this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2024
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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.
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.
Those are 3rd party resellers. How many times can one man miss the same point?
So wait you're only hang-up is that the store has to offer the download? The fuck....
The store offers the downloads on the links you provided, that's not the point. The point is that if I, as a consumer, want to get a game cheaper than it's listed in Steam, I have to find a reseller to sell me a key that might not work or even get me banned (see G2A) and has none of the protections that come with buying from an official store. If not for Valve's anti-consumer policy, I could just go to Epic and buy it cheaper there because they take a smaller cut.
Those are not illegitimate reseller stores. Those keys are from the devs on those stores. I did not share a link to cdkeys or kingwin or g2a. I shared a link to a legitimate list of stores. If I buy from humble my keys are not going to get banned or not work.
Are you intentionally missing the point? Legitimate or not, it's a 3rd party seller that can't offer the same protections an official store where the dev chooses to list the game does. Just to name an example, if you even see a key from Humble Bundle, you lose the right to refund. If not for Valve's predatory policies, you could just buy the game at a lower price from Epic and enjoy the exact same refund policy that Steam has.
https://support.humblebundle.com/hc/en-us/articles/1260804812850-Support-Refund-Policies#:~:text=Refunds%20are%20eligible%20within%20two,case%20basis%2C%20at%20Humble's%20discretion.
What in the absolute fuck are you talking about?
Just stop...
So I was wrong about that one, the point still stands, specially because key resellers are also affected by Valve's policy. Why are you being so intentionally obtuse?
Where in valves policy is it showing they're affected. That right there is from the link you provided, literally stating its fine to have discounts on different stores. Steam provides the keys for free and still eats the cost of hosting the game if one of these keys are sold on a different store.
Do you just not read?
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.
Price fixing is extremely anti-consumer. They're not ensuring the price is lower on Steam, they're ensuring that it's higher everywhere else. Having a higher price than competing stores doesn't have to steer people away from your own if you offer a better service but Valve isn't willing to do that so they screw the consumer instead.