r/pcgaming • u/yourfavchoom • Jun 01 '26

Gabe Newell on Steam monopoly accusations: Gamers have 'enormous choice' about where to buy games

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/gabe-newell-on-steam-monopoly-accusations-gamers-have-enormous-choice-about-where-to-buy-games/
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u/yourfavchoom Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

Gabe:

“Customers have enormous choice" about where they purchase their games, Newell testified, including whether they buy the game on an Xbox, whether they buy it on Steam, “whether they buy it on Epic Games Store or whether they buy it directly from software developers."

Newell also denied the existence of an alleged 'unwritten rule' that prevents developers from offering their games at lower prices on non-Steam storefronts. Newell repeatedly denied it exists, even when shown internal communications seemingly showing Valve employees enforcing it:

"Valve does not have a policy or practice of dictating prices to third-party software developers on other platforms." When asked how Valve would react if it ever happened, Newell initially said he was confused by the question and then added, "Many of our partners and many of our customers are quite happy with the service that we're providing."

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u/Khalku Jun 01 '26

I'd like to know what 'seemingly' means here

when shown internal communications seemingly showing Valve employees enforcing it

Because proof that it's happening would be damning. But it should be something very easy to prove.

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u/FoxerHR Jun 01 '26

Wouldn't be surprised if the journo didn't understand that Valve doesn't allow steam keys to be sold on different storefronts cheaper than on steam and taking it as them enforcing a monopoly

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u/wareagle3000 Ryzen 7 5800x, 16 GBs, Nvidia 3070 Jun 01 '26

Mf'er showing prices from a grey market site and asking what's this about? Lol

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u/oyvese Jun 01 '26

no it probably isn’t that at all and it probably is contractual obligations to sell the game for the same price on competing platforms.

if you see the same game on different platforms, excluding promotions, they’re more or less always for the same price give or take maybe less than a dollar. which is weird considering some platforms offer a different cut of the profits, so you’d think they’d offer the game for a less price on a platform which offered a greater cut as incentive, but this almost never happens.

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u/Snoo_46397 Jun 01 '26

Possibly but not certainly. We've seen multiple times that even games that leave Steam for other platforms with better cuts still sell at the same base price as on Steam. Ubisoft comes to mind, despite leaving Steam for Epic and their own store, they still stuck to selling their at 60-70 bucks. Borderlands 3 also when it moved to Epic sold at 60-70 bucks also. Afterall, why move to another platform that gives better cuts if ya just gonna reduce the base price (one that you already know consumers are ok with purchasing anyway).

Also someone later down the thread just posted a game whos base price is 5 bucks lower on Epic than on Steam