If they didn’t have this rule, devs could list at a ridiculous price on Steam and sell on their store for a more reasonable price to take advantage of Steam’s marketing without paying. That’s unfair for Valve. Either list there and charge the same prices everywhere, or don’t.
I would be surprised if other stores didn’t have similar policies.
Steam also reserves the right to remove a game for any reason. If a developer does that they would have their game removed and probably receive a ban. There’s no reason for that policy other than price fixing to keep consumers from making an informed decision. Stop defending the multibillion dollar company.
The only time I’ve heard of that happening is if the key was purchased with a stolen credit card or something. Steam actually goes out of their way to retain access to purchased games that have been delisted by the dev.
They’re one of the better actors in this regard the industry. In most cases, they’ll side with the customer, which is exactly what you want a company to do.
Stop defending the multibillion dollar company.
I don’t care how much they’re worth, if they provide a good service, I’ll help clarify misunderstandings. I really don’t care if people and companies get rich, as long as they do it by making a good product people want.
Steam also reserves the right to remove a game for any reason.
That’s the part I was responding to. Yeah, they technically could do that, but they go out of their way to prevent users from losing access to games. A dev can remove online access to a game (e.g. mp ban), but if they try to do that for offline access too, they can get delisted from Steam.
If you’re talking about something else, please explain more clearly because that’s what I thought you were talking about.
I’m saying if they didn’t have their predatory anti-consumer policy and a developer tries to list a game for a much higher price on Steam than they do on other stores, they would remove the game from the store and probably ban the developer. It has nothing to do with removing access to user’s games from their library.
But that’s not anti-consumer at all, if anything that’s pro-consumer because they’re ensuring that the price they see on Steam is comparable to the price elsewhere, so if you prefer buying from Steam, you don’t have to worry that a studio is fleecing you.
Why would a retailer permit a company to use it’s marketing and distribution network while actively steering customers away from its storefront? That’s not a great business relationship. The alternative would be Valve charging for keys sold outside of Steam, and that seems like an even worse policy.
Price fixing is extremely anti-consumer. They’re not ensuring the price is lower on Steam, they’re ensuring that it’s higher everywhere else. Having a higher price than competing stores doesn’t have to steer people away from your own if you offer a better service but Valve isn’t willing to do that so they screw the consumer instead.
If they didn’t have this rule, devs could list at a ridiculous price on Steam and sell on their store for a more reasonable price to take advantage of Steam’s marketing without paying. That’s unfair for Valve. Either list there and charge the same prices everywhere, or don’t.
I would be surprised if other stores didn’t have similar policies.
Steam also reserves the right to remove a game for any reason. If a developer does that they would have their game removed and probably receive a ban. There’s no reason for that policy other than price fixing to keep consumers from making an informed decision. Stop defending the multibillion dollar company.
The only time I’ve heard of that happening is if the key was purchased with a stolen credit card or something. Steam actually goes out of their way to retain access to purchased games that have been delisted by the dev.
They’re one of the better actors in this regard the industry. In most cases, they’ll side with the customer, which is exactly what you want a company to do.
I don’t care how much they’re worth, if they provide a good service, I’ll help clarify misunderstandings. I really don’t care if people and companies get rich, as long as they do it by making a good product people want.
I think you confused “[a developer] would have their game removed” with Steam removing games from people’s libraries. Nobody is talking about that.
That’s the part I was responding to. Yeah, they technically could do that, but they go out of their way to prevent users from losing access to games. A dev can remove online access to a game (e.g. mp ban), but if they try to do that for offline access too, they can get delisted from Steam.
If you’re talking about something else, please explain more clearly because that’s what I thought you were talking about.
I’m saying if they didn’t have their predatory anti-consumer policy and a developer tries to list a game for a much higher price on Steam than they do on other stores, they would remove the game from the store and probably ban the developer. It has nothing to do with removing access to user’s games from their library.
But that’s not anti-consumer at all, if anything that’s pro-consumer because they’re ensuring that the price they see on Steam is comparable to the price elsewhere, so if you prefer buying from Steam, you don’t have to worry that a studio is fleecing you.
Why would a retailer permit a company to use it’s marketing and distribution network while actively steering customers away from its storefront? That’s not a great business relationship. The alternative would be Valve charging for keys sold outside of Steam, and that seems like an even worse policy.
Price fixing is extremely anti-consumer. They’re not ensuring the price is lower on Steam, they’re ensuring that it’s higher everywhere else. Having a higher price than competing stores doesn’t have to steer people away from your own if you offer a better service but Valve isn’t willing to do that so they screw the consumer instead.