What‘s made up?

if you don't like a distribution platform taking 20-30% of the sale then don't use that distribution platform

Excuse my frank speech but that's absolute bollocks and lacks any understanding at all of how a monopoly works.

E: It's so hilarious to watch the Lemmy idiots be like "lEaVe ThE mUlTiBiLlIoN dOlLaR cOmPaNy AlOnE!" when it comes to Nintentdo but when it's Valve, then it's totally cool for some reason.

Calling it a monopoly. They didn't lobby to have the market share. They have competitors who can't make a product as good. Just calling it a monopoly because you think it's an easy win in an argument doesn't just make it a monopoly.

This is not how a monopoly is defined in any civilised country.

If a dev loses substantial access to the market if they don‘t use a service, this service is a quasi monopoly. They are forced to use Steam, customers are then forced to use Steam if they want the game. Steam charges astronomical fees, that is their monopoly exploit.

Brother I already buy things on GoG lol.

Steam is great and all but ownership is far more important to me personally

Great! Not everything’s available there unfortunately. Some games release on Steam only even. So you probably are affected either way.

90% of people buy on Steam. And they do that because their entire libraries are on Steam.

You are straight up just using your opinion to justify a point and i won't have any further part of the conversation.

Translation: agree with me or you are wrong.

Earth is round.

What he’s saying is so blatantly wrong and easily verifiable that now you’re the contrarian.

Steam does nothing to prevent running non-steam games on any platform. Charge 20-30% extra on Steam and call it done.

It‘s not about platform compatibility or difference in fees. It‘s about the necessity to go through Steam (at competitive prices) and bow to whatever they may come up with in the future. The generic danger of a monopoly.

Charge 20-30% extra on Steam and call it done.

Steam doesn't let you do that. This is literally what the lawsuit is about.

Is there a monopoly though?
Other store fronts exist. They are usable and often sell the same games. It's not Nestle owning half the food options in every food store, this is whole foods, vs all the other grocery stores.

You can get game pass and stream your games and never own them past your subscription lasts.
Or the Microsoft game store which isn't great but exists.
GOG gives you installers and has big games on it.
Fanatical, GMG, Humble Bundle, are all store fronts.
You could even consider Nintendo and PlayStation to have their own game storefronts while needing their hardware.

Is Steam a monopoly?

That's most likely just cause they enjoy the auto downloader, patch tools and anticheat software that they can bundle in.

GOG has installers for AAA games like Witcher and Baldurs Gate 3 because the developers were better about giving the option. Heck lots of AAA games on epic.
We don't complain about PlayStation and Nintendo exclusives. Blame the developers for liking the easy features to only be on Steam. Ask them to change not Valve.

Off topic

Epic pays handsome sums for exclusives, can’t blame the devs for taking it. They go to Valve to not miss out on the gigantic market share cause it’s a monopoly. And I do complain about Nintendo and PlayStation exclusives

But they could release their own installer like CD project Red and other studios do. They don't want to miss out on the ease of the installer that enables a larger market share. That's not a monopoly. Literally.

No. The vast majority of potential customer will only buy if it’s on Steam. This is not about features, it’s about market access.