Allegations have surfaced that Steam attempted to remove 'Rainbow Six Siege' from its store after Ubisoft tried to sell it at a lower price.
Steam, the world's largest PC game distribution platform, is facing a class-action lawsuit alleging it holds a monopoly in the gaming industry. Within this lawsuit, allegations have surfaced that Steam pressured developers to offer discounts on games on other platforms.
Valve's Antitrust Reckoning Over Steam Has Echoes of Apple, Google App Store Sui - Bloomberg
Valve reportedly almost delisted Rainbow Six Siege from Steam after Ubisoft attempted to sell it cheaper on Uplay - Notebookcheck News
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Valve-reportedly-almost-delisted-Rainbow-Six-Siege-from-Steam-after-Ubisoft-attempted-to-sell-it-cheaper-on-Uplay.1312602.0.html
As of the time of writing, Steam is the overwhelmingly influential game distribution platform. While there are competing platforms such as Epic Games and Ubisoft Connect (formerly Uplay), they are far ahead of Steam.
Because so many game developers and players rely on Steam, it constitutes a monopoly, and Valve, the company that operates Steam, is being sued by several independent game developers. In these lawsuits, the plaintiffs argue that 'Valve had an implicit internal policy aimed at punishing developers who offered discounts on competing platforms.'
One specific example cited was the case involving Ubisoft and Warner Bros. According to documents submitted to the court, a Valve employee, upon learning that Ubisoft was selling a limited edition of 'Rainbow Six Siege' exclusively on its Uplay store, informed Ubisoft that 'all editions of the game will be removed from Steam by the end of business tomorrow.'
Warner Bros. has reportedly stopped taking pre-orders for 'Shadow of War' on Steam because they sold the game at a significantly lower price on platforms other than Steam.
In response to this claim, Valve CEO Gabe Newell denied it, stating that 'Valve has no policy or practice of dictating pricing on other platforms.'
Newell also countered the accusation that Steam has a monopoly, stating, 'Steam has only surpassed its competitors through continuous innovation, and this does not accurately reflect the benefits Steam brings to players and developers.' He added, 'Customers are free to decide whether to buy games on Xbox, Steam, the Epic Games Store, or directly from the software developers. They are given a vast number of choices.'
A person who was in charge of the 'Prime Gaming' business, one of the competing platforms, said that Steam's dominance in the PC gaming market is comparable to Google's dominance in the search market, adding that one of the reasons it is difficult for other companies to compete is that 'the game library and multiplayer partners are all on Steam, so if a player wants to move to another store, they have to throw away decades' worth of investment.'
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in Web Service, Game, Posted by log1p_kr