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submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world to c/steamdeck@sopuli.xyz

Noticed this update got pushed just now.

Edit: Seems they’re doing this to prevent costs from arbitration. Read comment below.

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[-] chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

It wouldn't make them available to more people, it would make deeper sales available to certain storefronts. Right now, Valve says that if you want to do business with them, and you offer a discount on another storefront, that same discount must be reflected in the Steam price when it sold for a discount on Steam. What the lawsuit says is that Publishers should be allowed to publish whatever discount they want on whatever site they want. That sounds like a better deal to consumers, but what it does is open the door for anti-competitive loss-leaders.

It's the same strategy that companies like Wal-Mart have employed to gain marketshare. They come in, sell everything at a loss to drive out competition, and then raise the prices to the same price the competition was charging. They haven't given the consumers a better option, they've only ensured that they don't have another choice. If you look at Valve and you look at Epic, you can easily see who has the deeper pockets: Valve is worth a little over $3 Billion from what I can tell, while Epic is worth over $40 Billion. If Epic wants to sell at a loss to drive Steam out of business, they can, easily. As a matter of fact, they've already tried this by offering the free weekly games that they do.

I'd wager that if this goes through and Steam loses, we'll see that free weekly game go away, and then large doorbuster sales of everything on the site just to undercut every steam sale as it happens. Where are you gonna buy that new game at? Steam where it's full price, or Epic where it's half price? What about the Steam Winter Sale? Will you buy the game for 80% off, or go over to Epic offering it at 90% off with a $10 coupon for another game on the site? Pretty soon you'll only be shopping on Epic, and once Steam is gone, Epic can charge whatever they want. It's the long game. They don't need to be profitable today. They just need to show their shareholders the path.

[-] Barbarian@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago

Presumably Valve's lawyers can make this case, so I guess we'll see if the judge is receptive to it.

[-] chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, on the other hand, I'm also an idiot, and I could be completely off with what I'm talking about. IANAL, so we'll have to wait and see.

this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2024
471 points (100.0% liked)

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