Comment on Epic win: Jury decides Google has illegal monopoly in app store fight
TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 9 months agoValve forces other companies to have Steam installed by default on their PCs? And has shady background deals with various companies?
Wow, TIL
vsh@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Before jumping on the “TIL” bandwagon, maybe consider fact-checking and not just regurgitating baseless rumors. Steam dominates the gaming marketplace. They control a massive share of digital game distribution, making it a one-stop-shop for gamers.
Steam’s the cool kid on the block, and everyone else should just pack up and go home. Monopoly vibes, man. /s
TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Ok…?
Can you tell me how Valve forces steam to be installed on everyone’s PCs and bans the installation of other game stores? You still haven’t done that yet.
vsh@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Following this logic all billions of devices coming with preinstalled google products contribute to their monopoly. Billions.
And following this logic’s logic Steam is a monopoly because they have a massive library of games, easy to say they’re the gaming monopoly.
TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 9 months ago
That’s not following that logic at all.
Steam is optional, not preinstalled, and Valve does nothing to force its use. Valve doesn’t even do legal (but shady) things like exclusivity deals, like some of their competitors do.
Google, on the other hand, knows OEMs have no choice but to use their software, so they force companies into signing agreements saying no third party app stores, no not including XYZ apps and Google telemetry, etc.
One is an abuse of market position. The other is just a popular product. They are not the same.
In the hypothetical world where Valve creates an OS that replaces Windows, MS exits the PC space leaving SteamOS to take up all of the market, and Valve forces PC makers to only have Steam and no other game stores, and that all revenue should go through Valve, then you’ll have a point. But right now it’s just “Steam is popular” - that’s not an argument, there’s zero coercion going on.