They can keep that 30% if they sell their keys (free to generate BTW) on their own website. I’ve bought a few games that way and it totally works. They can sell their games on other stores with a smaller cut (e.g. EGS) without any issues with Valve.
Many game devs don’t bother doing it though, which tells me Valve’s marketing is doing its job selling games.
They can sell their games on other stores with a smaller cut (e.g. EGS) without any issues with Valve.
No, they can’t. Valve’s TOS forbid devs from offering lower prices on other stores. If not for this, a dev could list a game for $60 on Steam, $50 on Epic, and $42 on their own website and let the customer decide where to buy it from while making the same amount of money from either of these sales. Valve is not competing fairly.
If they didn’t have this rule, devs could list at a ridiculous price on Steam and sell on their store for a more reasonable price to take advantage of Steam’s marketing without paying. That’s unfair for Valve. Either list there and charge the same prices everywhere, or don’t.
I would be surprised if other stores didn’t have similar policies.
Steam also reserves the right to remove a game for any reason. If a developer does that they would have their game removed and probably receive a ban. There’s no reason for that policy other than price fixing to keep consumers from making an informed decision. Stop defending the multibillion dollar company.
The only time I’ve heard of that happening is if the key was purchased with a stolen credit card or something. Steam actually goes out of their way to retain access to purchased games that have been delisted by the dev.
They’re one of the better actors in this regard the industry. In most cases, they’ll side with the customer, which is exactly what you want a company to do.
Stop defending the multibillion dollar company.
I don’t care how much they’re worth, if they provide a good service, I’ll help clarify misunderstandings. I really don’t care if people and companies get rich, as long as they do it by making a good product people want.
Steam also reserves the right to remove a game for any reason.
That’s the part I was responding to. Yeah, they technically could do that, but they go out of their way to prevent users from losing access to games. A dev can remove online access to a game (e.g. mp ban), but if they try to do that for offline access too, they can get delisted from Steam.
If you’re talking about something else, please explain more clearly because that’s what I thought you were talking about.
I’m saying if they didn’t have their predatory anti-consumer policy and a developer tries to list a game for a much higher price on Steam than they do on other stores, they would remove the game from the store and probably ban the developer. It has nothing to do with removing access to user’s games from their library.
But that’s not anti-consumer at all, if anything that’s pro-consumer because they’re ensuring that the price they see on Steam is comparable to the price elsewhere, so if you prefer buying from Steam, you don’t have to worry that a studio is fleecing you.
Why would a retailer permit a company to use it’s marketing and distribution network while actively steering customers away from its storefront? That’s not a great business relationship. The alternative would be Valve charging for keys sold outside of Steam, and that seems like an even worse policy.
Uhh that’s completely wrong. I’ve bought keys from tons of different stores (humble being the majn one) when there were sales going on for the game. All registered with steam keys.
No, I said Valve forbids devs from listing games for cheaper on other stores. If other stores are selling STEAM KEYS, they are not listed on other stores and Steam still gets a cut. Do learn to read.
No, they’re listing them on Steam and then 3rd parties are reselling the keys. Devs still can’t list their games on other stores at a lower price. This is the 3rd time I say this, let’s see if you get it this time.
A key that will send you where ? On steam. It is just a way to keep the Devs captive.
30% is absolutely insane specially for a licence, not something that you own.
A key that will send you wherever the Publisher and Distribution platforms allow for. Look at Humble for an easy example, a bunch of their games provide keys that will work on Steam, Epic, GOG, and even direct download if the publisher/developer has the servers for it. It doesn’t keep any one captive.
They can sell a direct download as well, the key is merely an option.
If they want to do their own marketing, they can still piggy back off Steam’s infrastructure with the only cost being the keys sold directly through Steam.
30% is not insane if it’s completely opt in and there are other competitors. Google and Apple charging that much was insane because they completely control the hardware and OS, and as such there was no competition either by policy (e.g. Apple) or scare tactics (Google). Steam only controls the hardware and OS on their Steam Deck, and there’s no barriers to installing competitor platforms whatsoever, and they make it easy to play those in the main Steam interface as well (I play EGS and GOG games through Heroic all the time).
The reason people sell through Steam is because Steam provides a better service vs DIY or any of their competitors. Users buy from Steam because it offers a better experience than either directly buying or buying through a competitor. Everyone wins here.
I wish the fee was lower and Valve can certainly afford to take a smaller cut, but they totally make up for that cost in the value they provide. People are willing to stick with Steam even though it doesn’t have the most popular games (Minecraft and Fortnite), their competition gives away free games and has exclusives, and they aren’t installed by default. Steam doesn’t win because they’re a monopoly, they win because people prefer their service to the competition.
They can keep that 30% if they sell their keys (free to generate BTW) on their own website. I’ve bought a few games that way and it totally works. They can sell their games on other stores with a smaller cut (e.g. EGS) without any issues with Valve.
Many game devs don’t bother doing it though, which tells me Valve’s marketing is doing its job selling games.
No, they can’t. Valve’s TOS forbid devs from offering lower prices on other stores. If not for this, a dev could list a game for $60 on Steam, $50 on Epic, and $42 on their own website and let the customer decide where to buy it from while making the same amount of money from either of these sales. Valve is not competing fairly.
If they didn’t have this rule, devs could list at a ridiculous price on Steam and sell on their store for a more reasonable price to take advantage of Steam’s marketing without paying. That’s unfair for Valve. Either list there and charge the same prices everywhere, or don’t.
I would be surprised if other stores didn’t have similar policies.
Steam also reserves the right to remove a game for any reason. If a developer does that they would have their game removed and probably receive a ban. There’s no reason for that policy other than price fixing to keep consumers from making an informed decision. Stop defending the multibillion dollar company.
The only time I’ve heard of that happening is if the key was purchased with a stolen credit card or something. Steam actually goes out of their way to retain access to purchased games that have been delisted by the dev.
They’re one of the better actors in this regard the industry. In most cases, they’ll side with the customer, which is exactly what you want a company to do.
I don’t care how much they’re worth, if they provide a good service, I’ll help clarify misunderstandings. I really don’t care if people and companies get rich, as long as they do it by making a good product people want.
I think you confused “[a developer] would have their game removed” with Steam removing games from people’s libraries. Nobody is talking about that.
That’s the part I was responding to. Yeah, they technically could do that, but they go out of their way to prevent users from losing access to games. A dev can remove online access to a game (e.g. mp ban), but if they try to do that for offline access too, they can get delisted from Steam.
If you’re talking about something else, please explain more clearly because that’s what I thought you were talking about.
I’m saying if they didn’t have their predatory anti-consumer policy and a developer tries to list a game for a much higher price on Steam than they do on other stores, they would remove the game from the store and probably ban the developer. It has nothing to do with removing access to user’s games from their library.
But that’s not anti-consumer at all, if anything that’s pro-consumer because they’re ensuring that the price they see on Steam is comparable to the price elsewhere, so if you prefer buying from Steam, you don’t have to worry that a studio is fleecing you.
Why would a retailer permit a company to use it’s marketing and distribution network while actively steering customers away from its storefront? That’s not a great business relationship. The alternative would be Valve charging for keys sold outside of Steam, and that seems like an even worse policy.
Uhh that’s completely wrong. I’ve bought keys from tons of different stores (humble being the majn one) when there were sales going on for the game. All registered with steam keys.
So they’re not games on other stores, are they?
They are sold cheaper than on steam…the fuck are you talking about, literally you said they can’t sell them cheaper. And that’s completely false.
No, I said Valve forbids devs from listing games for cheaper on other stores. If other stores are selling STEAM KEYS, they are not listed on other stores and Steam still gets a cut. Do learn to read.
Except they’re literally listing them on other stores cheaper than on steam. The fuck are you talking about?
No, they’re listing them on Steam and then 3rd parties are reselling the keys. Devs still can’t list their games on other stores at a lower price. This is the 3rd time I say this, let’s see if you get it this time.
https://isthereanydeal.com/game/red-dead-redemption-2/info/
GMG key for epic is $17.42 right now…steam is…$19.79
Are you still going to blatantly babble false statements?
This is the 3rd time I say this, let’s see if you get it this time.
A key that will send you where ? On steam. It is just a way to keep the Devs captive. 30% is absolutely insane specially for a licence, not something that you own.
A key that will send you wherever the Publisher and Distribution platforms allow for. Look at Humble for an easy example, a bunch of their games provide keys that will work on Steam, Epic, GOG, and even direct download if the publisher/developer has the servers for it. It doesn’t keep any one captive.
They can sell a direct download as well, the key is merely an option.
If they want to do their own marketing, they can still piggy back off Steam’s infrastructure with the only cost being the keys sold directly through Steam.
30% is not insane if it’s completely opt in and there are other competitors. Google and Apple charging that much was insane because they completely control the hardware and OS, and as such there was no competition either by policy (e.g. Apple) or scare tactics (Google). Steam only controls the hardware and OS on their Steam Deck, and there’s no barriers to installing competitor platforms whatsoever, and they make it easy to play those in the main Steam interface as well (I play EGS and GOG games through Heroic all the time).
The reason people sell through Steam is because Steam provides a better service vs DIY or any of their competitors. Users buy from Steam because it offers a better experience than either directly buying or buying through a competitor. Everyone wins here.
I wish the fee was lower and Valve can certainly afford to take a smaller cut, but they totally make up for that cost in the value they provide. People are willing to stick with Steam even though it doesn’t have the most popular games (Minecraft and Fortnite), their competition gives away free games and has exclusives, and they aren’t installed by default. Steam doesn’t win because they’re a monopoly, they win because people prefer their service to the competition.