this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2026
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Valve literally released hardware and said "hey, competitors, feel free to add your own stores and even OS". None of their competitors even bothered to try.
Valve doesn't need to resort to underhanded tactics to secure their monopoly like other monopolies. They just know that they provide a good service.
Funny because they absolutely use those tactics even to this day. Among other things, they go around and tell developers not to set lower prices or discounts elsewhere if they want to be on Steam (see page 160 here).
Most of those conversations seem to be steam asking the vendor to allow them to lower the price it's being offered on steam to match the lower price it's being offered elsewhere (or remove the sale from steam). I dont see any threats to kick games off steam (though that could be implied) or demands to remove lower priced sales from elsewhere.
It doesnt look particularly abusive to my eye at least.
How explicit does Valve need to be for you to agree that they make the point clear? In one quote further in this thread, they say "we’d just choose to stop selling [the game]", in another, on p. 161, they say "we'll be ready to release [once you match the price]", prompting the dev to raise the price from $7 to $14 elsewhere. It's highly anticompetitive because it prevents other platforms from competing on price. Great discounts are instrumental as well, as noted by OP's very article.
I don't understand. If the price is $7 elsewhere, why try to release on Steam for twice that price?
Why did the dev have to increase the price elsewhere to "match the price", instead of matching the price to $7 on Steam?
Why would any store stock your product for the twice the price that it can be bought elsewhere? There is no obligation for them to stock a certain product (at any price).
I can't dictate what other stores price it at, but I can certainly refuse to sell it in mine if it is not profitable for me. How is that anticompetitve?
I agree. It'd obviously be the best experience for the customer if they could choose whichever store/launcher they want to buy on and not have to worry about having to pay more if they don't shop around. Like the tea with price printed on the can so it's consistent.
I'm glad we at least have moved on from people outright denying Valve does this to defending Valve doing this.
You'd have to ask the dev, but obviously Valve takes 30%, while the dev would get 100% on its own store. If there's a publisher involved, and publisher contracts often cover specific platforms, the dev would get much less than 70% on Steam.
Comparing Steam to traditional stores is incorrect. Even Valve's own argument in the same Wolfire case was that monopoly power requires a market share of 75%, which Steam exceeds.
So the dev wants all the benefits of selling on the Steam store while at the same time earning profits that they would if they sold it independently?
Am I reading that correctly?
As I said, we don't know the terms of their publishing contract, if any, so that would be a baseless assumption to make. I could also flip your argument and say they might not even want to sell on Steam, but feel forced to because of its monopoly power. It's one of the points of the class action lawsuit.
They constantly telling devs that they wont teach their customers that Steam is more expensive option compared to any other sources of the game. If game goes on sale and elsewhere it has higher discount, they ask devs to allow them to match discount or remove it entirely. Nothing about removing games I found (skimmed, but maybe I am blind).
In other words: They dont force devs to sell games on other stores at the same price they sell on steam. They ask devs to match price of the games they sell on steam with other retailers. E.g. if game is sold at $30 on EGS and $35 on steam, they ask to reduce price on steam to match EGS price. Not the other way.
How much more "pro consumer" can they get?