From Marek Tymiński, CEO of CI Games
The owner of Steam has been accused of overcharging 14 million PC gamers in the UK and 'shutting out' competition in a new lawsuit.
"Valve, the owner of Steam, is being sued for £656m over claims it is abusing its dominant market position to overcharge players.
The collective action claim has been filed with the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal by digital rights campaigner Vicki Shotbolt.
In the lawsuit, Shotbolt accuses Valve of ‘shutting out’ competition when it comes to buying PC games and DLC, which has led to 14m people in the UK being overcharged for PC games as a result.
The claim is seeking up to £44 compensation for every UK player who has bought a PC game or add-on content from June 5, 2018."
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So they are trying to take the apple/sony/xbox approach were there is only one store without ever using a pc for gaming.
Anyone with a ounce of pc gaming knowledge knows steam did nothing when competition and the launcher war happened but now every publisher that had there own launcher with games only available on that platform are slowing coming back to steam.
This "lawsuit" should be directed to launcher's like rockstar's as they have games only available on there like the gta collection or ubisoft with xdefiant heck epic launcher exclusive games. There is no grounds in which steam has locked down content to there platform except there own games though there are disc versions of those except half life alex.
Pc players still have the best choice on game buying with multiple launcher's and site that offers keys like my fav humble bundle but on the same platform we have the worst drm along with those 3rd part launcher's that need to run in the background.
Steam allows 3rd party apps (which I hate) and...we all know that egs is the one that keeps buying exclusivity lol. A lot of devs and consumers rely on steam hence it's very heavy support.
If I get 44 pound from them I'll only be spending it in the steam store...fucking absurd ..one of the most ethical companies out there and largely due to them not being a public offering imo
A gray cloud loomed over this year's big summer game showcases: Over 16,000 game developers have lost their jobs since 2023, many of whom were casualties of success at companies that reported huge profits this year. One of the largest cost cutters has been Xbox, which in January cut 1,900 jobs at Activision Blizzard and in May shut down four studios: Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Games. The closure of Tango was taken especially hard, as the studio was still basking in the light of Hi-Fi Rush, a critical and commercial success by all of Microsoft's metrics.
I mean, you should be. Because we now know and understand that even if Avowed is a hit it doesn't mean the studio is safe.
I hope that they're able to buy out their own Studio, like Toys for Bob's did, maybe some of their IPs as well, and go the Larian Studios route instead. We still need a sequel to Alpha Protocol after all. So here's hoping for the best.
Listen to your leaders, rather, good luck!
Ok, fair enough.
As much as we all want another Alpha Protocol only Sega can make that happen.
Honestly, it would be pretty cheap to get the IP rights from Sega. They've done nothing with it and weren't interested in a sequel. But I'd be fine with just a spiritual successor that builds on what they were trying to do with AP.
@Einhander19721h
It's all good.
But to be fair, while SEGA does own the IP and Published the game, it was Obsidian who created the IP and helped bring it back from the dead. So it's only fitting that they should be the ones to work on a proper sequel. And hopefully with a proper budget this time around.
My point is that I want them to stick around for this to happen. But on the current position they're in, things are bleak is all I'm saying.
"As much as we all want another Alpha Protocol only Sega can make that happen."
Not really. If Xbox really want Alpha Protocol, all they have to do is to pay SEGA for its licence and give it to Obsidian or any other Xbox first party or third party to do it, just like Nintendo did with Bayonetta.
na this team tossed out the outer worlds grounded that both made money and they have outer worlds 2 on the back burner sense 2021
https://www.pcgamer.com/the...
I really just want a third Pillars of Eternity game. Not impossible under ms, but seems more and more unlikely with MS's new focus on high impact titles.
Of course they're gonna feign confidence. They're about to release a game so they wanna look strong as possible. I know for a fact they're deathly afraid, I would be to and they absolutely should be.
I'm afraid for them right now. MS can't be trusted.
How come no one is interviewing PlayStation studios with the same questions? They had a significant amount of closures as well.
Strange 🤔
Keep supporting MS people and Xbox, they clearly do not care as you can see with all these closures. You want to hurt Xbox and MS just boycott their next console.
Sony has closed down more game studios this generation than the number of new IPs they've created
If we boycott everyone that closed down studios we wouldn't own a PS or Xbox, and would only play indies on Steam.
If we boycott and let them know the reason why they would have to listen. Stop closing game studios they should have never been closed to begin with. I keep saying this but MS is worth 3 trillion!! They do not have to close anything. They will make money no matter what even without closures.
'' You want to hurt Xbox and MS just boycott their next console.''
100%!! But to be fair, most gamers around the planet can see right through MS's BS and most don't care about xbox so no need to tell them what it's obvious. We can safely say that they've been ''boycotting'' the green brand for a long, long time. The proof is in front of everyone's eyes every time their hardware sales figures are published.
If you just push that thought further...most of the world already passively boycotts Xbox
Glad someone gets it. What is doom and gloom going to accomplish for the studio? Nothing. That's why he said what he said.
This is a spiritual or philosophical statement from the developer. Being worried is in itself a negative feeling that isn’t healthy. Live fully in the present moment and accept what comes. Reality is all about impermanence and the law of nature (transient).
Personally, it’s an industry I’m slowly backing out. When it comes to wholesome practices and quality life, video games fit into the “I can live without this”. Given how employees life is (generally), how they are treated, and contributions to personal health .. it’s nice to have video games in the right moderation but I equate it to other industries how the ethics of the operation is lacking at the expense of “at all costs”. The extremity of that idea is demonstrated from top of the hierarchy down. Maybe some of us care, many of us don’t, and some feel it’s pointless due to the insignificance at the microscopic level (what is the value of a singular action against millions). Only we can choose and control our own action.
I'm not worried at all. Obsidian are are awesome devs and I'm looking foward to Avowed.
The Evil Within, Ghostwire: Tokyo and Hi-Fi Rush studio has closed its doors.
Ninja theory. Others will follow as well. The smaller studios MS owns should all be worried. Maybe MS will try and release some of their games day and date on ps5 to save some of these studios.
I can see Ninja Theory. At least Tango made a game that was reviewed well. Ninja Theory spent a lot of years to release a tech demo that didn’t do well at all.
I get it that Hellblade 2 is a boring game, but I hope they are not the next to be closed.
@repssahj
Ninja Theory is likely on the chopping block too. They released Bleeding Edge which bombed, took 4 years to release Hellbalde 2 which doesn’t seem to be doing well, and still have Project Mara in limbo. They’re high on the chopping block.
MS was likely expecting their God of War / Uncharted quality game from NT based on Heavenly Sword, Enslaved, DmC, and to an extent Hellblade 1, but NT hasn’t delivered since Hellblade 1 which was 7 years ago.
3 trillion MS is worth, yet they do this, well Phil the shit bag did. No studio needed to be let go, when you are worth this much.
Sad, but I see characters and posters of either less than average or barely average games.
Have to disagree here duder, with respect. Evil Within was a good game and the sequel was fantastic, as was HiFi Rush. I'd concede Ghostwire was pretty average but regardless, shuttering a studio which just put out MS best game in donkeys years was complete shithousery on XBox' part.
Microsoft paid 8B to buy Zenimax then fired well over 1000 people from Zenimax between the time they closed the deal and they announced these shut downs.
People talk about the 1900 they fired most recently, but that was only one wave of three sets of layoffs from their gaming division so far this generation totalling around 5000 people this generation. Not counting the dozen plus studios they canned last gen including Lionhead the original Fable developers.
By every real metric HiFi was an average game. I don't see an Evil within poster in the thumb, which is a shame, because if they threw their weight behind that IP, they might have still been around.
I don't understand how you can say it was average in every metric when it garnered the reviews it did?
Hi-FI Rush sits at an 87 on Meta with an 8.8 User Score. By every real metric that matters it's better than average and it's definitely a game made by a studio that should not have been shut down.
I hope they can cut the loading time down to considerably less than 5 minutes. It's a fun game and the sniping is some of the best ever.
I'm enjoying the game, sure it has glitches but it's been better than its meta score.