A new lawsuit accuses Valve of abusing its power to keep PC game prices high

A new lawsuit filed by five players in California’s federal court accuses Valve of abusing its power to keep PC game prices high. As reported by THR, this process states that Valve does not maintain its dominance over the PC market, offering better prices on Steam than other platforms, but it does so by abusing its power to require developers to enter what is known as a Most Favored Nations clause.

“Valve Corporation’s Steam platform is the dominant platform for game developers to distribute and sell PC games in the United States,” said the complaint being handled by lawyers at Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease. “But the Steam platform does not maintain its dominance at better prices than rival platforms. Instead, Valve abuses the market power of the Steam platform by requiring game developers to enter a ‘Most Favored Nations’ clause. contained in the Steam Distribution Agreement, according to which the game developers agree that the price of a PC game on the Steam platform will be the same price as game developers sell their PC games on other platforms. “

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The lawsuit also claims that, since Valve requires developers to enter this ‘Most Favored Nations’ clause, it “impedes innovation by creating an artificial barrier to entry for platforms” and keeps prices high in other digital stores, such as the Epic Games Store and the Microsoft Store.

“Steam MFN also hinders innovation by creating an artificial barrier to entry for platforms,” ​​adds the complaint. “When a market like this is highly concentrated, a new entrant can benefit consumers by lowering competitor’s prices. The ability to provide PC games to consumers at lower prices is a way for a company or a new competitor to gain market share. If this market were to function properly – that is, if Steam MFN did not exist and platforms were able to compete in price – platforms that compete with Steam would be able to provide the same (or higher) margins to game developers and simultaneously providing lower prices for consumers. “

CD Projekt SA, CD Projekt, Inc., Ubisoft Entertainment SA, Ubisoft, Inc., Ubisoft LA, Inc., kChamp Games, Inc., Rust, LLC and Devolver Digital, Inc. are also included as defendants in the lawsuit, with plaintiffs accusing these companies of agreeing to the Steam platform for Steam MFN.

This new class action lawsuit follows Valve, Capcom, Bandai Namco, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax being fined US $ 9.4 million by the European Commission for the practice of “geo-blocking”.

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Adam Bankhurst is an IGN news writer. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.