this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
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Steam somehow prevents publishers from selling games at a cheaper price in competitors' stores, even if their cut from the store is lower. That is extremely anti-competitive and has to be illegal.
If you sign up to use Steam to distribute your game then one of the things you agree to is to make it available on Steam at the same price you offer anywhere else. This protects Steam's business and ensures that Steam customers aren't disadvantaged.
However, it also applies even if the alternative channels don't make use of Steam directly (e.g selling on Epic). This is where the Wolfire Games lawsuit comes in. Will be interesting to see how it goes.
True. I forgot about that in my comment actually. I think they calmed down on that because it was basically illegal in a lot of countries though.