Valve CEO Gabe Newell Ordered to Attend In-Person Antitrust Lawsuit Deposition - IGN
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Valve CEO Gabe Newell has been ordered to attend an in-person deposition for his company's court case against Wolfire Games despite his request to do it remotely.

A company called Wolfire Games has been leading a class-action lawsuit against Valve since 2021, complaining that “Valve’s 30% cut on Steam sales is harmfully high.”

Recently, Valve CEO Gabe Newell has been ordered to attend the deposition in person. Newell was trying to get permission to attend virtually.

I’m unsure if this lawsuit has much merit, this recent news was actually the first time that I had become aware of the existence of it.

30% tax does seem common in many marketplaces owned by large for-profit companies. Apple, Google, and Amazon all take 30% of sales from their respective marketplaces, to my knowledge. So why is Valve necessarily doing something wrong?

With respect to my favorite video game company GameStop, I believe it is important to keep tabs on players in the gaming industry including GameStop’s competitors.

Personally, I’ve always generally liked Valve and Steam. They deliver products and experiences that people like, and they have been very successful over the last 15 years.

If Valve is having genuine problems with antitrust, that might create a good opportunity for a company like GameStop to step up their presence in PC gaming.

Having said that, as of 2020, PC gaming generates less than half of the amount of revenue that mobile gaming generates.

Valve has been the dominant player in the PC gaming marketplace for some time. Maybe GameStop could get into that market and be successful, but GameStop would be competing against the very successful Valve.

My personal hope is that GameStop and PLAYR can become the Valve / Steam of the mobile gaming market. Currently, Apple and Google are the dominant incumbents of the mobile gaming market because they control the operating systems and the app marketplaces for those operating systems. I don’t know how a potential up and coming challenger, like GameStop, could break into the mobile gaming marketplace and compete against Apple and Google, but that is a big juicy market and I personally think it would be unwise to not try at all.

  • Jaysyn@kbin.social
    182·
    1 year ago

    Don’t see this going anywhere. It’s a private storefront & Steam certainly isn’t a monopoly.

  • averyminya@beehaw.orgEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    Wow, that’s actually really unfortunate. I thought the people behind lugaru and receiver would be smarter than this. I enjoyed those games but knowing this changes my perception a bit.

    In case I’m missing something, this seems to be very similar to the Epic Games lawsuit?

    Edit: seems like it is rooted in the same antitrust due wanting equal sale pricing as other storefronts

    edit: been a been now but here is my comment on why I think Wolffire is in the wrong. I’m no lawyer nor do I have stake in any party, but viewing the claimants blog post and from my understanding of business I feel that it’s primarily a petty lawsuit against Valve being lead by Epic.

  • Chives@lemmy.whynotdrs.orgMEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    Exciting to see. I agree, the lawsuit does not have a lot of merit from what I read, but I like seeing antitrust conversations move forward in any context.

    Good from the perspective of web3 incoming as well, since Steam has been against web3/NFT/blockchain in gaming.

  • caseyweederman@lemmy.caEnglish
    129·
    1 year ago

    GameStop? Despite all the recent noise, their storefronts have only gotten worse.
    I don’t see them breaking into any marketplaces, they’re clearly only interested in holding their mediocre position as Funko Pops vendors while selling shabby used games at new prices.