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Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney supports the $900 million lawsuit against Valve, arguing Steam is "the only major store still holding onto payment ties and 30% junk fee" (finance.yahoo.com)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 36 points 7 months ago (10 children)

It isn't a monopoly because they don't require you to use their store. Epic has a monopoly of epic exclusive games.

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  • [+] -22 points 7 months ago (7 children)

    And ecommerce sellers don’t “have to” sell on Amazon, so they don’t have any market power they can abuse to extract 40-50% fees from sellers, right?

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  • [+] 18 points 7 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)
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  • [+] -11 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Anecdotes are not data!

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  • [+] 17 points 7 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 child)
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  • [+] -13 points 7 months ago

    Nobody thinks that it’s impossible, which is incredibly rare, but rather that it’s very costly not to comply, which is the source of every monopolist’s power. Could Pepsi refuse to sell at Walmart to avoid the huge wholesale discounts they demand over smaller stores? Sure, but it would shoot themselves in the foot, and that’s the source of Walmart’s anticompetitive power, which coerces Pepsi (and lots of other suppliers) and hurts lots of smaller businesses who don’t get the same discount.

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  • [–] 13 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Amazon requires price matching for most sellers, which is shit and makes this an apples to oranges comparison.

    Could Steam back down on their 30% cut? Sure, but not a monopoly.

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  • [+] -13 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    It’s not apples to oranges, because the network effects (and coercive pressures they create) are in fact incredibly similar: sellers have to go where most customers are, and most PC gamers begin and end their search for games on Steam, just like most online shoppers begin and end their searches on Amazon.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

    I get I am not the average gamer, but even if I find a game on Steam, I tend to check their website too.
    Specially for games I like, I try getting the GoG version despite Steam providing regional pricing, which tends to be 0.2x

    Now if any of Steam's contracts is preventing GoG or others from providing regional pricing, that's a point worth considering.
    But Steam is providing a much better game finding experience than Epic and others (although GoG seems to be doing well too, recently), so despite me not being affected by the network effect, I do see some value in Steam.

    From what I see, Steam does give value to gamers. Whether it's worth 30% of the game's price or lesser, depends upon information that I don't know. But if someone provides greater value than the competitors, should they not get more money in return?

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