this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2026
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Seems like buying games to remove them from your competitor is a scummier thing to do.

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[–] fartsparkles@lemmy.world 108 points 3 hours ago (7 children)

If Epic spent half as much money as they are suing organisations and instead funded developing their shop into a gaming community platform like Steam, they’d probably have caught up by now.

[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 2 points 5 minutes ago

its not about making better product for epic. its about removing competition so they dont have to.

[–] LifeLikeLady@lemmy.world 1 points 15 minutes ago (1 children)

I wish they'd just focus on fixing Unreal. It's a shit show.

[–] zipzoopaboop@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 11 minutes ago

Always has been

[–] warm@kbin.earth 32 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Epic Games Launcher would always end up a pile of shit anyway. Tim Sweeney is a fuckhead and he has lots of investors to please.

[–] fyrilsol@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 6 minutes ago

He's also Tencent's bitch too.

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[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 58 points 3 hours ago

Epic is trash, simple as

[–] popcar2@piefed.ca 26 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Because Steam is the world's biggest games store on PC while Epic is statistically insignificant. What's the question?

[–] fyrilsol@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 7 minutes ago

Epic is irrelevant because Epic has not given anyone a single solitary reason to use their launcher and platform. Tim Sweeny loves the smell of his own shit in the morning after he takes a big wet dump in the toilet. So much so, he doesn't even flush for a while.

That launcher of theirs has a knack of sucking out all of your system resources, namely bandwidth and CPU, just to download games. Meanwhile, Valve gives you so many options to work around that.

[–] unknown1234_5@kbin.earth 10 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

epic is irrelevant because nobody wants it, not because steam is trying to crush competition.

[–] yeahiknow3@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 1 hour ago

You prefer Walmart instead of Walmart?

[–] TwodogsFighting@lemdro.id 19 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

No one gives a flat fuck about epics launcher.

[–] lofuw@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 hours ago

Stupid people do.

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

This would be like if someone sued Walmart for letting their local store go out of business.

[–] ToTheGraveMyLove@sh.itjust.works 4 points 22 minutes ago (1 children)

Walmart didn't let local stores go out of business, it deliberately undercut local stores in order to drive them out if business.

[–] Zahille7@lemmy.world 1 points 5 minutes ago

It's not a perfect analogy, but you get my point.

More like the local store suing Walmart for putting them out of business, but only after they pushed away all of their customers with bad ideas and flashy gimmicks

[–] SirW00talot@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Because it's a patent troll who has attempted this a few times before.

[–] fyrilsol@kbin.melroy.org 3 points 13 minutes ago

Exactly.

And she's one of those who is doing it "for the children". So, one of those disgusting beings who hides behind children to get anything she wants done.

[–] Matt@lemdro.id 9 points 3 hours ago (4 children)

Valve is being sued because they are forcing others to follow policies that further entrenches Steam as the largest store.

Since Epic bought the game developer, it only applies to themselves. It is much harder to sue someone over a decision that only applies to something they own. How can a company be sued for not selling their product at a store? Should Valve be sued for not selling their own games on Epic or GOG?

Is Epic’s decision to only sell their games on their store annoying for users? Yes. But unfortunately, there is nothing illegal about. There would be a better chance of a lawsuit of Epic paying other game developers for exclusivity, but that would still not be easy as game exclusivity is still a significant factor on game consoles as well. Albeit much less than in the past.

[–] yeahiknow3@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 hour ago

The only answer with an actual articulate explanation has 30% downvotes because the average gamer IQ is double digits.

[–] False@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

They essentially removed games that I owned and made it so I could no longer play them by drippy Linux support.

[–] mushroomman_toad@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Isn't valve being sued for

  1. Not allowing devs to sell steam download codes on other stores, But the ban only applies if they are selling the download code for cheaper than Steam

  2. Not allowing devs to sell steam DLC download codes on other stores

I don't think 1 or 2 puts other stores at any disadvantage. If a store wants to sell steam download codes then Valve has to get their normal cut. If they don't want to pay the valve tax, then they don't need to offer a Steam download code.

[–] markz@suppo.fi 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

So the entire problem is about restrictions on steam codes?

[–] yeahiknow3@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 59 minutes ago* (last edited 58 minutes ago)

It’s a restriction on where you can get a DLC you paid for. The fact that you paid for it at Walmart shouldn’t matter.

[–] lofuw@sh.itjust.works 18 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Valve isn't forcing anyone to use their platform.

If Steam's terms aren't satisfactory for developers, then they don't have to use Steam.

[–] kinsnik@lemmy.world 5 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

There are laws that say that abusing a monopoly is illegal. Steam is objectively a monopoly in pc games. Sure, you don't have to use it, but it is basically impossible for indie developers to make a living without it.

Now, the question is if valve's actions are actually abusing the monopoly, or normal business practices.

[–] fyrilsol@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 9 minutes ago (1 children)

I would say they aren't.

Because, they aren't like Epic, who has been going around and locking games behind exclusivity deals. Name me one game by one developer, who Valve went to and was like "hey, I'm going to give you a $5 Million exclusivity deal. I'd like for your game to be available on our Steam platform for 2 years before you're allowed to sell anywhere else!"

I'm sure nobody can find that game. Meanwhile, Epic has done this to Metro: Exodus, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2 for the PC and outright buying studios going "hey, delist your game on Steam and only be available to our platform."

How the fuck can that broad be so stupid to not notice that? But it's all Valve's fault, somehow.

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 1 points 2 minutes ago (1 children)

hey, I'm going to give you a $5 Million exclusivity deal

This isn't something they need to.do, as they have a monopoly.

[–] fyrilsol@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 27 seconds ago
[–] MrQuallzin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

looks at Hytale doing quite well without even touching Steam

[–] Nelots@piefed.zip 5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Got any other modern examples than just the one game that had a massive following for the last 7 years of development?

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 1 points 1 minute ago

Star Citizen I guess. If by "well" it is meant "making lots of money"

But yeah it's not realistic at all for 99+% of devs/games

[–] dukemirage@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

Hytale has incredible publicity for an indie release and caters to a target group that’s used to a separate launcher. Not comparable to the usual release.

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

TIL it was removed from steam. I play it on my deck all the time

[–] NannerBanner@literature.cafe 7 points 2 hours ago

Yeah, it's no longer for sale. If you bought it before it was delisted, you can still download/play it through steam. What is fucking atrocious is that I had to go and make an account with epic to play. Well, they can spam and sell my 'nannerbanner'sfakeemailforepiccunts@proton.me' all they want. Fucking cunts. .

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (2 children)

What are they being sued for? I guess I missed this?

Also I guess it could be argued they only removed it from new sales whereas people who already owned those titles on Steam still have them on Steam.

[–] eli@lemmy.world 21 points 3 hours ago (4 children)

They are being accused of price fixing with the whole "can't sell games for cheaper on other store fronts compared to the steam listing" thing

[–] nogooduser@lemmy.world 1 points 34 minutes ago

I’m pretty sure that Amazon also says that you can’t sell things on Amazon for more than you sell the same item elsewhere.

I’ve certainly seen a video claiming that.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Oh well that's totally fair, honestly.

It locks out real competitive pricing.

[–] warm@kbin.earth 24 points 3 hours ago

It only applies to Steam product keys though, so developers cannot sell cheap Steam keys on other platforms while still taking advantage of Steam's services.

[–] unknown1234_5@kbin.earth 1 points 1 hour ago

ah yes, they are price fixing by saying devs can't set the price on steam (which the devs control) higher than the price on other platforms (which the devs also control)

[–] bookmeat@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 2 hours ago

I think this lawsuit is actually about allowing people to buy dlc from other stores for games that you bought through steam?

[–] lath@piefed.social 8 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

As per my understanding (which isn't saying much), Steam takes a 30% cut of each sale. In UK, someone with a specific agenda claimed to represent gamers as a class and sued reasoning that the 30% cut inflates the price of games globally even beyond Steam's store, harming everyone.

Did i understand it right? No idea. What's the actual goal here? Also no idea. Is Steam the "good guy" in all this? Of course not.

[–] lofuw@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 hours ago

Well that's stupid. If Steam charged less, the price of games wouldn't change.

Developers and publishers would just pocket the difference.

[–] Adeptus_Obsoletus@piefed.social 6 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Is Steam the “good guy” in all this? Of course not.

Too bad a lot of people, even here or in other threads, don't get it, so they willingly cheer for Valve simply because Tim Sweeney sucks.

[–] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 8 points 2 hours ago

I think devs actually get quite a bit for that 30%. Let's present a hypothetical. What if Valve offered an option where you could list your game on Steam with no restrictions and they'd only take a 10% cut, but the tradeoff is, they won't promote your game at all? Like, it won't show up in any Steam storefront advertisements, can't participate in sales, etc. - it's still there if it's linked to from off-Steam or if someone searches for it, but it won't be promoted, period.

How do you think that would work out for developers? I'd argue not well, especially for small studios.

The promotion those games get applies to the game as a whole, not only through Steam - someone can see the promotion on Steam, then go shop around and buy it elsewhere. Why should Valve promote a game if they aren't getting a cut of the sales?

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