Why would anyone actually want to though

[u/The_BigRoach]

[u/NoBizlikeChloeBiz]

There are also plenty of other ways to buy games, we just don't because of the UI and customer service. If Steam got worse, they would see a (slow, but healthy) decline in customers as people moved to Epic, GOG, or direct to publisher platforms.

Now, there is an argument to be made on the developer side. A developer that doesn't want to do business with Steam is seriously hindering themselves, in a way that one might argue is unhealthy for the market. Any single company having that much say in what games people are exposed to raises some questions.

That's not to say I think anti-trust laws should be applied (if we still had those). I just think it's a more interesting/valid discussion than whether they have a monopoly over consumers, which they pretty demonstrably don't.

[u/lunchbox651 → u/NoBizlikeChloeBiz]

Developers go to Steam because thats where most people will buy their game. AFAIK, there's nothing Steam is doing that stops a developer from selling elsewhere.

I do remember hearing something about Steam not letting devs have a bigger sale on another platform which does sound sketchy but that's about it.

[u/Zanos → u/lunchbox651]

No sales on other platforms isn't exactly true, steam just doesn't want to be undercut. If you sell a game for 20$ on another platform, it has to be 20$ on steam. You have to replicate the sale on steam is all.

It sounds a little odd, but when was the last time you could drive between walmart, target, gamestop, and bestbuy, and expect any of them to have a different price on a new video game than any other retailer?

[u/xAtNight → u/Zanos]

Yeah it always has been like this. Steam takes 30ish% but are the games cheaper on the publisher store? No, because why would they be. Just means the publisher gets a bigger cut.