Because Valve doesn’t do anything proactively.
Those of you who read MMO Fallout know that I’m not a big fan of many of Valve’s practices, particularly the company’s laziness when dealing with their store front and the myriad of fraud that goes unpunished by developers. But back in April when Wolfire Games launched an antitrust lawsuit against Valve, I had to point out that the lawsuit was complete nonsense. A performative publicity dance full of vague accusations and the kind of lies that warranted throwing the lawsuit out before it ever got to trial.
Well at least the court agreed with me. Valve filed their motion to dismiss and the judge agreed the whole thing was a load of hogwash. As of November 19, the case has been dismissed without prejudice. The court disagreed with Wolfire’s claims that Valve used its market dominance to charge a higher fee, noting Wolfire’s own admission that Valve’s fees have not changed from when the company was not the market leader.
Wolfire’s lawsuit effectively has allegations with nothing supporting them, including claims that Valve’s fees harm the industry or harmed them directly. The opinion also notes some of Wolfire’s more ridiculous claims such as cybersecurity issues and those related to policing community conduct, and dismisses them as having absolutely nothing to do with antitrust claims.
Now Wolfire has 30 days to file an amended complaint addressing the court’s highlighted issues. Will it help? Probably not, given the inherently dishonest nature of the claims in the lawsuit. We’re going to go on a limb here and predict that if Wolfire does continue with a lawsuit that its days of selling games on Steam might come to a swift end.
Source: Docket
MMO Fallout 