What do you think about thesteam price fixing monopoly?

[JCgames]

This has been something that has bothered me for as long as ive used steam, meaning over 15 years.

I always see people defend steam over at how great they are over other platforms, but to me they are just the only option more often than not. So many games i play/own are not availabe on physical media, and steam is the only digital option.

When steam is the only place i can get something, where is the choice? another thing thats been bothering me as of late is the whole tracking/privacy part with zero opt out options, alongwith having to use steams launcher for everything. Unlike others that loose thier **** when a game company has their own laucher, my biggest issue is i have to lauch steam just to play anything i bought.

On top of all that steam's forums have become nearly as big of a cesspool as any other social media out there, so much in fact, that is basically not possible to have any kind of joy talking about games. Even a positive post gets trolled by people that never have a single positive thing to say about anything. Its to the point that its really ruined gaming for me.

So with all the down side, and basicall no other options, what is one to do? For me i so hope the US gets on board with the UK and does something about reducing steams grasp on gamers, and price fixing is a good start to help other companies at least start to fight back agiant the strangle hold.

Any thoughts?

 

[Pifanjr]

What do you mean with price fixing? As far as I'm aware Steam does not influence the price a game is sold by, except for the part where they take 30% of each sale.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I dont think that law suit will get far, they don't have a monopoly, theyre just by far the best of several rubbish options. I dont really understand how they can be accused of fixing prices.

I'm not a lawyer though, time will tell I guess.

 

[Zloth]

I always see people defend steam over at how great they are over other platforms, but to me they are just the only option more often than not. So many games i play/own are not availabe on physical media, and steam is the only digital option.

They are great vs. other platforms. GOG's features aren't even close to what Steam has. Epic doesn't think they need any. Steam is NOT great vs. what they could be. These very forums were far better than Steam's when they first showed up!

When steam is the only place i can get something, where is the choice? another thing thats been bothering me as of late is the whole tracking/privacy part with zero opt out options, alongwith having to use steams launcher for everything. Unlike others that loose thier **** when a game company has their own laucher, my biggest issue is i have to lauch steam just to play anything i bought.

Why? It takes me about 5 seconds normally. It barely uses any CPU and not a whole lot of memory. There are bunches of privacy options.

Now here's one bugging me: if Steam were split into three big stores, would we lose a lot of games? AAA and even AA games would have no problem maintaining three stores and their needed installs/DLLs, but the tiny developers are going flat out just trying to deal with one store. If they pick just one store, though, they are likely to lose a lot of sales. Having one big, monolithic store is the only way they can make the finances work.

Competition would be a very good thing for Steam's consumers but remember that the big silver cloud does have a dark lining.

On top of all that steam's forums have become nearly as big of a cesspool as any other social media out there, so much in fact, that is basically not possible to have any kind of joy talking about games. Even a positive post gets trolled by people that never have a single positive thing to say about anything. Its to the point that its really ruined gaming for me.

Depends on the game. The forums normally reflect the folks playing the game at the time. Elden Ring's forum isn't going to be like Terra Invicta's which won't be like a game made for young kids.

So with all the down side, and basicall no other options, what is one to do? For me i so hope the US gets on board with the UK and does something about reducing steams grasp on gamers, and price fixing is a good start to help other companies at least start to fight back agiant the strangle hold.

Steam is pushing monopoly status, but I don't think they are there yet. I've got too many GOG games to believe it.

 

[Colif]

Most of the games that have their own launchers are from failed services. Its hardly steams fault that the devs haven't changed the loading process. And instead just linked it to steam.

I haven't tried but I assume if you buy Diablo 4 on steam it goes through Battlenet? I don't intend to buy/try as I have it already on Battlenet. Its not a failed service but they linked to Steam to make more money... so once again, hardly Steams fault.

you are blaming the service that succeeded where most others failed... true, it may have been too big to compete with but is steam supposed to not let some games on, just to let other services survive?