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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[–] Matt@lemdro.id 4 points 11 hours ago (16 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.

[–] lofuw@sh.itjust.works 27 points 10 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 4 points 9 hours 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.

[–] bryndos@fedia.io 1 points 1 hour ago

There are not many objectively provable monopolies and i doubt that English law would support that claim without extremely strong evidence, generally utilities are the only ones that'd get close. A necessity with high fixed costs and infrastructure lock-in.

Steam has high market share in a segment, but not necessarily a distinct segment, I'm sure steam would argue that there are enough consumers who can and do substitute between pc and console and mobile, as well as other vendors so that their market power is mitigated by a fair amount of consumer mobility.

So what you're looking to prove is unlikely to be a pure "monopoly" but 'excess market power', and 'abuse of market power'. That is a complex legal art that the competition regulator is usually not that successful at proving, at least in English law.

Abuse of market power has to impact consumers not producers. There are always marginal producers struggling to make a profit - that happens in competitive markets, producers bidding prices down, some going out of business. I'm not saying I agree, but that's more or less how the law sees it, lookup what they let supermarkets get away with in contracts with farmers.

To show consumer harm from upstream market manipulation you'd probably have to show a material dearth of choice being created by steam policies in order to jack up prices. Maybe that can be demonstrated, but it's not simple and more likely to come down to subjective interpretation of the arguments and evidence from both sides rather than any unarguable objective truth.

If it were unarguable or objectively true then the CMA might lead the investigation itself instead of this being a private action. Though maybe this is too small a market for them to worry about.

[–] MrQuallzin@lemmy.world 10 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

looks at Hytale doing quite well without even touching Steam

[–] dukemirage@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours 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.

[–] Nelots@piefed.zip 3 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

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

[–] MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip 6 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Anything by Blizzard, Escape from Tarkov, Minecraft, Roblox, Valorant/LoL/TFT, Genshin Impact/HSR, Fortnite and more.

[–] Nelots@piefed.zip 0 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Notably, almost none of those are indie games, and almost any indie game that you did list came out in the 2000s like Roblox, before Steam was the behemoth it is today. Half of them are games by the same sets of AAA studios like Epic Games, Blizzard, and MiHoYo, and most Blizzard games have an entire franchise of games older than Steam itself to piggyback off of. Speaking of, anything by Blizzard isn't even true... their most recent games like Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 are both on Steam. Tarkov is also on Steam now, but I'll admit I'm splitting hairs here since it spent nearly a decade off of it. Though the fact that it released on Steam with its 1.0 update does say something.

So I really don't think any of those games aside from debatably Tarkov shows that the average modern indie dev can be successful outside of Steam.

[–] MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

You asked a question, I answered. You didn't like the answer so now you move the goalposts.

[–] Nelots@piefed.zip 1 points 39 minutes ago* (last edited 30 minutes ago)

To be clear, the original comment I responded to said:

looks at Hytale doing quite well without even touching Steam

In response to a comment that said:

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.

I never moved the goalposts; modern indie devs were always the goalpost.

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours 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

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