Foreign sellers are under zero obligation to sell their products at below cost, with the effect of destroying a domestic producer’s ability to compete, and then change that pricing policy once the competitor is out of business. But that’s called dumping and it is considered an anti-competitive activity that most nations prohibit.
Exactly, the “free” nature of Steamworks created the market position that can now be leveraged.
It’s not the original policy, it’s the change.
Steamworks being free is definitely a competitive advantage for Steam. You don’t need to worry about DRM, Steam takes care of it for you. But that doesn’t create a monopoly, because there are tons of other DRM systems and appstores available.
The change is basically fine. If you want to buy a Steam game, you will need to buy it on Steam, not from a third-party. That is not an unreasonable stance. Steam has no obligation to give out free keys and lose money on each one.
I think the only thing that could get them into trouble is the vagueness of the policy.
That was my original point. It won’t get Steam in trouble, but it’s not great for their customers. They should document the policy with no ambiguity.
I’ve seen people argue that the point of the change is to deal with the card system being abused, since developers make a cent out of every card sold. Put game on Steam, pretty much give it away, get money from the cards…
If it’s that, then normal games shouldn’t be affected.
MS invested in Apple so they could have an identifiable OS competitor. Dominant market position can be as dangerous for the holder of that position as it is lucrative. Anti-trust law is what it is.
Steam has no obligation to give out free keys and lose money on each one.
No they did not. But they said they would, and they did, and benefited greatly from that policy. Which they now want to change for their benefit and were dumb enough to say on the internet that they wanted to fix the problem of people who aren’t Valve selling Steam keys. Because fuck those guys – we promised that “activation of copies at retail or from third-party digital distributors” was free for our benefit and not theirs. And now, thanks to the market share that Steamworks helped them build, they have the juice to disadvantage competitors. Which is how anti-trust/anti-competitive activity lawsuits get filed.
Do they really? Was not aware of that.
I tend to take them at their word, that it’s primarily about stopping the bundles, but that could be a factor also.
@RickH: You can sue for pretty much anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were sued. But I don’t see any merit to it.
Then they should definitely say that it’s an exploit they want to fix, not that it’s a problem with the ratio of sales to keys issued. ASAFP.
Turns out that’s basically it. They only plan to restrict keys in “extreme situations”.
So bundles won’t be affected either, and Steam will continue to bear the costs from developers selling keys outside their marketplace with no compensation. I guess their marginal costs from this are so low that they really don’t care.
Woot!
Of course, they can change their minds at any moment (at their discretion). And all we can do (other than to look for better options) is to pray they don’t alter the deal any further.
So you’re saying I should buy every bundle I can get my hands on.
If those bundles can be redeemed on GOG (or if they have DRM-free versions available on Humble or elsewhere), than yes of course!
So “when we feel like it” then.
Sorry I don’t think this makes any difference at all. All the discussion around them changing policy like this remains valid.
I mean, they could always have changed the policy “when they feel like it”.
It doesn’t seem like they have done anything to impact any developer or user who is reasonably using their service.
Valve can change their policy when they feel like it and customers can stop using steam when they feel like it.
In another stunning revelation it’s Friday and I’m happy about that.
One might even say… TG[or FSM]IF
And this should be a wakeup call to anyone who is concerned about them doing so.
I’ve given it all the due consideration it deserves by reading this thread! Oh, and I’ve stocked up the bunker in preparation for the gaming apocalypse.