In the great span of things, there are only a few companies that come to mind when considering the breadth to which online content has flooded our homes and lives: Google, Facebook, and, for gamers the world over, Valve’s Steam.
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.
yes, let's give storefronts the power to decide over properties they don't own, sounds awesome
I was being sarcastic, 99.9% of games sold on there are not from valve so there's not much they can do about it.
Since the customer has agreed not to own, there is nothing that can be done. If customers do not agree, then the landscape looks different.
In addition, if Steam goes out of business, they have measures to ensure gamers keep their steam games. This seems to be a grey area of ownership, someone has agreed to some kind of perpetuity in the case of this event, which could a possible hole to exploit.
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.
Imagine a child safety advocate switching gears and targeting how a business sells games, weird right? I could be wrong, and maybe old blonds in England with the name Vicki Shotbolt are a dime a dozen... but assuming this is the same Vicki Shotbolt of The Parent Zone, her company The Parent Zone partnered with MS in 2014. That's a long time ago I know, but apparently Shotbolt has ties with the UK government.
I'm not saying anything, but MS doesn't let partnerships like that die.
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
Finally, the Vietnamese government has officially responded to Steam being blocked in the country.
VPN to buy games, fuck that if it's allowed or not, or just use a VPN and torrent what you can.
I just cannot believe we haven't had a game from them this generation nearly 4 years in.. crazy!
If the game is crap then yes there will always be negative feedback it comes with the territory. It's called word of mouth or welcome to the internet. Where the truth about a game comes out really fast whether the game is good or crap. If you can't handle the criticism because of a game then why publish the game. Why should people who never criticized or even played the game be punished? Vietnam has some really screwed up laws block Steam because they don't answer us rule. And going on a witch hunt with Steam please. Where's the proof, where's the evidence of this witch hunt. Somebody is butt hurt and has a Vietnamese Karen leading the witch hunt.
The Outerhaven writes: While Steam has come out recently, stating that Steam accounts can't be transferred, we need to think about it since we all will eventually kick the bucket. But if Valve is denying transferring accounts, what can be done? Plenty, actually.
It goes to my kids because I gave them the passwords.
To Steam: Missio has a song that conveys my feelings about you stealing my purchase after I die. It's called "Middle Fingers"
I suppose if I have kids, I'd just give em my account details by retirement age. If I die young then...idk lol.
Yea, I mean just give someone the password to your account. Is that difficult to do or something? Like, I’m legit asking because I don’t know.
It's not difficult but It's against the policy. If they find out, they will lock the account permanently.
Ah ok, I had a feeling there was something like that. It seems kind of weird that you can’t just hand your account over to a family member or friend and let them take over the account.
Steam is the best network out there. and you don't have to pay $60 a year....
I cannot express my love for Steam enough.
I got:
Assassins Creed Revelations
Batman Arkham City
Crysis pack (Crysis, Crysis Wars, Crysis Warhead, Crysis 2 maximum edition)
Left for Dead 2
Max Payne 3
Saints Row the third
Sins of a solar Empire: rebillion
All for just about £70 and to think a few of those games about 5 months back to get two of them on retail would have cost me that much.
Now i jsut have to quit my job and bum out because most of these are going to make my face melt with playtime.
And not to mention I had some cheeky fella earlier trying to say to me I pay the same price for games as they do on console....lol yeah buddy.
I just got back into PC gaming after a long absence and I gotta say, I am amazed by Steam. I didn't think I could love Valve any more but they found a way.
During the Summer Sale I bought:
- Crysis 2 Maximum Edition $19.00 (50% off)
- FEAR 3 $5.00 (75% off)
- The Darkness 2 $12.49 (75% off)
- The Witcher 2 $15.99 (66% off)
- Batman: Arkham City $10.19 (66% off)
Today I bought:
- Transformers: War for Cybertron $7.50 (75% off)
You just can't beat Steam. I wish the Playstation Store had deals like these without the need for a subscription (PS+)
Steam is so wonderful. It's so strange that a company as rich as Valve hasn't gone corrupt yet. Lol. I love Gabe Newell!