Valve Facing UK Lawsuit Over Pricing and Commissions (reuters.com)
- Reference: 0180660758
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/01/26/1941259/valve-facing-uk-lawsuit-over-pricing-and-commissions
- Source link: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/video-game-giant-valve-facing-uk-lawsuit-over-pricing-commissions-2026-01-26/
> Video game developer and distributor Valve must face a 656 million-pound ($897.7 million) lawsuit in Britain, which alleges it [1]charged publishers excessive commissions for its Steam online store , after a tribunal ruled on Monday the case could continue. Valve was sued in 2024 on behalf of up to 14 million people in the United Kingdom who bought games or additional content through Steam or other platforms since 2018.
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> Lawyers representing children's welfare advocate Vicki Shotbolt, who is bringing the case, allege Valve prevents publishers selling products more cheaply or earlier on rival platforms to Steam by imposing conditions on them. They say Valve requires users to buy all additional content through Steam if they've bought that game through the platform, effectively "locking in" users to make purchases on its platform. This allows Valve to charge "unfair and excessive" commissions of up to 30%, Shotbolt's lawyers said at a hearing in October.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/video-game-giant-valve-facing-uk-lawsuit-over-pricing-commissions-2026-01-26/
Heads in the clouds (Score:2)
When Cloud Gaming will take over, they won't believe how good they have it with Steam, Itch.io, and GOG.
Federation (Score:2)
On my PC right now I have Microsoft / Xbox store, Steam, Epic Games, UPlay, EA Origin, Rockstar Games launcher, GOG and Wargaming Game Center. That's 5-10Gb of bloat for essentially the same thing - a store, a signon service, an updater and a game launcher. Some services might also toss in achievements or forums but it's the same core thing. Not only is it a burden on end users, it is a burden on developers who have to build, test and support multiple builds for different platforms and are forced into lop s
"children's welfare" (Score:2)
So, some dumb cunt, who knows nothing about children or welfare, is bringing a case against Steam that has nothing to with either children or their welfare?
As someone who has released a game on Steam... (Score:5, Interesting)
They took care of content distribution. They took care of international sales / taxes / etc. They took care of currency conversions. They took care of folks who wanted returns (not many, but still).
They made my game accessible world-wide with almost zero effort on my part.
Did I give them a 30% commission to sell my game? Yes. Would I like that percentage to be lower? Sure. Would I call it excessive? Hell no. Especially since retail stores get a similar cut, and I didn't have to worry about manufacturing, distribution, stock, returns, etc.
~D
Re:As someone who has released a game on Steam... (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah I don't understand this recent backlash against Steam. They provide an amazing service. They're #1 because all competitors were horrible. I still remember when services like EA Downloader and Direct2Drive would try to charge you an additional fee for "download insurance," otherwise you couldn't re-download your game. Valve never pulled stuff like that, just consistently gives a great customer experience. Is all this just paid-for FUD from Epic?
Re: As someone who has released a game on Steam... (Score:2)
The conclusion of your comment is also my conclusion on the subject, or very close to it. There are plenty of interested parties, the funding didn't have to come from epic games. Since valve is by far the best at what they do the other players can't outcompete them.
Re: (Score:2)
I think it's the whole "blood in the water" effect. Google Play Store and Apple App Store are being sued and losing, so next target that could match is Steam.
The issues I see here is that Steam isn't anything like the other two. Steam isn't the default app store of any OS besides SteamOS, and even it gives more easy access to competing stores then Android. Not to mention, this lawsuit is based on sales from 2018, way before SteamOS was revived, so it wouldn't apply. Because of this, the lawsuit can't claim
Re: (Score:1)
Do people not understand how hard that stuff is, or what the typical markup is on physical goods? 40% would be considered a horrible markup, 30% would just be asking for your business to die. These digital markets are a boon to developers, and much better than the alternative.