Comment on Epic win: Jury decides Google has illegal monopoly in app store fight

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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.

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