Wolfire Games, the indie studio behind games such as Overgrowth, has filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Valve. The suit claims that Valve uses its monopoly on the PC gaming market to force developers to pay expensive commissions to release games on Steam, while illegally suppressing competition.
The suit is based on the premise that Steam’s dominance of the PC gaming landscape necessitates developers to release their games on Steam to reach the largest audience possible. This puts developers in a position to be exploited by Valve, which is what the suit says is taking place. Valve’s terms of service require developers to give the company to give a 30% cut on all games that make under $10 million. The suit also takes issue with Valve’s policy regarding Steam keys, which requires most Steam keys to be sold through the Steam Store. Wolfire games ran the original digital storefront Humble Bundle in 2010, but it no longer owns the site.
In essence, Wolfire Games alleges that the exorbitant 30% commission rate stifles development and forces studios to charge more for their games, which consequently costs players more. Valve is allegedly able to get away with this because of its monopoly on the market, which it is able to maintain by blocking or threatening publishers who attempt to sell Steam Keys on non-Steam platforms. As for the small amount of keys that are allowed to be sold on other platforms, Valve “imposes punitive contractual restrictions” to suppress competition, the suit alleges.
The suit was filed on the same day that Microsoft announced it would give developers a bigger cut of the Microsoft Store’s revenue by increasing shares from 70% to 88%. This would match the Epic Games Store, Steam’s only somewhat viable competitor. It is also slightly more than the 85% share afforded to developers by Apple and the Google Play Store. However, both companies require developers who make more than $1 million to hand over 30% of its revenue.
This the second lawsuit filed this year to allege that Valve abuses its dominance over the PC gaming market. A suit filed by a group of gamers in January accuses Valve of suppressing competition by forcing developers to sell their games on other digital storefronts at the same price that they are sold on Steam. This means that if a studio’s game has a high price on Steam, it would have to be sold at the same price on other storefronts such as the Epic Games Store and Origin. The suit alleges that the practice harms small developers and prevents other online marketplaces from competing on price.
In addition to the damages and costs that are typically sought in similar types of cases, Wolfire also seeks an “injunctive relief removing Valve’s anticompetitive provisions,” which would require Steam to completely reorganize its business structure. Steam has not publicly responded to the suit.
Source: Tech Raptor