I'm seeing is more than likely 1 of the big three gaming console manufacturers funding slimy investors to find anything they can against the biggest rival they have to date. This stinks of corporate games.
Blame steam cause AAA companies spending 300milions on a game and charging accordingly have nothing on the matter. The same companies which have their own stores and logically have no need to sell on steam and pay the 30%. what about Ubisoft and sony revoking product ownership rights? the end user is the target audience for devs, stores and publishers so let's instead focus on the satisfaction factor comparing steam to every other store font.
Going to buy Black Myth: Wukong on Steam over any other platform. Goodwill goes far I hope. And I'm migrating console player. Where the fuck do I need a new console, if it doesn't even have any compelling exclusives? All I need is a good controller. So which is it; PS5 or Xbox -controller for the PC?
I ain't gonna lie. Even if Steam is found to be guilty. My view of Steam wouldn't change at all. When I look at the other platforms like GoG and Epic, they're all trash. Steam isn't just a platform. They've developed it into a community that no other platform has done.
PCMR has every right to be smug. I apologize for nothing. While Steam is the most consumer friendly, feature rich and largest PC storefront, they're still a corporation and every corporation does corporate stuff to varying degrees.
I think your editor choosing the PS4 to PS5 as a generation shift that doesn't let you carry digital content from one generation to the next was a misstep. It's the only console generation shift that I've actually had my digital content carry over to. It's probably the one thing Sony got mostly right with their digital content on the PS5.
You have 125k subbers but get an average of 18k views per vid. You make great informative videos to boot. I'll never understand why people sub to a good channel and never watch the vids.
Steam is a good service, the competition is shite.. Simple...I am hoping this won't f**k it up for us Brits and we are then stuck with the shite competition like Microsoft, Ubisoft and Epic. Also Microsoft storefront won't work on Linux...
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steam bad but playstation and xbox are fine by those same lawsuits the only people hurting steam is America for letting this bs slide
No thanks. Fraudsters.
They're suing Valve in futile hopes to get part of their purse. Always the same people (( )) .
Well about that 'refund policy' . In recent days found a email from steam telling me off for making refunds on 5 games I purchased in the last month saying ' the refund policy is not to be abused for free trails and we reserve the right to refuse anyone that is suspected of doing so' 😡
They are punishing Valve for being smart. Even if Valve didn't take 30 percent the greedy publishers would still charge $70 to $120. Even if this lawsuit wins against Valve its still not going to stop greedy publishers from overcharging for games Publishers will just take a bigger cut of the profit. If you go on the PSN and Xbox stores you'll see that games also range from $70 to $120 so what Steam does is not unusual. If they are going to sue Valve they might as well be fair and sue Microsoft and Sony as well since they determine the baseline prices of games each new console generation.
They are just angry because Valve is a powerhouse!!
Exactly my thoughts, Lady Decade should be careful she is not just fighting for people who wants to be in steams position, nothing to do with whatever she is talking about
When you buy a Steam game you're also paying for the future ability to download it, and store your saved games. Yes game prices should come down if digital only.
Steam doesn't set the prices.
Yeah, consumers do ... so only buy digital games at 50% at best. Remember, you don't actually own digital games.
No.
@@CommDante 💯
No actual avid gamer with a steam account cares about suing Steam. Where else can you buy triple A games for 2 or 3 dollars on sale? Sour grapes from competitors are behind the lawsuit, 100%. Steam is extremely consumer friendly. This entire lawsuit sounds like BS. In all my years of gaming I have never been able to buy more games for less money than on Steam. I have never been restricted to buy only on steam, nor have I ever seen any substantial difference in DLC prices across platforms. Steam is not a monopoly and none of this stops gaming companies from selling their products directly to consumers which most of them do. Prices on Steam are routinely cheaper than on any other platform so I am calling BS on this lawsuit. It does sound like a good way for a big law firm to make a lot of money on a settlement. I would really like to know where else I can go to consistently get better deals and not from a shady company like Instant gaming. Nice try attorneys, we're not buying it.
You have to remember this is a billion dollar corporation not your friend. They are doing you absolutely no favours. Steam are in a position where they could cut their commissions and still make billions. They sell you cheap games old for the same reason everyone does, to keep money rolling in on old products. They aren't doing you a solid because they care about you
Are YOU happy paying $70-80 or GBP for digital copies of new AAA titles?
@@JohnnyProctor9Business works in a way that prices are based on supply and demand. Basic economics
I agree with every word of this. 💯 BS lawsuit
I agree with this point, 100%, and I don’t even have a STEAM account! The reason I don’t do STEAM is because I’m a console gamer and not a PC gamer. It’s nothing against PCs, I just can’t afford a PC right now.
With this DLC thing, how is this different from Sony selling me a game and then DLC for that game, yet I can’t play this game OR its DLC on Xbox, unless I get the Xbox version of said game.
This is a shameless lawsuit that I think will hurt the gaming industry a lot more than just destroying Valve. I hope this is shut down fast!
STEAM is very consumer friendly. If their model is taken down by some scumbag lawyers, the game developers aren’t going to suddenly lower their prices. They’ll either keep it the same, or they will raise prices for several games and DLC.
No one is forcing players to get games through STEAM. No company is forced to seek their product on STEAM. This is an open market where both gaming companies and consumers are free to choose to use or ignore this service. If STEAM is sued and Valve loses, our choices will be diminished and we will all suffer.
2024 is going down as the worst year since 1983/1984. What a shame.
Unfortunately Valve is dominant because the services of competitors are crap, specially game stores for consoles (which are always too expensive) .
Nintendo is always selling the same games for 60 USD or more, Xbox doing the same (Forza is one that always has the same price and they try to fool you to believe that there are 50% promotions, the game is almost always in "promotion") and Sony is so bad that is not even funny anymore.
I totally agree. Steam are the dominant force because they are the best. It isn't even close.
They have the best client, installation and more seamless integration with controllers that is half-way an actual consolized solution. A competitor will need to outdo their solution to have an actual chance, basically turn a PC into a console using a solid store frontend and client, but that seems hard to achieve based on what we see.
@@BossFlight Valve's client is very easy to use, all others could be much better
Yet the despite all this I’m not interested in Steam or PC because I want to be able to own my games and if Steam store goes down there goes your digital games.
@@Adamtendo_player_1 Physical games are dying and
The only way to truly own your products is to have DRM-Free backups of them everywhere, which can only be done on an open platform like the PC.
Fun fact, you can play most Steam games (without any third party DRM) free if you use a steam emulator like Goldberg Emulator.
There's a reason why Nintendo Switch cartridges have a unique identifier, its so they can control your games.
To be fair i NEVER buy anything for full price since i got a pc...i always wait for at least a 50% doscout or more. Pc games should be 40 bucks max regardless if theyre new or not...were not buying a physical piece of media so take off that 20 bucks
And you Just Torrent them anyway
Between 2000 and 1012 practically all phsycically released games (pc and console) always were around 50 to 60 euro when they were barely out on the market. They dropped to a price range between 15 and 40 after a year or two of being sold. It's strange how people think Steam is so much cheaper. It's almost the same deal as before.
@@EximiusDuxWhat were video games like in 1012?
Most AAA studios are filled with bloat. For example Amplitude studios game Humankind had more managers, HR and benefits, and auxiliary staff than programmers, artists, and musicians. If fact music was completely subcontracted to an outside music studio. Most of the cost of an AAA game is bloat especially if they waste money of a consultancy firm.
Same I still play left 4 dead 2, lol... Also I am still happy playing old PS3 games. Still a lot to explore and relive.
Vicki is delusional, prices on steam are set by the dev/publisher, who can create infinite steam keys (at valve's bandwidth cost) and sell them anywhere. They only charge the 30% fee if they are sold directly on steam, where people can take advantage of superior steam features like reviews and workshop. If they want to use keys that aren't using steams infrastructure, there is nothing stopping them. Many games release on multiple platforms.
Also the price would not go down if that % was reduced. Digital games never got cheaper than physical ones.
Well you definitely come across from pirate softwares video. The lawsuits about price parity, tying COMBINED with the 30%. The 30% in and of itself is not a problem, it's a problem when COMBINED with those two other factors. My video is balanced. I haven't taken a stance for or against Steam. As it happens I actually LOVE Steam but I do find it really creepy how so many people have made loving Steam their personality and are personally offended on behalf of a corporate company.
@@LadyDecadeThat last sentence is very true, but it's not just Steam fans. It seems like I keep running into crowds this past month who make corporations the basis of their entire identity. Disney, car companies, bands and politicians. You can't say anything without sending someone into a desperate, emotionally charged tirade. I worry about what our society is missing that is causing a complete lack of personal identity in people.
You're not understanding the lawsuit. It's not about the 30% on itself :)
@@LadyDecade Even though I'm not a fan of people making companies their identity and feel obliged to defend them no matter what, I did feel the price comparison was a bit unfair. Windows Gaming has been a dominating force on PC, bullying Mac and Linux users into the corner for far too long. They may be offering lower prices because:
1. It asserts their dominance and opens more unfair ways to rip people off of their money, as if charging people to use a software that is essential for their hardware (Windows OS) isn't unfair enough.
2. They are lagging behind in the competition and we've seen throughout the history whenever a company is behind they charge less prices and accuse other parties of over-charging, then when they've gained dominance, they charge even more than their competition. And Microsoft has done this way too many times and gotten away with it.
Honestly speaking, I've been waiting for something like this against Microsoft for way too long without seeing any effective measure taken against them, so suddenly Valve getting a slap feels like there is malintent behind this lawsuit.
@@tokensoftokens If people lack a belief system or core foundation, yes, you will get people making materialism, people or corporations their identity. That's how we are wired no matter how people say they believe in nothing. It reflects otherwise in various ways.
So many people argue in bad faith to Valve's price parity. They aren't dictating industry wide pricing. If a publisher lists a game on Steam for $50 and then on another store front at $30 they are supposed to offer the steam users the same price. Sales and them selling steam keys are excluded.
Like how she is taking the side that Steam is bad. They are the ones who lowered the industry standard to 30% and Tim Sweeny is even on record of saying that their 12% cut isn't sustainable. This is evident by how these store fronts differ. Everything Epic does is for the benefit of the companies, not the consumer. Their review system is a total joke, the ability to search, etc. Steam I can look at reviews right on the page, download mods from the workshop and much more. Also how is Valve controlling the prices of games on consoles. You figure a digital only game would be cheaper than a physical copy, but yet here we are. Also even with the lower cut on these other platforms, we don't see any of these games being cheaper. The prices for digital on the consoles, are also the same. And the consoles take even the same 30% cut, but hey its fine because of reasons. Nintendo doesn't even discount their old games on their platforms. Zelda Beath of the Wild is still $60 seven years later.
Maybe the problem is the publishers being greedy. The lower cut on Epic and Microsoft store fronts aren't passed onto the developers and other employees, they are just pocketed by the higher ups. They use it as an excuse to make more money, and eye raising prices. Maybe the ire should be directed to them and their price gouging practices (dlc, loot boxes/gatcha, battle passes, etc.). Hell they have hired psychologists to find a way to make it as addicting as possible to open your wallet even more to them. Games seem to be about milking you out of every last penny you have. Maybe the lawsuit should be directed towards them.
" If a publisher lists a game on Steam for $50 and then on another store front at $30 they are supposed to offer the steam users the same price."
No this is wrong. Steam is perfectly fine with this here, as long as the site selling it for 30$ is not giving out steam keys. Steam only requires parity when selling steam keys on other places.
Other than that I agree with what you say.
I have yet to find a gamer who is angry at Steam.
Timmy Tencent is the biggest fan.
I do not like them or their reviews.
People rated 10/10 a game where you are a fish and do nothing.
Then steam users love a game where...you just click a banana..........
You don't need to be angry to disagree. You missed the point if you think emotion is needed to justify anything.
Your dumb
Steam removed a game I like, because the dev might have written something trans- or homophobic. I haven´t seen his post, but Steam/Valve acts political and "works" with Sweet Baby Inc.
Unfortunately Steam isn´t avoidable as gamer, even when you buy a CD/DVD and install it with your drive, you have to activate the key via Steam.......You don´t own a game anymore these days and many are angry of this digital only stuff and also with Steam.
I'm pretty sure the only people really upset by Steam are all of those other crappy digital stores that can't put a dent in Steam's market share. Tim Sweeny can just cry louder.
Yep...
DRMs are still a problem for digital ownership, but it's not 100% on steam shoulders since the editors love DRMs
Are YOU happy paying $70-80 or GBP for digital copies of new AAA titles?
@@JohnnyProctor9what are YOU happy about?
Don't forget about indie devs. I kinda despise gamers when i read about their views on steam and attitudes towards devs...
"games becoming increasingly unaffordable for gamers?"
Whut? Most big games cost around € 60 for years now. A lot of good indies cost still around € 15 - € 25 and sales are still going rampant. We've had an 20%+ inflation these past 5 years and games hardly cost anything more. It's the only product or service that DOESN'T make me feel like I'm getting financially screwed.
You saying this doesn't make sense to me at all.
Edit: I do agree that some of the practices are dubious and should be adressed.
Almost every storefront takes a 30% cut
No they take 12% - unless you mean Apple and Google who have also been under fire for monopolistic practises
@@LadyDecade youre wrong, ps5 and xbox 30%
@@LadyDecade Steam takes 30% ONLY when the sale happens ON STEAM. They take 0% when steam keys are sold on other sites like humblebundle etc.
@@LadyDecade 12% is Epic and they had to admit its not proftable this way. get your facts straight, back to 1990 with retails calling for more than 40%?
@@LadyDecade PS and XBOX take 30% cut.
Between 2000 and 1012 practically all phsycically released games (pc and console) always were around 50 to 60 euro when they were barely out on the market. They dropped to a price range between 15 and 40 after a year or two of being sold. It's strange how people think Steam is so much cheaper. It's almost the same deal as before.
Funnily enough with inflation and things. Game should cost even more than that. People that said 80 GBP is too expensive, it's because they are not used to do it and the inflation made the games' price raise. 60 GBP 10 years ago would be more like 75 GBP today. Its almost the same, just the number changed. Also, playstation, xbox and Nintendo take the same cut and usually don't have such sales. Valve is the dictator that we always needed, a loyal to their customers. Unlike epic who sells data, ubisoft having a terrible ui with poor performance and ea WELL
If monopoly and anticompetitive practices should be prosecuted why don't they start with Nintendo and Sony? I've always had a great costumer service and prices with steam. This is just a plot made by consoles companies because they want steam's profit and they always make their tantrums when they see steam has the same product for 30% or 50% less. I don't think steam will loose this lawsuit
You're talking about something entirely different and is an issue raised independently of this. This focuses on PC gaming, not console.
Why, indeed? That's not reason to giving Valve a free pass, though.
Here in the UK we pay £70 a game on Xbox but in reality we more more then $80 when converted to USD
Stop drinking tea
Never!
I don’t drink tea water I drink
@@spaceaustrailia5895 I don’t drink tea
I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Sweet Baby has something to do with this due to their being harmed by a STEAM user.
Lol that would be hilarious but I think it's highly unlikely
ROFL, I can see that possibility.
But if the high commision prices Steam charges the developers would end up being paid by the end users, this would also mean the games should be cheaper outside Steam. Which is often not the case.
Their greed raises prices across the board, making it impossible for you to even FIND cheaper prices elsewhere!
This is itself proof of outsized market influence. If there WAS a big difference in prices then you could argue the market is operating properly. But there ISN'T a big market price difference, which means price manipulation, which is illegal.
@@darinherrick9224I think you are seeing it the other way around, why are games not cheaper else where? Does steam mandate you have the games at the same price in other stores?
@@darinherrick9224 Factorio price on Steam $35. Factorio on the Factorio website $35.
@@darinherrick9224 Yeah but that would mean there's price manipulation outside Steam as well. The video is about high prices being caused by Steam. If a developer is forced to sell at high prices on Steam but could offer it way cheaper elsewhere, why wouldn't they?
It is painful to spend $99 for the super deluxe version of a AAA-studio game... especially when it is riddled with glitches and isn't very good anyway. 💸
I also hate the idea of a $70 game, but to be fair a $50 Nintendo game in 1988 with inflation would now be the equivalent of $132.74!!!! Talk about a rip off... inflation, not the game 😹
Steam: A Necessity For Gracious Living.
I'm not angry with Steam, but charging $60 on an almost decade old game is highway robbery. These games would've ended up in the $5 bargain bin back in the day, and it's really greedy. It won't keep me from buying and playing games on Steam because no one else really does what they do, but I will always admit when they inflate prices on old games. I'm always in the market for a replacement, but no one's come out with one yet.
you realize that Valve does not set any prices right? The publishers of those 60$ games do.
except steam doesnt set the price. they just charge the developer, not you. also if your buying an old game they have at least 4 sales a year and 2 publisher sales a year where its up to 80-90% off. at 90% off its cheaper than pirating becuase of the time you save on patches and updates.
@@TrixyTrixter I know who sets the price, but it really doesn't matter, does it? The prices are still overinflated.
@@jemiebridges3197 Does it really matter who sets the price? They're still overinflated. I've been using Steam for 17 years and I've followed the sales schedules every single year, but thanks anyway.
@@JT.PlaysGames Well it does mater if your problem with steam is them charging 60$ and inflating prices. Because thats not steam doing it, the devs can sell their games for 5$ if they wish and steam won't do anything to stop that.
Sony and Microsoft also make developers sign price parity deals so the games cost the same across platforms.
This suit sounds like BS too me. Anytime I buy a game (though to be honest I hardly ever buy a game at launch) I usually buy it for steam for much cheaper than you can anywhere else whether it is from steam themselves or a third party site. Also, the bit about it being monopolistic is also BS since there are other game stores for PC like GOG, epic, and MS. This lawsuit sounds like a backhanded Epic funded attack on steam.
If steam goes to shit I will stick with emulation, GOG, and epic games store. it will not deter us to move to console. I hope whoever is trying to takedown steam will understand we will not bow to console. it can go to hell.
Every business is evil. Even you are evil. Yes
it wont. even if this was to win out, it wouldnt do much to valve. they would just change their policy and make it all back and more the next year
Why do you think this will destroy Steam? That's extremely dramatic.
@@blumiu2426 I don't think it would destroy valve, but there is talk that microsoft would try to buy valve, and this lawsuit. People are clearly intimidated by Valve.
@rmt74358 microsoft cannot afford Valve and even if they wanted to, valve won't accept it
To be fair, the 12% commission fee was even stated by epic as inefficiant and from them as just a tactic to make steam lower their to hurt their income
Gamers just got *steamed*
Sorry for the god awful pun…
BA-DUM-DUM🥁🥁🥁
You need to be PUN-ished for that one, lol! 😆
It feels like to some extent the UK is trying to ride the coattails of the suits against Apple and Google Play stores and their high percentages (30% as well I think). But there are differences in the situations. Those two are VERY locked in (Google somewhat less so than Apple) and the way they force apps you get thru the store to have to do in-app sales thru the same store (like you can't by books in the Kindle app because of that). Tho I'm ticked with Amazon on that as well because they have their own app store you can use on Android, yet you can't get the Kindle app there.
Let's be honest here too - Steam overall has probably SAVED gamers more money than cost them. I have a lot of games in Steam, mostly bought during sales. The only gamers being *maybe* hurt are the ones that buy early releases. And even if Steam loses, will it make a difference? Or will publishers keep the prices for new releases high since that's what we're used to paying but just taking a higher profit? Will the Steam sales not be as good in the future? I don't know how Steam runs those sales - do they still take a full percentage or do they reduce their cut along with the prices? At any rate they may not make the sale prices as low if they're percentage is reduced. I just don't see that this suit would end up actually benefiting anyone much.
So why is this a big deal all of a sudden? There's been a class action lawsuit in the US against Steam for a minute now...the only thing new is that it's over yunner now?
My steam deck is 2 years old the buttons stoped working so I asked steam if they could fix it. they was like we will RAM it just send it to us will fix it or send you a new one .
Steam isn’t a monopoly. Don’t like the deal they offer? Cool, don’t list your game on steam. There are other stores.
It's the definition of a frivilous lawsuit.
I don't know about other countries, but here in Brazil, games published by Microsoft are cheaper (in BRL) at Microsoft Store than on Steam. So technically it's possible to offer lower prices outside Steam with no punishment for it.
The price is set by the game devs. Steam recommends a price in other countries that a lot of devs use so they don't have to bother with figuring out the process themselves. Some devs put research into the living situation of other countries set the prices themselves.
This lawsuit is not going to go anywhere
-Your prizes are too high, sued!
-So? buy from the competition
-Ehm... but i like steam better.....
yeah it's dumb.. and the people who call themselves gamers who agree with it are idiots as well.
@Kasparth - It's a valid legal complaint, that the exorbitantly higher fees that Steam is charging publishers is raising game prices across the board so you can't even FIND cheaper prices elsewhere!
@@JohnnyProctor9 And suddenly now they did find a problem in it??
@@JohnnyProctor9someone gets it!
If Valve loses this lawsuit. It just means Steam players will probably be charged more for games to cover the cost of the payout. Unless Valve has an insurance policy to cover it.
First, let me be clear I boycotted Valve's Steam distribution system for 10 years when it launched, I am by no means a Steam fanboy, but lets not be delusional, Steam is dominant because of all the shitty companies vying for market share they treat the customers the best. I personally prefer GOG as they actually let me own what I purchased.
The fix is simple. Steam just needs to stop giving developers free Steam keys.
Let the developers build their own licensing and content distribution system or just use Epic/GOG.
Price parity is only a requirement if developers are selling Steam keys through third-party store fronts.
As for the 30% that is a hold over from the physical game sales & distribution system. Retailers selling physical copies demanded that digital licenses enforce price parity as to not undercut their prices. Valve was able to demand the same for their distribution platform as it easily provides more services to both the customer, publisher, and developers than physical retailers.
If developers don't like the 30% cut they can publish on Epic or even self publish/distribute. EA's Origin, Ubisoft's Connect, Blizzard's Battlenet, etc... Companies are already doing just that and no one is telling them they can't sell the games for cheaper.
The argument for digital sales & distribution that disingenuousness companies make is that it will lead to lower prices, this NEVER comes to pass. Why would it? No, but the companies can now pocket more of your money bypassing the physical retail model.
Also Steam does allow for regional pricing.
This lawsuit has always been a bunch of BS.
You have a WiiU game miss aligned, can u please fix it.
the only thing criminal here is the 30% cut, but fact remains, Valve offers the best service
Bear in mind it is misinformation to blindly say Steam taking the large cut they do and ending at "STEAM BAD!" Steam also has a degree of product discoverability that pushing potential sales right in front of your face, whereas Epic in particular doesn't. Bellular has covered this regarding his own company's game. It doesn't justify what Steam is doing, but you still get far more sales, and by extension far more money on Steam than if you use exclusively Epic. You can't just tear down Steam and fix the problem of Steam's dominance.
There's also the fact I've know people who don't want 20 different game sales platforms/launchers, and only want to use Steam as much as possible, it being the original dominating force they already own everything.
Making changes to this situation is going to be about like trying to push back the ocean with a mop.
Tell me you didn't watch my video without telling you didn't watch my video.
Like when Nintendo was the ocean that found out it was only a sea when Sega pushed past their anti-competitor bs?
She didn’t end the video with “steam bad!” at all. She actually highlighted why people find such value in the service, and they help small devs get some visibility. She emphasized that yes, improvements can be made to make their business practices more fair to all consumers. Be interesting to see the outcome of this law suit. If this was In the US, I think Valve would win.
@@dwood1149 The US usually waits until something is at it's worst or can't be ignored to take action. Or the monetary benefit doesn't outweigh the other risks. I'm sure it's the same in the UK, just maybe not is as easy to get away with or they like sticking it to foreign companies more.
AFAIK steam charges 30% since the beginning. So, they are not forcing publishers to raise their prices but instead hinder them in lowering them.
Before clicking on the video, I figured the lawsuit would be about the price parity clause more than the 30% royalty. While I believe that Steam's service is currently the best digital PC game retail service available right now, I'm intrigued to see how a loss for Valve would affect retailers of _other_ digital products with similar clauses in their partner contracts. I make fonts and at least one of my fonts is sold commercially through the online retailer MyFonts and they have a similar price parity clause but also take a 50% cut of sales rather than Valve's 30%. If I wanted to sell my font for a different price somewhere else, I'd also have to change the price on MyFonts as well to match.
To an extent yes. Tho there is a huge amount of misinformation about the price parity clause. The price parity clause only applies to selling steam Keys on other sites, and only because those steam keys will cost valve money while not giving any return. Pretty much devs can create keys for their game completely free of charge. If they sell those keys on their own website valve takes 0% of those sales but still gives the dev all steams features. So steam requires that the price for keys and the price to buy directly from steam remain the same. They are even quite lenient about it saying that you can sell keys for less as long as you are gonna offer the same price to steam users in a reasonable timeframe.
The biggest game prices inflation was when PS3 or 4 and it's X counterpart hit the shelves. In other words console games were much more expensive than PC versions. People were ok with it. No wonder prices are going up and up.
The devs set the prices, not valve. When valve win by doing absolutely nothing it'l be business as usual.
There is no records in history appointing to less taxes and fees resulting in lower prices for consumers. Prices never go down, only up. A game that cost 70$ stil going to cost 70$ the difference is that the companies will profit further and steam would get less from it.
Percentage based math points to holding the prices down instead of inflating. Because if you sell you product with a higher price you would get a higher fee. So it helps the prices to stay manageable
I was thinking of getting a Steam Deck but they seemed a bit overpriced. Is there something else, equally as good for cheaper that someone can recommend? Ideally I'd like to use Retroarch on it also
So people are trying to say that we the consumers that buy the games, that are happy with steam are paying too much for games?! Seriously. look at console game prices. They are the same if not more, higher prices than steam. Steam also has steam sales where we are offered games at a great discount. This is all BS.
What you are missing is you are comparing an open market (PC) to a closed market (console). If Steam is acting like a console then it IS anti-competitive.
Are YOU happy paying $70-80 or GBP for digital copies of new AAA titles?
If Steam are found guilty I can think of at least 3 digital store fronts that are equally as guilty if not worse. The PC is an open platform. Valve isn't locking you down to Steam exclusively. There are many other options out there to buy video games on PC. Where Valve doesn't get a penny from those transactions.
This is like arguing the collusion between Apple and Amazon price fixing digital books wasn’t illegal because there are other ways to buy digital books. Sorry. You’re wrong. This is a monopoly and you’re a sucker.
Epic only takes 12% cut on games that have exclusivity deal with Epic. Developers have outed the fact that Epic does this.
Only Steam really supports Linux, only Steam is available on Chromebooks. Until other companies cares only about Windows machines, I will leave my money in Valve store.
My account is worth way more than what i paid for all the games on it. Steam sales are usually really good.
The prive for product must be the same = no fair? How is THE same price on different platforms is UNFAIR? Also, steam provides ALOT more then other platforms.
Although Steam is my prefered plataform its feature set is unmatched, and I will alllways get the steam version of a game. I get, the argument that some users are not hable to get savings pass on to them from other vendors, if steam did not required price parity. Some users just don't care for those extra niceties offered by steam, and will rather keep extra in their wallets.
Are YOU happy paying $70-80 or GBP for digital copies of new AAA titles?
@@JohnnyProctor9 Nah, I am ok waiting a few months for a game to receive patches. by then, many games have received discounts and are more stable. No need to have a bad experience upon a game release.
So the 30% is stoping conpetition? The same plataform (windows) has multiple stores one can use including one that comes pre packaged with said plataform, and somehow developers and buyers still chose steam. I wonder why? Its a mistery. This lawsuit should fall flat. They are the best because they provide the best services and have consumer in mind. This is dumb.
yeah becuz the law sue is just a money grap same as the sony law sue. when u look at the website it sus AF. don;t seem like they care at all, the one who is backing this is vivki from the child protective agency whitch makes no sense when gambling is an issue that they could have target steam for but she didn't
The 30% COMBINED with price parity AND tying is stopping competition.
@@LadyDecade and the same goes for price parity, its a contractual condition exactly as the price, devs know what they are accepting, if the market doesnt offer a more appealing deal that puts the devs in the position for chosing between that or epic for instance its not steam's fault,its the other stores fault. Thats like saying an exclusivity contract is holding back conpetition.
@@diogocoelho3450just because something is in a contract it doesn’t make it correct or legally enforceable. Forcing a party to not do business in the way they want with another party particularly when you’re a market leader is anti competitive.
@@LadyDecade Steam doesn't do price parity on other platforms. Only steam keys.
Trying to convince me or anyone with a brain that steam is the bad guy here is insane. 30% is not outrageous and is irrelevant to the consumer considering steam sales
Sorry who said they were the bad guys?
I doubt this law fare will get much traction in the UK. Steam has reduced the price of gaming to consumers from most objective viewpoints and the UK has the "man on the Clapham omnibus" precedent.
Was this before or after Valve refused to be bought by MS?
One thing I’ll say that steam has gone for it is modding community as I have seen some crazy mods online, anyway great video as always and keep on saying it as it is, Lady D.
Damn! 9bn for low overhead? Just keeping the servers going? And a small staff that doesn’t make any games? 👍 💰 💵
dota and csgo are under constant development.
And they are talking about steam not valve games.
IMO I bet Epic and others are behind this lawsuit. :P
This thing sounds big time like Epic is behind it.
Or another company that wants to buy it
STEAM is being attacked by its competitors through a shyster law firm. This lawsuit has the potential to ruin gaming for all of us, and I don’t even have a STEAM account! The reason I don’t do STEAM is because I’m a console gamer and not a PC gamer. It’s nothing against PCs, I just can’t afford a PC right now.
With this DLC thing; how is this different from Sony selling me a game and then DLC for that game, yet I can’t play this game OR its DLC on Xbox unless I get the Xbox version of said game and/or DLC?
This is a shameless lawsuit that I think will hurt the gaming industry a lot more than just destroying Valve. I hope this is shut down fast!
STEAM is very consumer friendly. If their model is taken down by some scumbag lawyers, the game developers aren’t going to suddenly lower their prices. They’ll either keep it the same, or they will raise prices for several games and DLC.
No one is forcing players to get games through STEAM. No company is forced to sell their product on STEAM. This is an open market where both gaming companies and consumers are free to choose to use or ignore this service. If STEAM is sued and Valve loses, our choices will be diminished and we will all suffer.
2024 is going down as the worst year since 1983/1984. What a shame.
No one forces gamers to get games through Steam and I've never said that Steam isn't overall a great service but the suit DOES have a point - three points - price parity is an issue and you don't have to use Steam at all for that to affect you.
@@LadyDecade "price parity is an issue" no it isn't. There are no rules about setting a price lower on GOG or steam, this is so easily debunked.
@@LadyDecadeI’m not accusing you, Mi’Lady Decade. I just think this lawsuit sounds spurious.
Steam should survive as it offers both the customers and developers services and promotion, but given they operate on an open platform like the PC is (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo apply their own, much more restrictive rules on proprietary hardware) they can't force developers to pay 30% commission AND basically make the default retail price for the whole market. I guess 1 billion lost could convince them to be more fair, to everybody's gain but them. Is the parity rate even legal? I stick to GOG if no online play is involved, but everybody's Steam library is quite big and needs to be preserved.
they are being completely fair, no devs are complaining about this.
Why did the need to rip people off? One
Price for an account? Not many purchasing? Make an ad 😂
Anyone remember Game Spy in the 90's 2000's? Ahhhhh the old days.....
I just use CD keys, discounted prices for games.
but why do their keys always advertise as steam?
@@syrus3657 because they are steam keys, cdkeys is a reseller not a platform.
I don’t think Valve overcharged me at all. In fact, I got such great deals on Steam that I have a giant backlog of games I’ve bought, but never played. And I’m not the only one!!!
I've got a few, not loads on Steam. Physical games though I'm very similar to you in that lol
"What's going on" is Microsoft has been trying to buy Steam but Valve refused to sell.
This is so full of misinformation that it almost seems like and Onion article.
They are locked to Windows 10 and don't let you play on Windows 7... yeah they're just as bad.
Pirate as much of your library as possible before Steam locks you out of your account for wrong think.
I can't believe how angry people in my comments section are, worse than the Sonic fandom. I don't understand corporate loyalty, it's so weird
@@LadyDecadetbf I think this was sarcasm. (I hope).
Steam is more consumer friendly than most is more designed to build out the independent developers. Retail outlets had control over the markets and what content could be in games for over 50 years. That 30% is likely the cut cost of distribution. The only thing that I see wrong is the price fixing that you can't sell it cheaper anywhere else. Steam's strategy paid off well and the only real competition is GoG which I would rather use for classic games. Their biggest drawback is that the storefront doesn't really sort by make and model so sometimes you buy a product that you can't play which is bad. But I think Metroidvania's wouldn't exist without Steam but yes I think they are in the wrong. They have a monopoly. They are willfully ignorant of money laundering on their sites and why steam purchases exist and suddenly eastern European countries make a game that launders illicit funds or hacked funds as they push for steam or Amazon gift cards. That is what the UK could go after as they don't have the right protocols in place for it and it is possibly a large chunk of their revenue.
Lady Decade is among the few people/channels I trust to use the word spicy 🌶️ and not be gross or puerile. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Hi Lady Decade. Why dont you mention UBISlop and their priceplolicy? Have a nice day ;)
Cheaper rhan consoles? Looks like you have not seen console sales recently. Kinguin, eneba or humble is cheaper but steam is the samw now.
Given Steam are headquartered in Seattle and Luxembourg I'm pretty sure any decision the UK court comes to would be entirely symbolic.
No. It would apply to all sales in the country. Which would then be precedent for other lawsuits.
@@darinherrick9224 or removal of service from the UK. Careful what you wish for.
Headquarters don’t matter, they do business in the UK so all operations in the UK have to abide by UK law. The court’s decision is legally enforceable. This topic came up a million times with Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition and here we are again.
It's wild to me how Steam is ripping off their customers... and their customers defend the ripping off. I blame lack of financial literacy, and really good marketing by Valve. It's not your friend. It's a company. YOU are the cash cow they are milking.
Not just a lack of financial literacy, there’s an obvious lack of attention span and critical thinking. A lot of comments here haven’t watched the video fully and are leaving completely irrelevant comments.
Is the UK the only country complaining about Steam, if so this lawsuit is BS
The country where the case is happening is the UK. The UK is not complaining about anything.
they are not forced to use steam. they don't have to use it, its an option. This also seems to only effect the UK.
Video tldr: lets call steam shady a bunch to promote my keyshop partner who gives me money
I promote them every video. You know the keys are all for Steam right? You are deluded if that's what you drew from this upload. I've uploaded pieces critical of all the big platforms recently.
No, and if you read the claims the case makes against them it's clear that they don't understand what they're talking about.
Why care about the Steam comision? do you think that if it was lowered that decrease would be transferred to the customer?
Oh my sweet summer child...
remember there r people buying 150$ early access pre-ordered AAA game when they could just waited for reviews and release date for 60$ and even wait longer for a sale. so expect people to believe the BS.
@@matthewcheng4158 Yeah, if we care about the price of games the last place we should be looking is the stores comissions, but pricing itself.
Don't want $ 70 games?, $100 games?, well, just don't buy $70 and $100 games. If enough people did, they'd be gone in six months.
Really valve dosen't force any dev or publisher to sale on steam we just won't buy it if it's not offered on steam they have earned our loyalty thus far I have been on steam for 19 years I can't say that for any other platform I'veever used!😅
For that 30% cut, you get things like the Steam Deck and Proton, and Vulkan, and cloud saves, and good network multiplayer infrastructure....
All I'm seeing is more than likely 1 of the big three gaming console manufacturers funding slimy investors to find anything they can against the biggest rival they have to date. This stinks of corporate games.
A little forgot, it will be soon ps5+Nintendo Switch 😱⚠️
I don’t pay for games over $50, unless it’s mortal kombat lol
I will say this because fate is a long life renovation?
Ps5 85%😎⚠️⭕❌🔳❤️🩹👍
Xbox Series x 59%😑
NINTENDO SWITCH 100%😱
PC Stream 34%🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👎
Cool. I might get a few bucks back. :D
Blame steam cause AAA companies spending 300milions on a game and charging accordingly have nothing on the matter. The same companies which have their own stores and logically have no need to sell on steam and pay the 30%. what about Ubisoft and sony revoking product ownership rights? the end user is the target audience for devs, stores and publishers so let's instead focus on the satisfaction factor comparing steam to every other store font.
You’re missing the point by conflating other issues.
Going to buy Black Myth: Wukong on Steam over any other platform. Goodwill goes far I hope. And I'm migrating console player. Where the fuck do I need a new console, if it doesn't even have any compelling exclusives? All I need is a good controller. So which is it; PS5 or Xbox -controller for the PC?
What’s worse…1 good service or many crappy services?
I ain't gonna lie. Even if Steam is found to be guilty. My view of Steam wouldn't change at all. When I look at the other platforms like GoG and Epic, they're all trash. Steam isn't just a platform. They've developed it into a community that no other platform has done.
The only time they give a damn about us "gamers" is when they see an opportunity to make money. 🤑
PCMR has every right to be smug. I apologize for nothing. While Steam is the most consumer friendly, feature rich and largest PC storefront, they're still a corporation and every corporation does corporate stuff to varying degrees.
Ah the UK. Glad I don't live there. :)
I think your editor choosing the PS4 to PS5 as a generation shift that doesn't let you carry digital content from one generation to the next was a misstep. It's the only console generation shift that I've actually had my digital content carry over to. It's probably the one thing Sony got mostly right with their digital content on the PS5.
You have 125k subbers but get an average of 18k views per vid. You make great informative videos to boot. I'll never understand why people sub to a good channel and never watch the vids.
I watch almost all of them. Just don’t care about the Nintendo stuff since I don’t own a Switch.
people sub to support but watch what the algorithm gives us. The subscriptions menu is rarely used.
It’s my pleasure to be ripped off, as long as it continues to result more projects / products
Steam is a good service, the competition is shite.. Simple...I am hoping this won't f**k it up for us Brits and we are then stuck with the shite competition like Microsoft, Ubisoft and Epic. Also Microsoft storefront won't work on Linux...
Leave Steam alone. With out them we are stuck with Epic and nobody wants that
The only flaw with Gabe is his numerophobia, specifically the number three!
I LOVE BUYING GAMES BUT NOT OWNING THEM !!! LOVE THIS WORLD!