Valve Sued in UK for Alleged Monopoly in PC Gaming Market
TapTechNews June 15 - According to a BBC report, Valve Corporation has recently been sued in the UK by the law firm Miberg London. The law firm alleges that Valve uses Steam's dominant position in the PC gaming market to exclude competition and charge excessive fees for games, demanding that Valve pay £656 million (TapTechNews note: approximately 6.049 billion yuan at present) in compensation to 14 million PC players in the UK.
Vicki Shotbolt, the digital rights activist who initiated this lawsuit, said that Valve has long been charging a 30% commission to game developers based on its PC market position, while also requiring them to offer the lowest prices on the Steam platform, and additionally requesting that all DLC for games released on the Steam platform should also be downloadable on the platform, so it has been in violation of UK competition law for at least six years.
Referring to a report by the market research firm VGInsights, Steam's estimated revenue in 2023 exceeded $9 billion (approx. 65.422 billion yuan at present), and about 14,000 new games were launched on Steam last year, among which the top ten games' incomes accounted for 61% of the total platform revenue, and Baldur's Gate 3, which swept various awards, was the champion of the 2023 new product bestseller list on Steam.
Related reading:
2023 Steam Annual Summary: Over 500 Games Earned Over $3 Million Annually
2023 Steam Awards Revealed, Baldur's Gate 3 Wins Game of the Year