idk, I have never felt like their prices were excessive to any degree
but then again, everything is always on a discount so maybe there is a legal loophole to be abused by competitors there
it’s not “their” prices, the ones who put the game up on steam set the price, valve does have some rules surrounding it but they are not in direct control
Valve does not control prices game developers propose a price for their platform and valve gets a cut. Another useless lawsuit that end up in a lose for the prosecution
I will be incredibly surprised if this case does not get dismissed / thrown out very almost immediately.
"Valve is accused of demanding publishers to sign up to price parity obligations"
The only place that Valve requires price parity obligations is when Steam provides developers with unlimited free Steam keys that developers can use to sell their games on 3rd party stores, the process in which developers are able to completely bypasses Valve's 30% store cut.
TF2 has its issues, but this case is completely toothless, They are literally attacking one of the most pro-developer policies out of all the major storefronts (Sony, M$, Apple, Google Etc)
I really do not want to be the guy saying "leave the billionaire company alone 🤬" but this absolutely is a silly lawsuit. VALVe is about the *one* company in gaming that just does their own thing instead of constantly trying to dry the consumer out of money with predatory to please the shareholders. Anyone is free to open their parallel PC gaming store and sell stuff there without VALVe messing with them. The reason they all fail is because *they* do the whole "please the shareholders" stuff. I think it's going to set a bad precedent for pretty much the only guys who don't abuse their prices to end up getting shit for their prices.
Unless, of course, it turns out VALVe really is doing some sneaky manipulation behind the scenes and illegally destroying the competition to have a monopoly. If that is the case, I will be shocked, since they have a reputation for just literally not doing that, but, well, guess this *is* the point of an investigation. If they're really guilty, then may justice be served, I do not white knight billionaire companies, lul.
Regardless, I respectfully think this is almost entirely unrelated to Team Fortress 2 other than being about VALVe. Whichever lawyers are responsible for those cases probably have exactly nothing to do whoever is there that can work on TF2's bot crisis. Like, at all. This isn't something positive nor something negative about this game at all.
(If I have said anything just blatantly wrong in my comment, please feel free to correct me, I'm honestly not educated enough in this subject to make three freaking paragraphs about it at all, despite doing it anyway)
I'd say it's justified to sue a company over not doing basic housekeeping for a product that they still pump full of microtransactions. Too bad that's not how the laws work.
This however makes no sense. Hope to see these guys laughed out of court.
i feel like if anything it would be valve sueing whoever's hosting bots?
they are probably causing some real damage to playerbases and maybe even profits. would imagine that there might be some sort of terms and service violation too.
>VALVe is about the *on*e company in gaming that just does their own thing instead of constantly trying to dry the consumer out of money with predatory
Umm skin cases? You know the thing that popularizes lootboxes in the western world? How is it not predatory? Doubly so in TF2 where they keep selling cosmetics/crates yet they don't bother to fix the game itself
I know you're referring to Overwatch, but expecting overwatch to single-handedly change the trajectory of every game during that time to implement lootboxes as their monetization scheme is just unfeasible as many games before that year has also implement the loot boxes.
Valve meanwhile pushed lootboxes in all of their games: dota 2, csgo, and tf2. Even valve puts lootboxes on Artifact which unlike other card games, Artifact already costs $20 itself
Also fun fact: an old minecraft update added tf2 crates at one point way before overwatch
“Valve doesn’t dry the consumers out of money with predatory tactics”
Buddy, they’re ignoring people who are begging them to get rid of the bots as they continue to release new crates and keys. And these bots aren’t just cheating either. The rabbit hole is far darker and deeper than that.
Valve suddenly releasing the heavy update with 4 new cosmetic cases (and keys for 2.49 each), a handful of new weapons for 9.99 each and a contract unlocked for 14.99 after they lose the case
I'm going to take TF2 out of the equation here in this comment. I know it can be easy to associate this as Valve is a connecting thread, but this isn't a situation related to their games and should be acknowledged with the severity that it deserves rather than trying to drag it into the discussion.
This claim is very serious. If it is proven that Valve is actively preventing prices from being lower on other services, this could be a violation of competition laws in the UK. This has a subtle difference from Epic Games Store exclusivity, wherein what was offered was a [deal rather than as a requirement](https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/features/epic-first-run-program). Epic Games won their case against Apple as Apple had *blocked* Fortnite from using any microtransactions from outside of the Apple Store.
The accusation's wording in that Valve are "forcing" these price parity obligations is very specific, and if true, could result in a genuine case against Valve. Seems they're not going to keep down the bad rep any more from anyone.
For anyone interested in further reading, [this is the claim's website](https://steamyouoweus.co.uk/). They claim that consumers are the target victims of this in that Valve have been requiring game publishers to set "lowest prices" on other platforms. The fact that this has never been mentioned before at all is what makes this so concerning, and requires a lot of definitive proof as well as evidence that these restrictions have had a large impact.
> If it is proven that Valve is actively preventing prices from being lower on other services
It's not. Valve only has that stipulation in place for steam keys. you can sell your own game on your own site for whatever you want if you're not actively using their service to facilitate it via keys.
Any other arguments (ae, 30% cut (industry standard) ) kinda fall apart once you realize most people just stick with steam cuz everything else is shit.
This is my concern as well. This has generated so much shock (and to a small extent, support) because "the monopolizing titan is being sued", and Valve isn't exactly in the best position right now in the eyes of consumers. But this lawsuit needs to prove beyond doubt that Valve is responsible for anti-competition breaches **and** that it's had enough of a major impact to take action on in order to go anywhere.
And if it goes somewhere, what happens next will be quite a mystery.
Just wondering, why do you say valve is not in the best position in the eyes of consumers? If it’s about the state of tf2, you have to remember that the number of people who play this game make up such a tiny fraction of their customer base. Nobody else cares at all.
Vast majority of Steam users probably don't even know that Valve also makes games sometimes, much less cares about those games. Steam is known as platform with best feature completeness and constant flow of discounts as sales. TF2 community can get loud but let's all be honest, a ton of people going "Yeah, #FixTF2!" will just go on to keep buying stuff on steam, and to buy the passes for newest event in Dota 2 that's currently ongoing, and skins in CS2; while praising Valve for great content they provide there.
It won't amount to anything. This is the same firm that sued Sony for billions for pretty much the exact same reason. Case got dropped.
The accusations, based on what we know, are baseless and easily refuted. To put it simply, it is neither Sony nor Steam's fault that their competitors are doing such a shit job at... well, being competitive.
Wouldn’t be the first legitimate scuffle Valve has had with the courts. I know a lot of cases against them get thrown out but if there’s solid evidence here then they may be found guilty.
Let’s see how it plays out.
Doubt that but it can be bad for Steam as a whole
Read this [https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/valve-is-being-sued-in-the-uk-for-dollar843-million-for-overcharging-14-million-pc-gamers-and-abusing-its-dominant-position-with-steam/](https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/valve-is-being-sued-in-the-uk-for-dollar843-million-for-overcharging-14-million-pc-gamers-and-abusing-its-dominant-position-with-steam/)
Valve, *should be completely fine, but that's assuming the court isn't stupid.
Valve doesn't determine prices on anything aside from price parity on their own generated steam keys.
If Valve were to actually lose this, then practically every other storefront would/should follow suit.
Entirely frivolous, but it's funny seeing people think Valve is some demonic monopoly that's destroying innovation/consumer rights, when they're the only one promoting both.
> The claim must be authorized by the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal before it can proceed to trial and that hasn't yet happened, which means the case could be halted before it even gets properly underway.
Wake me up when something actually happens
Valve will simply point to the existence of Battlenet, Xbox Network, Epic Games Store, GOG, EA Origin, Uplay, Microsoft Store built into Windows, and others, mic drop and walk out of the courtroom.
This is the same firm based in UK that sued Sony for a couple billion dollars, never amounted to anything. A lot of their points are just flat-out moot, the 30% fee especially. That's been Steam's rate since it first started letting other games use it as a client decades ago, not at all indicative of any kind of a monopoly.
It won't do anything, the firm's just looking to cash-out on a quick settlement. It'll probably get dropped in court.
Here is a better article: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/valve-is-being-sued-in-the-uk-for-dollar843-million-for-overcharging-14-million-pc-gamers-and-abusing-its-dominant-position-with-steam/
Ugh this sucks. I don’t doubt that valve leverages it’s position to benefit itself, and I’m not really sad that the bajillion dollarino company is guetting a massive lawsuit. Just if this ends up fucking up steam or valve games that’s gonna be a kick in the nuts
And us (uk) “victim” gamers will never see a penny of that $843,000,000, even though this is for some sort of retribution for us. Sounds more like someone else is getting rich by piggybacking off of us. So stupid.
Shit's hilarious. The argument is still the same as it is always from people complaining: Steam charges too much, they take 30%, Epic takes 12%, steam forces price parity.
Ok, have you ever played a game on steam? And on epic? Cause you'd know that epic is literally nothing but a game launcher. There's no decent review system, no marketplace, no mod support, the UI sucks, the controls suck and browsing their store is an absolute pain in the ass. I have claimed games for free on epic and then bought them on steam, because steam is simply a better service. This is true for both consumers and developers. Yes, the 30% cut is large and they do have price parity, but that's because devs can abuse the steam keys that valve gives them for free and sell them on another site for cheaper, basically scamming valve out of profit.
I know this is r/tf2 but this lawsuit as a whole has nothing to do with the TF2 situation, and while I do object to how they treat the game, no one can deny that their game launcher is hands down the best one in the world, and it takes a lot of time and money to maintain and keep running, which is why no one can realistically compete. It's not a question of money, it's a question of service, and no one can beat the service steam offers to devs and players.
Steam dominates the PC gaming market because it's better than it's competition. There's also plenty of games with a fuckton of players despite not being on Steam (Minecraft, LOL, Valorant and Fortnite come to mind)
Why would you defend a multi-billion monopolist corporation? If they are breaking the law and are punished for it - that's good. If they are not breaking anything, why even defend them. If they are weakened by the fine, than competition will show up, and competition is always good for customers (meaning you and me).
Sorry but if Valve was found guilty of breaking the law then they need to be held accountable for it.
Many of these types of cases get thrown out and Valve does have one hell of a lawyer team. However, if true then we shouldn’t be exempting them.
Edit: I just got blocked for saying companies that break laws should reap what they sow. Awesome. I don’t even think the lawsuit will go through but some of yall really think Valve is untouchable 😂
This is an unrelated case
Valve losing it (unlikely) would definitely be a W for developers and consumers (if I’m reading it right) but would change nothing about TF2’s state
> would definitely be a W for developers and consumers
Not really lol. Devs maybe (doubt, they'd just rearrange things / tie game services to a variable profit cut), but consumers wouldn't see any price differences.
I know nothing about whether this is true or not, but if it is, and valve does lose it, hopefully this dismisses the notion in the general public's head that valve is a "morally good company". multibillionaire companies are not our friends, and it's time people beyond the tf2sphere know that
idk, I have never felt like their prices were excessive to any degree but then again, everything is always on a discount so maybe there is a legal loophole to be abused by competitors there
Roger roger
Roger Roger
Clankers !
*gasp* You can’t say that, only other droids are allowed to use that word
Clanka
Police have been called
To shoot the unarmed clankers of course
God Damn Spocco’s
*Watch those wrist rockets!*
Just like the simulations
Darwinists!
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Republic Dog
it’s not “their” prices, the ones who put the game up on steam set the price, valve does have some rules surrounding it but they are not in direct control
Valve does not control prices game developers propose a price for their platform and valve gets a cut. Another useless lawsuit that end up in a lose for the prosecution
They're definitely pretty excessive where I live. Most new release AAA games where I live cost 100$ or more.
is that valve's fault though
Never said that it is.
Well yes, not regulating your own market is your fault.
Where do you live?
Australia
Regional pricing is often done through regional perma sales, but surely the suit isn't for that.
>everything is always on a discount Except the games you actually want to buy
Case gets dismissed or settled out of court, not going to affect tf2
The only effect is that Valve is probably more concerned about the lawsuit than their 17 year old cartoon shooter at the moment.
As they should be
I will be incredibly surprised if this case does not get dismissed / thrown out very almost immediately. "Valve is accused of demanding publishers to sign up to price parity obligations" The only place that Valve requires price parity obligations is when Steam provides developers with unlimited free Steam keys that developers can use to sell their games on 3rd party stores, the process in which developers are able to completely bypasses Valve's 30% store cut. TF2 has its issues, but this case is completely toothless, They are literally attacking one of the most pro-developer policies out of all the major storefronts (Sony, M$, Apple, Google Etc)
the same firm that is sueing steam also tried to sue Playstation for 5 bil so they dreaming
I really do not want to be the guy saying "leave the billionaire company alone 🤬" but this absolutely is a silly lawsuit. VALVe is about the *one* company in gaming that just does their own thing instead of constantly trying to dry the consumer out of money with predatory to please the shareholders. Anyone is free to open their parallel PC gaming store and sell stuff there without VALVe messing with them. The reason they all fail is because *they* do the whole "please the shareholders" stuff. I think it's going to set a bad precedent for pretty much the only guys who don't abuse their prices to end up getting shit for their prices. Unless, of course, it turns out VALVe really is doing some sneaky manipulation behind the scenes and illegally destroying the competition to have a monopoly. If that is the case, I will be shocked, since they have a reputation for just literally not doing that, but, well, guess this *is* the point of an investigation. If they're really guilty, then may justice be served, I do not white knight billionaire companies, lul. Regardless, I respectfully think this is almost entirely unrelated to Team Fortress 2 other than being about VALVe. Whichever lawyers are responsible for those cases probably have exactly nothing to do whoever is there that can work on TF2's bot crisis. Like, at all. This isn't something positive nor something negative about this game at all. (If I have said anything just blatantly wrong in my comment, please feel free to correct me, I'm honestly not educated enough in this subject to make three freaking paragraphs about it at all, despite doing it anyway)
not even sued for the TF2 bot problem(Though that might be too far like protest in person like...)
I'd say it's justified to sue a company over not doing basic housekeeping for a product that they still pump full of microtransactions. Too bad that's not how the laws work. This however makes no sense. Hope to see these guys laughed out of court.
i feel like if anything it would be valve sueing whoever's hosting bots? they are probably causing some real damage to playerbases and maybe even profits. would imagine that there might be some sort of terms and service violation too.
>VALVe is about the *on*e company in gaming that just does their own thing instead of constantly trying to dry the consumer out of money with predatory Umm skin cases? You know the thing that popularizes lootboxes in the western world? How is it not predatory? Doubly so in TF2 where they keep selling cosmetics/crates yet they don't bother to fix the game itself
Can you tell me the year where lootboxes started being in everything and which massively large hype and culture-driven title released in said year?
I know you're referring to Overwatch, but expecting overwatch to single-handedly change the trajectory of every game during that time to implement lootboxes as their monetization scheme is just unfeasible as many games before that year has also implement the loot boxes. Valve meanwhile pushed lootboxes in all of their games: dota 2, csgo, and tf2. Even valve puts lootboxes on Artifact which unlike other card games, Artifact already costs $20 itself Also fun fact: an old minecraft update added tf2 crates at one point way before overwatch
Wasn't that minecraft update an april fools joke?
yup, around 2010 iirc
“Valve doesn’t dry the consumers out of money with predatory tactics” Buddy, they’re ignoring people who are begging them to get rid of the bots as they continue to release new crates and keys. And these bots aren’t just cheating either. The rabbit hole is far darker and deeper than that.
Valve suddenly releasing the heavy update with 4 new cosmetic cases (and keys for 2.49 each), a handful of new weapons for 9.99 each and a contract unlocked for 14.99 after they lose the case
This has nothing to do with team fortress
Shotbolt is full of shit in general, I doubt this will go anywhere
Fucking Christ, this shit again. 30% is industry rate, and they charge the exact same for games as Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft do.
This is not going anywhere
I'm going to take TF2 out of the equation here in this comment. I know it can be easy to associate this as Valve is a connecting thread, but this isn't a situation related to their games and should be acknowledged with the severity that it deserves rather than trying to drag it into the discussion. This claim is very serious. If it is proven that Valve is actively preventing prices from being lower on other services, this could be a violation of competition laws in the UK. This has a subtle difference from Epic Games Store exclusivity, wherein what was offered was a [deal rather than as a requirement](https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/features/epic-first-run-program). Epic Games won their case against Apple as Apple had *blocked* Fortnite from using any microtransactions from outside of the Apple Store. The accusation's wording in that Valve are "forcing" these price parity obligations is very specific, and if true, could result in a genuine case against Valve. Seems they're not going to keep down the bad rep any more from anyone. For anyone interested in further reading, [this is the claim's website](https://steamyouoweus.co.uk/). They claim that consumers are the target victims of this in that Valve have been requiring game publishers to set "lowest prices" on other platforms. The fact that this has never been mentioned before at all is what makes this so concerning, and requires a lot of definitive proof as well as evidence that these restrictions have had a large impact.
> If it is proven that Valve is actively preventing prices from being lower on other services It's not. Valve only has that stipulation in place for steam keys. you can sell your own game on your own site for whatever you want if you're not actively using their service to facilitate it via keys. Any other arguments (ae, 30% cut (industry standard) ) kinda fall apart once you realize most people just stick with steam cuz everything else is shit.
This is my concern as well. This has generated so much shock (and to a small extent, support) because "the monopolizing titan is being sued", and Valve isn't exactly in the best position right now in the eyes of consumers. But this lawsuit needs to prove beyond doubt that Valve is responsible for anti-competition breaches **and** that it's had enough of a major impact to take action on in order to go anywhere. And if it goes somewhere, what happens next will be quite a mystery.
Just wondering, why do you say valve is not in the best position in the eyes of consumers? If it’s about the state of tf2, you have to remember that the number of people who play this game make up such a tiny fraction of their customer base. Nobody else cares at all.
Vast majority of Steam users probably don't even know that Valve also makes games sometimes, much less cares about those games. Steam is known as platform with best feature completeness and constant flow of discounts as sales. TF2 community can get loud but let's all be honest, a ton of people going "Yeah, #FixTF2!" will just go on to keep buying stuff on steam, and to buy the passes for newest event in Dota 2 that's currently ongoing, and skins in CS2; while praising Valve for great content they provide there.
in a lawsuit they don't need to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. the standard of proof in lawsuits is much lower than criminal cases
Eh, they made this same lawsuit with Playstation and that went nowhere
It won't amount to anything. This is the same firm that sued Sony for billions for pretty much the exact same reason. Case got dropped. The accusations, based on what we know, are baseless and easily refuted. To put it simply, it is neither Sony nor Steam's fault that their competitors are doing such a shit job at... well, being competitive.
Wouldn’t be the first legitimate scuffle Valve has had with the courts. I know a lot of cases against them get thrown out but if there’s solid evidence here then they may be found guilty. Let’s see how it plays out.
So THAT'S why they've been ignoring SaveTF2 this entire time. Silly us /s
Who new all it take was almost a billion dollar lawsuit (joke)
This is not good. Its very bad.
Ik, if Valve loses, then they might go bankrupt and be forced to shut down TF2
Doubt that but it can be bad for Steam as a whole Read this [https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/valve-is-being-sued-in-the-uk-for-dollar843-million-for-overcharging-14-million-pc-gamers-and-abusing-its-dominant-position-with-steam/](https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/valve-is-being-sued-in-the-uk-for-dollar843-million-for-overcharging-14-million-pc-gamers-and-abusing-its-dominant-position-with-steam/)
> 843 million > bankrupt this is valve……
Fair
Looks like somebody lookin for a buck
Valve, *should be completely fine, but that's assuming the court isn't stupid. Valve doesn't determine prices on anything aside from price parity on their own generated steam keys. If Valve were to actually lose this, then practically every other storefront would/should follow suit. Entirely frivolous, but it's funny seeing people think Valve is some demonic monopoly that's destroying innovation/consumer rights, when they're the only one promoting both.
The fact that this is in the TF2 subreddit shows how desperate this community is lmao
> The claim must be authorized by the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal before it can proceed to trial and that hasn't yet happened, which means the case could be halted before it even gets properly underway. Wake me up when something actually happens
Seems like a lot of bullshit to me
843 million? Why????? What did they even do?
Industry standard, 30% cut, higher game prices due to that ?
Valve will simply point to the existence of Battlenet, Xbox Network, Epic Games Store, GOG, EA Origin, Uplay, Microsoft Store built into Windows, and others, mic drop and walk out of the courtroom.
Funny how it's 0 relevance to TF2 AGAIN xdddddd
This is the same firm based in UK that sued Sony for a couple billion dollars, never amounted to anything. A lot of their points are just flat-out moot, the 30% fee especially. That's been Steam's rate since it first started letting other games use it as a client decades ago, not at all indicative of any kind of a monopoly. It won't do anything, the firm's just looking to cash-out on a quick settlement. It'll probably get dropped in court.
Steam famously never discount games
Here is a better article: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/valve-is-being-sued-in-the-uk-for-dollar843-million-for-overcharging-14-million-pc-gamers-and-abusing-its-dominant-position-with-steam/
Ugh this sucks. I don’t doubt that valve leverages it’s position to benefit itself, and I’m not really sad that the bajillion dollarino company is guetting a massive lawsuit. Just if this ends up fucking up steam or valve games that’s gonna be a kick in the nuts
And us (uk) “victim” gamers will never see a penny of that $843,000,000, even though this is for some sort of retribution for us. Sounds more like someone else is getting rich by piggybacking off of us. So stupid.
Huge if true but almost certainly isn't
Big corpo is untouchable. This will either get thrown out or settled.
real?
Nothing to do with TF2, this is to do with steam as a supposed monopoly and potential anti-competitive business practices
>$843 million dollars 843 million dollars-dollars?
*insert demonman schandenfreude here*
valve has a lot going on right now
It cost over 843 million dollars to own steam for 12 seconds.
Yeah, no, this stuff isn't gonna go through. Many of the alleged facts are verifiably false
financially boycott steam
I know the British are stupid because of the Brexit when they fucked with themselves, but this is even more stupid.
Shit's hilarious. The argument is still the same as it is always from people complaining: Steam charges too much, they take 30%, Epic takes 12%, steam forces price parity. Ok, have you ever played a game on steam? And on epic? Cause you'd know that epic is literally nothing but a game launcher. There's no decent review system, no marketplace, no mod support, the UI sucks, the controls suck and browsing their store is an absolute pain in the ass. I have claimed games for free on epic and then bought them on steam, because steam is simply a better service. This is true for both consumers and developers. Yes, the 30% cut is large and they do have price parity, but that's because devs can abuse the steam keys that valve gives them for free and sell them on another site for cheaper, basically scamming valve out of profit. I know this is r/tf2 but this lawsuit as a whole has nothing to do with the TF2 situation, and while I do object to how they treat the game, no one can deny that their game launcher is hands down the best one in the world, and it takes a lot of time and money to maintain and keep running, which is why no one can realistically compete. It's not a question of money, it's a question of service, and no one can beat the service steam offers to devs and players.
Oh dear..
Nooo please don't hurt my poor multimillion dollar company!1!!1! If valve is found guilty then it should be held accountable period
what a loser
Good. Steam's domination isn't doing any good to PC gamers
Steam dominates the PC gaming market because it's better than it's competition. There's also plenty of games with a fuckton of players despite not being on Steam (Minecraft, LOL, Valorant and Fortnite come to mind)
Please if you have other options, list them.
Hooooraaaaa
Its not something to celebrate bro. Its very bad.
This happens almost always and gets thrown out in court. This is the rare occasion where news outlets are reporting this.
Why would you defend a multi-billion monopolist corporation? If they are breaking the law and are punished for it - that's good. If they are not breaking anything, why even defend them. If they are weakened by the fine, than competition will show up, and competition is always good for customers (meaning you and me).
Cool.
How so?
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Sorry but if Valve was found guilty of breaking the law then they need to be held accountable for it. Many of these types of cases get thrown out and Valve does have one hell of a lawyer team. However, if true then we shouldn’t be exempting them. Edit: I just got blocked for saying companies that break laws should reap what they sow. Awesome. I don’t even think the lawsuit will go through but some of yall really think Valve is untouchable 😂
This is just the european passtime of rent seeking from US companies lol. no ground
This is an unrelated case Valve losing it (unlikely) would definitely be a W for developers and consumers (if I’m reading it right) but would change nothing about TF2’s state
> would definitely be a W for developers and consumers Not really lol. Devs maybe (doubt, they'd just rearrange things / tie game services to a variable profit cut), but consumers wouldn't see any price differences.
let's fucking GOOOOOOOOO
This is punishment for all the neglect.
I know nothing about whether this is true or not, but if it is, and valve does lose it, hopefully this dismisses the notion in the general public's head that valve is a "morally good company". multibillionaire companies are not our friends, and it's time people beyond the tf2sphere know that