Steam Steam Hit with Class Action Lawsuit, Alledging Monopolistic Practices

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
Why can't epic do normal things with all thier fortnite money, like buying expensive cars and throwing absurdly lavish parties or something?

Because, like Cobra, they're determined to rule the world.

In all seriousness, Epic is making a long-term play to try to gain market dominance through legal shenanigans. What they're going for is the courts outright saying that simply declining to do business with Epic is illegal collusion with Valve's supposed monopoly, i.e. that developers are now legally mandated to do business with Epic on whatever terms Epic cares to set.

Once that legal precedent is set, Epic can flip its business model so that the reduced margin for the Epic Games Store comes out of the developer's pocket (i.e., the lower commission is balanced by forcing the developer to lower their prices accordingly), which means the profit gained by undercutting Steam's prices will go primarily to Epic.
 

BlackDragon98

Freikorps Kommandant
Banned - Politics
I want to write a letter to the Donald and ask him to expand the Trump Organization in the direction of gaming and online stuff.
Perfect companion to his social media platform.

Trump Gaming will surely triumph above the cowardly commie simp Epic games.

It is no longer "In God we Trust" for we have been forsaken.

It is now "In Trump we Trust" for he is our last hope.
 

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
Some of the internal files revealed through discovery in the Apple v. Epic lawsuit are extremely relevant to the Steam vs Epic matter. Most notably, Epic's internal briefing documents admit that they hire paid influencers to disrupt Steam reviews.

Other "features" of the Epic platform are that Epic allows opt-out suppression of negative ratings (and does not have user reviews at all), which they present in contrast to Steam not allowing opt-out for user ratings and user reviews, and that Epic does not allow developers to contact "content creators" (i.e. game reviewers) directly, but "handles contact on their behalf".
 

Emperor Tippy

Merchant of Death
Super Moderator
Staff Member
Founder
Some of the internal files revealed through discovery in the Apple v. Epic lawsuit are extremely relevant to the Steam vs Epic matter. Most notably, Epic's internal briefing documents admit that they hire paid influencers to disrupt Steam reviews.

Other "features" of the Epic platform are that Epic allows opt-out suppression of negative ratings (and does not have user reviews at all), which they present in contrast to Steam not allowing opt-out for user ratings and user reviews, and that Epic does not allow developers to contact "content creators" (i.e. game reviewers) directly, but "handles contact on their behalf".

Oh Epic, the company of fractal shittery as every bit of their shit is made up of an even deeper level of even shittier antics.

I mean competing with Steam isn't actually that hard. Just offer pretty much the same capabilities without spyware, possibly with your own streaming/gaming video platform and patreon analogue, and charge a 25% (as opposed to 30%) commission. Everyone who sells on Steam will also sell on your platform simply because it doesn't cost them anything and is another market offering them a better price, studios will push people to your platform because it gives them a better cut, and offering influencers a cut of any copies sold to people who purchase through a link on their stream/video will have said influencers using your service in droves.

Instead Epic goes with massive spyware, pissing people off with paid exclusives, trying to gain market share through tons of free games, and generally being as anti-consumer as they can get away with.

Hell, Epic could have taken the Netflix route with Apple and simply removed all in app purchases via Apple and instead require that people buy "Fortnight buxxs" or whatever online on their own account. Just like Netflix, Epic is big enough that Apple would hesitate to remove the game and if they did then Epic would have a much better case to make.
 

Terthna

Professional Lurker
Because, like Cobra, they're determined to rule the world.

In all seriousness, Epic is making a long-term play to try to gain market dominance through legal shenanigans. What they're going for is the courts outright saying that simply declining to do business with Epic is illegal collusion with Valve's supposed monopoly, i.e. that developers are now legally mandated to do business with Epic on whatever terms Epic cares to set.

Once that legal precedent is set, Epic can flip its business model so that the reduced margin for the Epic Games Store comes out of the developer's pocket (i.e., the lower commission is balanced by forcing the developer to lower their prices accordingly), which means the profit gained by undercutting Steam's prices will go primarily to Epic.
And of course, once they become dominate in the PC gaming distribution market, they can start demanding that games must include pro-CCP propaganda in order to be sold on Epic Games.
 

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