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US Court Rules Google a Monopoly in 'Biggest Antitrust Case of the 21st Century'.
(www.commondreams.org)
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this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024
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So because they're treating you right it's ok to put 70% of the market in the hands of a single person?
They're not anti-competitive, that's the difference. Devs can even sell Steam keys on their own website and take 100% of the profit if they so choose, and there's absolutely no lock-in.
I'm not sure where the anti-trust is. Having a high marketshare by itself doesn't mean you're committing anti-trust, abusing that market position does.
You say that like your only option is to buy games from steam.
There are many other online stores you can use. Sorry you don't like the most popular/oldest/one that reflects the wishes of the consumer the most.
Hot take: if they aren't hurting me or others, money wise or not, I don't care if they have majority market share. In this case it makes sense, they treat their customers right and don't bully the market.
This simply isn't the fight.
But they're hurting you, their market dominance means they don't have to compete for pricing, the reason Newell is a billionaire is because the games they sell are sold for more than they're worth.
You know Valve doesn't set the prices right? The developers do
The devs determine they need to sell X copies at Y$/copy, they then calculate what Valve's cut will be and add it over Y$
Example: You think you'll sell a million copy and want to make 10 millions to recoup your cost and make a profit so you need 10$ per. But the truth is that after everyone else gets their cut (publisher, distributor, taxes...) you're left with about 50% of the sale price going to you, that means your need to sell the game for 20$ to end up with 10$/copy going to you. If everyone else had lower margins and you got 70% of the sale price ending up in your pocket you would need to sell your game for 14.30$ a copy to end up with 10$ going to you. Everyone else in this example are the people who aren't part of the actual development cost, their margins are huge compared to the amount of work they accomplish, the proof of that is that they're making billions in profit, profit is revenue - cost, their cost is basically nothing, hosting content and distributing it costs peanuts these days and prices are only going down, so their profit is actually increasing passively over time. Because the devs need to set the price at 20$ instead of 14.30$ you're paying 5.70$ more for the same product and that 5.70$ is all going into the pockets of people that had nothing to do with actually creating the product you're purchasing.
How is that different than selling anything else anywhere? You've picked a strange hill to die on, and your reasoning doesn't even fit.
It's not different, when did I say it's a Steam only issue?
With your one word reply to the post.
I just added one more example that no one talks about. Find one of my comments where I say the other examples weren't just as guilty.
Oh now you haven't only been harping about steam for the last 12 hours? Now the problem is that everything is a monopoly? Lmao ok
I'm talking about Steam because that's what this part of the conversation is about, funny how that works, right? I'll be the first one to call out any company who's owner/c-suite are billionaires. If we want to talk about PC gaming specifically then Epic is no better, neither is GOG. Decentralize that shit.
Ok kid. Have fun.
You don't get to decide for me who I think is or isn't hurting me, I do.
With these takes, what I really want to know is: Who hurt you?
Oh so you believe that margins high enough that the owner is a billionaire don't hurt your wallet?
You are so lost in the sauce. We're talking about a company that hosts a video game sales platform, if I feel like they are fucking me, I can go elsewhere, there's epic, gog, ubishit, ea, xbox, itch, I don't have to go to steam. I choose to.
If they aren't fucking me, let them make as much as they want. There are far, FAR bigger fish to fry.
But all of them are fucking us at the same time. It's the same thing as saying "I don't need to go to that grocery chain, I can go to another one." Sure you can, in the end you're just making a difference boss a billionaire, all of them are fucking evil!
It's a systemic issue and unless you're a billionaire you're a victim just like all of us, even if you refuse to see it.
The systemic issue you are talking about is far higher than any company or conglomerate. You cannot blame them for playing the game they've been given. The system itself needs changed, until such a day I will continue to use the products and services that do not ruin my bank or values. Therefore I will continue to use steam, they are not harming me, I am no fucking victim. The world you desire won't come to pass by crying online and telling others how to feel. Go be the change you want and protest, send mail to government officials, fuck it throw some tomato sauce in some paintings, do whatever you have to. But do not, under any circumstance think I'm going to change my mind on a service that I not only use, but like and most generally would endorse. If you want to change minds, you need a compelling argument.
ADHD rant over, thanks for your time.
"It's an issue but I don't consider myself a victim. I won't stop sending money to the people profiting from the system in place at my expense. Be the change your want to see."
Are you for real?
No one force Newell to be a billionaire, he owns the fucking company, he could decide to cut their margins to 20% tomorrow morning, he doesn't, he collects fucking yachts instead.
Wow, nice job putting things in quotes I never said.
"I have a deep seated need to make you follow my specific beliefs otherwise you are the problem and I must demean you online."
See, I can do it too. Grow up.
Honestly, Fight for demolishing Amazon, google, apple, Nvidia, fascist politics, literally any car company, Boeing, big oil, big pharma, etc etc. They are all much much bigger, and much much more evil than. anything valve could possibly do. thats the real fight.