Dudewitbow comments on 72% of devs believe Steam has a monopoly on PC games, according to study

[–] Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip 25 points 1 year ago (5 children)

theres basically one anti conpetitive measure they hold primarily, and its the one that states the listing price of a game must be the same on all platforms policy. stops devs from having a lower listing price on other platforms.

other than that its usually other platforms shooting their selves.

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[–] Mk23simp@lemmy.blahaj.zone 35 points 1 year ago

I'm pretty sure that that only applies to steam keys being sold on other sites. If it's being distributed in some other form, it can be cheaper.

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[–] HailSeitan@lemmy.world -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

This “most favored nation” clause in contracts is huge! It means that even if another store takes half of Steam’s cut (say, 15% vs 30%), the game can’t be sold for less, meaning other rival stores can never compete on price. In other words, Steam drives up prices for games economy-wide. Amazon does something similar, and this was part of the basis the FTC’s antitrust lawsuit against them.

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[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago

Steam drives up prices for games economy-wide.

You must be joking

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[–] Godnroc@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Say I sold a game for $10 on Steam and GameStoria. With the 30% you suggest I would take home $7 from Steam and $8.50 from GameStoria. I make more with a competitor who is willing to take less and of their instead wanted to charge more, Steam would be more profitable.. The consumer doesn't see anything but a $10 game.

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[–] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 2 points 10 months ago

Steam doesn't prevent anyone from selling their game at whatever price they want. They only prevent them from selling it through THEIR distribution platform at a lower price than it can be purchased directly from Steam. IE they cannot sell steam keys for less than the steam list price. If they want to distribute themselves they can.

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