• Aielman15
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    46 months ago

    When new video game stores were opening that charged much lower commissions than Valve, I decided that I would provide my game “Overgrowth” at a lower price to take advantage of the lower commission rates. I intended to write a blog post about the results. But when I asked Valve about this plan, they replied that they would remove Overgrowth from Steam if I allowed it to be sold at a lower price anywhere, even from my own website without Steam keys and without Steam’s DRM.

    From the source cited by the article.

      • Aielman15
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        16 months ago

        So why is the game still on steam then if that “cited” information was accurate?

        Because Steam is the largest storefront with the biggest userbase and forfeiting those sales is a death sentence for developers.

          • Aielman15
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            6 months ago

            The source makes a claim that selling off platform at a lower price than Steam would get them delisted. You linked the Steam page ($19,50) and the Wolfire.com page ($19,99), so what’s your point? Reread the post.

            […] they [Steam] replied that they would remove Overgrowth from Steam if I allowed it to be sold at a lower price anywhere, even from my own website without Steam keys and without Steam’s DRM.

              • Aielman15
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                6 months ago

                I’m not making shit up though, I’m literally citing the source of the article that this entire comment section is writing about.

                Maybe Humble Bundle has a deal with Steam. Maybe Steam doesn’t care about going after a developer for selling a game five cents cheaper on another storefront. I don’t know, and I’m not going around accusing people of wrongdoing on the basis of some kind of conspiracy theory (“something stinks”).

                If the lawsuit turns out to be fake, that’s good, and users are safe. If it turns out to be true, then great, they’ll make Steam to change their practices, just like they forced them to allow users to refund their games under certain circumstances.

                I’m sure as hell not jumping into a comment section spending my time defending a multi-million dollars corporations that already overpays lawyers to do that.

                (Btw I saw the game on Steam as 19,50 and forgot to check the currency; it’s actually euros on my screen and I was comparing it to the 19,95 dollars from Bundle, so yeah, my bad.)

                  • Aielman15
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                    16 months ago

                    IMO the fact that the developer is selling the game five cents cheaper on another storefront doesn’t prove that it’s bullshit. As I said, it could just be that Steam doesn’t care enough to go after them for a five cents difference, or they allowed it on that specific case after the developer sued them in 2021, or maybe who knows, it’s an entirely different reason. Calling it “bullshit” without even knowing the context is way too rushed.