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Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney supports the $900 million lawsuit against Valve, arguing Steam is "the only major store still holding onto payment ties and 30% junk fee" [refer to in-app purchases] (finance.yahoo.com)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
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[–] 2 points 6 months ago (1 child)

It's still the steam ecosystem when you sell steam keys. Why should a game be able to use steam to distribute their game that they sell for a free or reduced price then sell micro transactions without paying steam? If you don't want to pay steam a cut don't use their store or distribution.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 child)

    As far as I know you can sell keys outside of steam, it is allowed and steam doesn't take the 30% if sold outside of steam.

    https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/keys

    It's OK to run a discount for Steam Keys on different stores at different times as long as you plan to give a comparable offer to Steam customers within a reasonable amount of time.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (1 child)

    You can sell keys, but it's still part of the steam ecosystem, so you can't sell in game purchases without using steam as the processor.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

    Yea, but the argument is you have to pay the 30% fee. You can sell keys outside and not pay it. Also you can also sell your game on GOG, but the customer will have to stick with were he bought the game from for the DLC.

    https://www.gog.com/en/game/clair_obscur_expedition_33

    https://store.steampowered.com/app/1903340/Clair_Obscur_Expedition_33/

    In apple's case you can't even buy it outside of apple you have to use apple payment system. Steam doesn't block you from buying the game from other store like GOG, meanwhile apple does.

    https://prospect.org/2025/05/02/2025-05-02-apples-monopoly-finally-held-accountable/

    The case before the court concerned Apple’s monopoly power over its iOS App Store. Apple has built a tollbooth whereby apps that offer items for purchase must pay a 30 percent tax to Apple. (A few select apps have a smaller 15 percent tax.) Epic Games, the makers of Fortnite, wanted to offer game purchases off the app through a link at a cheaper price point, but Apple barred Fortnite from the App Store for such circumvention, and denied any developer the ability to steer people to off-app purchasing. This discouraged app developers, since they would not be able to load on iPhones and would therefore lose access to a huge number of potential customers. (Google has a similar 30 percent tax for its Android phones.)

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