Studio Wolfire games (Overgrowth, Receiver) has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Valve… The developers believe that the company is using its dominant position in the PC market to exploit publishers and consumers.
The main reason for the conflict was the 30% commission that developers deduct to Valve if they earn less than $ 10 million on Steam. Wolfire Games considers this percentage to be too high, especially when approximately 75% of PC games are sold in the US via Steam.
Another claim Wolfire Games has against Valve is the Steam Key Price Parity Provision, which prevents publishers from selling games and Steam keys for less on other platforms. Because of this, other stores are supposedly unable to compete with Steam.
Even Epic Games Store, where the commission is only 12%, is considered a failure at Wolfire Games, since Epic Games had to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to capture only 15% of the market by June 2023.
Wolfire Games is demanding damages, costs and legal fees, as well as an injunction breaking Valve’s monopoly, in order to bring competition to the market and benefit society as a whole.
Previously organizers GDC conducted a survey, according to the results of which it became known that only 3% of the surveyed representatives of the gaming industry consider the commission of 30% fair. Also yesterday Microsoft announced that from August 1, the commission in Microsoft Store will decrease from 30% to 12%.
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