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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 31st, 2023

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  • They are anticompetitive, just not in an obvious way that is antagonistic toward consumers.

    But the Steam platform does not maintain its dominance through better pricing than by rival platforms. Instead, Valve abuses the Steam platform’s market power by requiring game developers to enter into a ‘Most Favored Nations’ provision contained in the Steam Distribution Agreement whereby the game developers agree that the price of a PC game on the Steam platform will be the same price the game developers sell their PC games on other platforms.

    While I’m willing to forgive requiring price parity when it’s a steam key, which will ultimately be redeemed on Steam and utilize all of the services provided by Valve, this should not apply to other platforms that distribute the game themselves.