Steam is being sued in the UK. According to the lawsuit, the video game distributor is unfairly inflating prices. Do you agree and believe Steam should lower their prices?
Steam is the place to go when you want to pick up some new games online. It's comfortable, you never have to leave the house and can simply stay at home, get what you want and start playing. Convenient as hell, right?
Well, it seems that because of Steam's monopoly on the business, Valve has gotten into some hot water over in the UK, with a digital rights campaigner filing a lawsuit against the company for a whopping £656 Million. That's $834 Million in US dollars.
Valve Getting Sued Over Inflation Of Game Prices
Digital rights campaigner Vicki Shotbolt has filed a lawsuit against Valve Corporation. In the suit, they accuse Valve of anticompetitive practices and overcharging 14 million customers. That's pretty insane, right? So with that many "victims" it makes sense why the lawsuit is asking for so much money, right?
Shotbolt believes that Steam is overcharging 14 million gamers in the UK, due to their strong hold on the games market. She also states that this has been going on for the last 6 years. In her own words, she has stated that, "Valve is rigging the market and taking advantage of UK gamers."
It is believed that Steam makes publishers sign wavers, which would stop them from selling their games on other sites and apps for a cheaper price. This would mean that publishers have to sign a price parity obligation and would mean that Steam can gain a huge percentage of commission from sales... which comes out of the buyers pockets in the end.
A similar suit took place in 2022 when PlayStation was accused of disrupting the gaming space, though in that suit "only" 9 million UK customers seem to have been affected.