Lawsuit Against Valve May Bring Major Change on Steam

An antitrust lawsuit filed years ago against Valve has been declared a class action. It now covers all developers and publishers who have sold games on Steam since 2017.

Martin Bukowski

Source: Valve

The antitrust lawsuit that Wolfire Games studio filed against Valve in April 2021 is still ongoing to this day. Now we have learned that it has been granted class action status, which has significantly increased the number of entities involved.

Recall that Wolfire Games accused Valve of harmful practices for both publishers and consumers. We are discussing an unfair margin of 30%, as well as the MFN clause, which guarantees that games from a specific publisher won't be sold at a lower price outside of Steam. The American company later issued a response in which it defended the percentage charged, describing it as an "industry standard," among other things. It's worth noting that in July 2022, the case was connected with another one previously brought by Dark Catt Studios.

As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, which has gained insight into the court document, the lawsuit has now obtained a class action status, which significantly increases the scale of the dispute. It applies from now on to all developers and publishers who have sold their products on Steam and paid a commission on January 28, 2017, or later.

It was also reported that one of Valve's requests to exclude the testimony of Dr. Steven Schwartz was rejected. He was appointed by the prosecution to present his arguments.

We will most likely have to wait a bit longer for the conclusion of the whole matter. If Wolfire Games and Dark Catt were to win, the owners of Steam might be obligated to pay a substantial sum of money and modify the revenue distribution used in the digital store.

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Martin Bukowski

Author: Martin Bukowski

Graduate of Electronics and Telecommunications at the Gdańsk University of Technology, who decided to dedicate his life to video games. In his childhood, he would get lost in the Gothic's Valley of Mines and "grind for gold" in League of Legends. Twenty years later, games still entertain him just as much. Today, he considers the Persona series and soulslike titles from From Software as his favorite games. He avoids consoles, and a special place in his heart is reserved for PC. In his spare time, he works as a translator, is creating his first game, or spends time watching movies and series (mainly animated ones).