Gaming giant Steam accused of ripping off 14m UK gamers

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The owner of Steam - the largest digital distribution platform for PC games in the world - is being sued for £656m.

Valve Corporation is being accused of using its market dominance to overcharge 14 million people in the UK.

"Valve is rigging the market and taking advantage of UK gamers," said digital rights campaigner Vicki Shotbolt, who is bringing the case. Valve has been contacted for comment.
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The claim - which has been filed at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, in London - accuses Valve of "shutting out" competition in the PC gaming market.

It says Valve "forces" game publishers to sign up to so-called price parity obligations, preventing titles being sold at cheaper prices on rival platforms.

Ms Shotbolt says this has enabled Steam to charge an "excessive commission of up to 30%", making UK consumers pay too much for purchasing PC games and add-on content.
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The case is what is known as a collective action claim, which means that one person goes to court on behalf of a much larger group of people.

Ms Shotbolt - who accuses Valve of breaching UK competition law for at least six years - says she is bringing the claim "to stop this unlawful conduct and help people get back what they are owed."

Steam is a PC gaming platform where players can buy games and purchase in-game extras.
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According to VG Insights, it had record-breaking sales in 2023, generating over $9bn (£7.1bn) in global revenue.

This was driven by 580m games sold and 14,000 new games released.

However, the market is extremely concentrated, with the top 10 bestselling games making up 61% of all sales.

The top 100 games account for 91% of total sales.
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The claim is backed by legal firm Milberg London LLP, which brings group action cases against large companies.

"Competition law is there to protect consumers and ensure that markets work properly," said Natasha Pearman, a partner at the law firm.

"When they don't work properly and consumers are harmed, collective actions of this kind provide consumers with a voice and a way of holding big companies, like Valve, to account."
It is the latest in a series of collective action legal cases against big tech.

Other claims lodged at the Competition Appeal Tribunal have sought compensation from Facebook, Google and Sony.
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www.bbc.com

Steam owner Valve accused of ripping off 14m UK gamers

Legal claim alleges Steam's market dominance means consumers are paying too much for video games.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
making UK consumers pay too much for purchasing PC games and add-on content.
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lol, wait until they hear about key-reseller sites and how Steam allows it's users to take advantage of them.
 
The parity obligation is so if it's priced lower somewhere else they have to price it the same on steam sooooo it kinda stops steam users from being ripped off right? Good luck with that one brainiacs.
 
Gaben and PC keep winning.

- No Online Sub
- 75% - 90% Discounts
- Proper Storefront
- Huge Community
- PC Mods
- Sony and MS on Steam
 
Fahdis said:
Gaben and PC keep winning.

- No Online Sub
- 75% - 90% Discounts
- Proper Storefront
- Huge Community
- PC Mods
- Sony and MS on Steam
Click to expand...
Don't forget the family share feature! Being able to share your WHOLE library of digital games while still having access to it is amazing.
 
It says Valve "forces" game publishers to sign up to so-called price parity obligations, preventing titles being sold at cheaper prices on rival platforms.
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I often see this being mentioned, yet no evidence of it.
 
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I mean come on dude, there's tons of platform to buy Steam keys on for a wide variety of prices.
And how is something anti-consumer if consumers keep coming back even with the competitive services being available?
 
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Well i haven't actually bought a game directly off Steam for a long time due to the high prices compared to the key sellers on the net, and i'm in England, so maybe there is some truth to it. they use to have great sales 10 plus years ago.
 
People already losing on the thread, glorious meamwhile Sunak is getting his campaign financed by Gabe
 
Fabieter said:
While true you don't get everything on the key stores. Even some publishers like ms dont have everything on key stores.
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I'd say you get 90%, can't think of a single instance in which I didn't find a game I was looking for in any keysite available.

And if you don't like the price on Steam, you can always go to Epic, GOG, itch.io, or any other store.
 
Guilty_AI said:
I often see this being mentioned, yet no evidence of it.
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Because it's not a thing.
Valve doesn't even set prices. Publishers do.
What Valve does, it's asking developers/publishers to offer to the Steam user base comparable price to what they ask elsewhere (and comparable discounts, too).
Basically if you are selling a game on Steam AND anywhere else, you are expected to set similar prices and if you put a significant discount elsewhere you are supposed to do the same on Steam on a relatively short timeframe.

Which is only fair. You don't want YOUR user base to be the one made of "suckers" that pay more than anyone else.
 
TintoConCasera said:
I'd say you get 90%, can't think of a single instance in which I didn't find a game I was looking for in any keysite available.

And if you don't like the price on Steam, you can always go to Epic, GOG, itch.io, or any other store.
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Well I have to say I have a few stores I trust myself and if its not on there I have to go with Steam or don't buy at all. Because some of them are definitely shady.
 
Fabieter said:
Well I have to say I have a few stores I trust myself and if its not on there I have to go with Steam or don't buy at all. Because some of them are definitely shady.
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Yep, I do the same. Got one in particular in which I make 95% or my purchases, never failed me.
 
It says Valve "forces" game publishers to sign up to so-called price parity obligations, preventing titles being sold at cheaper prices on rival platforms.
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I know they force them to agree to it, but i dont think Valve actually enforce it or have any capabilities to do so given that its possible to buy games elsewhere for cheaper and that publishers can just sell steam keyes themselves for cheaper.
 
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Sentenza said:
Because it's not a thing.
Valve doesn't even set prices. Publishers do.
What Valve does, it's asking developers/publishers to offer to the Steam user base comparable price to what they ask elsewhere (and comparable discounts, too).
Basically if you are selling a game on Steam AND anywhere else, you are expected to set similar prices and if you put a significant discount elsewhere you are supposed to do the same on Steam on a relatively short timeframe.

Which is only fair. You don't want YOUR user base to be the one made of "suckers" that pay more than anyone else.
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Those terms are for Steam Keys as far as i'm aware though. I've never seen any evidence of even that for the devs non-steam offers.
 
Seems that Price Party just means that Epic is forced to keep prices the same as Steam. They only way they can compete is with Exclusives.
That 15% vs 30% results in no price difference at checkout.
 
Am I missing something? I buy majority of my PC games from Green Man Gaming which is a UK based, authorized key seller and they almost always have cheaper prices than Steam does.
I also don't get why it's okay for Sony/MS/Nintendo to charge 30% but everyone is mad at Steam for doing it.
Having said that, I obviously do think a more fair 80/20 split would nice, but I have no idea how much it costs to upkeep store/servers the size of Steam platform.

Magic Carpet said:
Seems that Price Party just means that Epic is forced to keep prices the same as Steam. They only way they can compete is with Exclusives.
That 15% vs 30% results in no price difference at checkout.
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It's probably based on the original price. Because Epic has better deals than Steam regularly.
 
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Well, it's a nice way to waste time and money, I guess. Call me when I can buy third party keys elsewhere in the same scope as I do for Steam.
 
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Yeah this is fucking weird. Games on Steam are sometimes cheaper than elsewhere and typically new games come out at 10% off.

If I know I'm going to like the game, I'll usually get it cheaper from an authorised key site anyway like GMG or similar since they are drastically cheaper than Steam itself.
 
DeepEnigma said:
But they tried the same thing with Sony. So which one is market dominance in gaming?
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Was going to ask the same. I remember the case they wanted to put on Sony was also cuz they take a 30% comission, giving the idea that is the consumer that pays 30% more, when the comission is paid by the publishers.
 
Sounds like a lawsuit by people who have absolutely no clue how Steam or PC gaming work. If anything, this applies more to consoles.
 
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