Valve Defends Steam’s 30% Cut In Antitrust Suit Filing

Valve stated in a new court filing that Wolfire, which filed the lawsuit in April, has failed to demonstrate any actual wrongdoing.

In April, Wolfire Games filed an antitrust lawsuit against Valve, alleging that it uses Steam’s dominance of the PC game market to suppress competition and extract “an extraordinarily high cut” of sales made through its storefront. In a response filed earlier this week, Valve has asked that the lawsuit be dismissed outright, because it “fails to allege the most basic elements of an antitrust case.”

One of the central claims Wolfire made in its lawsuit is that Valve prevents developers and publishers from selling Steam keys at lower prices on other storefronts than it does on Steam. That’s bad for game makers, but also for gamers, according to Wolfire, because it means sellers have to keep their prices high in order to afford Valve’s 30% cut. Wolfire is the creator of Receiver and martial arts game Overgrowth.

Valve also defends its 30% take in the response, stating that there’s no actual evidence that it’s out of the ordinary. “Plaintiffs can muster only a generalization that economics predicts Valve’s 30% commission should have decreased over time … In fact, 30% has become the ‘industry standard,’ while Valve has faced competition from some of the largest companies in the industry, including Microsoft, Epic Games, and Amazon.”

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