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72% of devs believe Steam has a monopoly on PC games, according to study
(www.gamesindustry.biz)
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this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2025
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Must be since as a long time user of /r/gamedeals and isthereanydeals most of my games on steam are from steam keys sold from other storefronts because they have been cheaper and have sales much more frequently.
My approach to buying games is to check isthereanydeals or ggdeals to see if the price has been cheaper. Then buy from whatever storefront is cheaper for the launcher of my preference if its at a price I'm willing to bite on. I don't buy from keystores, so I disable those when checking ggdeals.
Weird. Does this mean the selling of cheaper steam keys just isn't true or is it just not enforced?
Not enforced and hasn't been for over a decade.
And I guess the language is flexible.
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/keys
Comparable being used when it could have used same. Couldn't find language being explicit on lower prices not being allowed.
Only part I've really seen Steam enforce is that if steam keys are given away then game should have a giveaway on Steam too. So like in the past games would make you make an account on a site then give you a key for free, but now even if they do that, few days later you can redeem the game for free directly from steam without signing up for anything.