You can generate Steam keys using the Steam developer tools. This allows a game key to be purchased on any storefront that supports selling them, which can then be activated on Steam.
The main requirement? You can’t price those steam keys on a 3rd party store cheaper than on Steam itself.
For that, it means if the 3rd party store takes a smaller cut than Steam itself would take, the developer makes a bit more profit through almost no additional effort. Steam is the system users use to download and update the game, and cloud save syncing, and community guides, forums, workshop, etc.
The developer is, afaik, more than welcome to also sell a UPlay key if they partner with Ubisoft at any price point they want (regardless of the Steam price) because Ubisoft is the taking on the burden of distribution, etc.
The only price requirement Valve imposes is on selling Steam keys on 3rd party storefronts. Not UPlay keys. Not Xbox keys. Not Epic Store keys.
Edit: and I read the article, while albeit short (can’t access the linked Bloomberg article sadly), they claim exactly that, that the version on UPlay was significantly cheaper than the version on Steam for essentially the same game. Valve was arguing that Rainbow Six Siege needs to change their pricing on UPlay or they would be delisted.
The crux of the case is whether Valve is applying that rule to non-Steam keys or not. Lawsuit says they are, Valve says they aren’t. If Valve is telling the truth, they’ve done nothing wrong. If Valve is lying however that is an anticompetitive practice that should be punished. We won’t really know until the trial concludes though.
Personally I think the most likely answer is that some junior support people at Valve misunderstood the policy and told some people the wrong thing. There’s a decent chance that when those accusations first surfaced a decade or so ago (yes this has been a thing for that long) Valve probably sent some internal memos to clarify what the rule actually covers and what it doesn’t and hopefully that was that.
Valve probably sent some internal memos to clarify what the rule actually covers and what it doesn’t and hopefully that was that.
Speaking from my company experiences as an employee:
If it’s not written in a clear language (e.g. ONLY keys generated and distributed by Valve need to follow the same price on other storefronts. We do not care about 3rd Party key generator/distributors like uPlays own infra) and somewhere accessible it will be forgotten or misinterpreted by employees.
I can’t even count the amount of “With this email we inform you of policy X and order Y”.
This email will be lost and new employees will never receive it.
And employees will repeat the rules in a flawed way.
Yes it’s a very short article and apparently you completely hallucinated a paragraph where it’s about steam keys?
I do not see any mention of steam keys in the article. They wanted to sell a version that wasn’t even on steam. Only on Uplay. This has nothing to do with steam keys. And valve was still complaining.
So yeah. It’s fairly simple and you still got it wrong.
This isn’t about steam keys, it’s about Valve throwing their weight around.
Valve was arguing that Rainbow Six Siege needs to change their pricing on UPlay or they would be delisted.
It’s the equivalent of Amazon telling a manufacturer that they can’t sell their product at a lower price on their own website if they want to sell it on Amazon.
No, it would be like Amazon saying that a manufacturer cannot use Amazon to ship goods sold on their own website if they’re going to sell at a lower price. That is reasonable. Steam keys are a means of distribution. If steam is going to provide the file transfer, cloud saves, multiplayer server hosting, community page, and workshop page for your game, then don’t sell your steam keys for less than the game on steam.
If you want to sell a key for epic for less than you list the game on steam, they do not stop you from doing so.
Yeah but it’s fairly simple.
You can generate Steam keys using the Steam developer tools. This allows a game key to be purchased on any storefront that supports selling them, which can then be activated on Steam.
The main requirement? You can’t price those steam keys on a 3rd party store cheaper than on Steam itself.
For that, it means if the 3rd party store takes a smaller cut than Steam itself would take, the developer makes a bit more profit through almost no additional effort. Steam is the system users use to download and update the game, and cloud save syncing, and community guides, forums, workshop, etc.
The developer is, afaik, more than welcome to also sell a UPlay key if they partner with Ubisoft at any price point they want (regardless of the Steam price) because Ubisoft is the taking on the burden of distribution, etc.
The only price requirement Valve imposes is on selling Steam keys on 3rd party storefronts. Not UPlay keys. Not Xbox keys. Not Epic Store keys.
Edit: and I read the article, while albeit short (can’t access the linked Bloomberg article sadly), they claim exactly that, that the version on UPlay was significantly cheaper than the version on Steam for essentially the same game. Valve was arguing that Rainbow Six Siege needs to change their pricing on UPlay or they would be delisted.
The crux of the case is whether Valve is applying that rule to non-Steam keys or not. Lawsuit says they are, Valve says they aren’t. If Valve is telling the truth, they’ve done nothing wrong. If Valve is lying however that is an anticompetitive practice that should be punished. We won’t really know until the trial concludes though.
Personally I think the most likely answer is that some junior support people at Valve misunderstood the policy and told some people the wrong thing. There’s a decent chance that when those accusations first surfaced a decade or so ago (yes this has been a thing for that long) Valve probably sent some internal memos to clarify what the rule actually covers and what it doesn’t and hopefully that was that.
Speaking from my company experiences as an employee:
If it’s not written in a clear language (e.g. ONLY keys generated and distributed by Valve need to follow the same price on other storefronts. We do not care about 3rd Party key generator/distributors like uPlays own infra) and somewhere accessible it will be forgotten or misinterpreted by employees.
I can’t even count the amount of “With this email we inform you of policy X and order Y”.
This email will be lost and new employees will never receive it.
And employees will repeat the rules in a flawed way.
Yes it’s a very short article and apparently you completely hallucinated a paragraph where it’s about steam keys?
I do not see any mention of steam keys in the article. They wanted to sell a version that wasn’t even on steam. Only on Uplay. This has nothing to do with steam keys. And valve was still complaining.
So yeah. It’s fairly simple and you still got it wrong.
Try reading the actual lawsuit. The article is absurdly misleading. It is actually about steam keys.
You should probably read the lawsuit instead of an article before you act so sure on this lmao
This isn’t about steam keys, it’s about Valve throwing their weight around.
It’s the equivalent of Amazon telling a manufacturer that they can’t sell their product at a lower price on their own website if they want to sell it on Amazon.
None of this should be defended.
No, it would be like Amazon saying that a manufacturer cannot use Amazon to ship goods sold on their own website if they’re going to sell at a lower price. That is reasonable. Steam keys are a means of distribution. If steam is going to provide the file transfer, cloud saves, multiplayer server hosting, community page, and workshop page for your game, then don’t sell your steam keys for less than the game on steam.
If you want to sell a key for epic for less than you list the game on steam, they do not stop you from doing so.
THIS IS NOT ABOUT STEAM KEYS
Read the article, jfc