this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2024
720 points (91.2% liked)

Games

32938 readers
923 users here now

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Weekly Threads:

What Are You Playing?

The Weekly Discussion Topic

Rules:

  1. Submissions have to be related to games

  2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil

  3. No excessive self-promotion

  4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts

  5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW

  6. No linking to piracy

More information about the community rules can be found here.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Nothing more disappointing to me than seeing a game I might enjoy... and then it's only available on PC on Epic Games store. Why can't it be available on Epic, Xbox game store and Steam? It's so annoying, like you have no choice but to use Epic... which I would literally do ANYTHING not to use.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

So, a court document is an argument, not a smoking gun. The court didn't dismiss the case because it has enough merit to be argued, which just means it isn't plainly false at first glance. The court did dismiss earlier versions of their claim. Earlier versions being rejected and this one being allowed to move forward have little to do with anything.
Repeatedly asserting that it's "anticompetitive bullying" doesn't actually make it anticompetitive bullying.

This isn't going to end well for you when Valve becomes as openly evil as Google.

Lol, what do you think is going to happen to me? I think maybe you're taking this conversation too seriously.

Yes, Alan wake 2 was lower priced on epic than on consoles by about $10, after epic financed the game. it also has yet to turn a profit, with most revenue coming from titles that aren't exclusive to epic. You also ignored the list of other games I mentioned, each of which launched for $60 to $70 and wasn't on steam.
Half life 1 cost $60 on launch. Same for 2. Same for the original star craft. Same for basically every full featured game for years.
It's not "sus" that most games sell for the typical price for a game. It's a sign that valve isn't driving up prices, since prices are roughly the same regardless of platform, vendor or time, including when steam didn't exist yet.

I know you think you're arguing against a mindless steam fanboy, hence you're starting to break out some insulting language and condescension. I can assure you you're not, just like I assume I'm not dealing with a dense contrarian more interested in punishing valve for success than actual critical thinking.
I don't think that suing someone necessarily makes you right, and that a financially motivated lawsuit is an inherently slanted description of events, when the trial hasn't happened and none of the claims have even been responded to.

[–] indog@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Same for basically every full featured game for years.

Evidence please. In order for me to be correct that some publishers want to offer lower prices, I don't need it to be the case that every game off Steam goes on sale for less than "full price" at the time. I just need it to be the case sometimes. If sometimes, a publisher wants to offer the game cheaper, but can't because they'd lose all of their Steam sales, then Valve is harming consumers by leveraging their market dominance to dictate prices on other platforms.

You mentioned a handful of games without doing any research on them, and one of them accidentally proved my point. I guess I should say at least one of them, because it was the very first one I actually bothered to check.

it also has yet to turn a profit, with most revenue coming from titles that aren’t exclusive to epic

I'm not sure what your point is here. They set the $50 price tag to maximize revenue. Raising prices doesn't always raise revenue, if it did, why not sell for $99 or $999?

Whether they were right or wrong that $50 was a better price, and whether they made a profit or a loss, is irrelevant from a consumer's point of view. We got a AAA GoTY nominated game for $50. I guess we can be thankful that Sony and Microsoft's 30% cut console stores apparently don't have anti-competitive policies like Steam does.

Of course it's not necessarily in consumer's interest if they go out of business in the long run, but it looks like they at least broke even as of November, so it seems it's a sustainable model: https://gameranx.com/updates/id/515494/article/alan-wake-2-is-not-profitable-yet-but-it-just-about-broke-even-by-the-end-of-september/

[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

You mentioned a handful of games without doing any research on them, and one of them accidentally proved my point.

You asked for a list of games that fit my "steam hasn't impacted pricing" statement, so I gave you games that had prices inline with what steam prices games at and industry standard. Like I explained in my previous comment. I know how much those games cost: between $50 and $70 dollars, which is what games have retailed at for decades.
Games on steam and off steam have had roughly the same price, and games not on steam have had perfectly reasonable times making sales. Except the one on epic.

They set the $50 price tag to maximize revenue

My point was that even with lowering the price to the low end of standard, they have had some difficulty getting enough revenue to cover the cost of the game.
If other retailers are able to compete just fine, and one isn't despite lowering prices and paying for exclusives, and it's the one that, as you mentioned, people complain about when they buy an exclusive, then maybe the issue is with that retailer.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1388073/average-price-of-video-games-by-platform/

If you want more discussion, you can Google "video game prices over time".

Given that you're starting to ignore large bits of replies and have been repeating yourself pretty consistently without expanding on the point, I'm not sure that there's much value in continuing. You think it's anticompetitive, I don't think it's so obvious. We'll see what the courts say.
Have a nice day, and I hope you find the same passion for your next endeavor. :)