The antitrust lawsuit filed against Valve by Wolfire Games in 2022 has now been deemed a class action lawsuit, which could be a real headache for Valve. Instead of only affecting Wolfire (and Dark Catt Studios, which filed a separate antitrust lawsuit in 2021), the action will now cover virtually anyone who has sold games on Steam since 2017.
Originally creator of Wolffire hypertrophy filed a lawsuit against Valve in April 2021, alleging that Valve is using Steam’s dominance in the gaming market to suppress competition and obtain unfairly high discounts on sales made through the store. There was a case released in November of the same year, however, Wolfire was given 30 days to rectify and re-file the complaint, which she did, bringing the case come back to life in 2022. In July this year, Wolfire’s lawsuit was consolidated with a similar antitrust lawsuit filed by Dark Catt.
Since then, the lawsuit has been the subject of various legal disputes, but the latest decision is engaging because it expands the action to, well, almost everyone. The ruling (By Gaming industry) certifies this class as “all persons or entities who, directly or through an agent, paid a commission to Valve in connection with the sale or use of a game on Steam on or after January 28, 2017 and continuing until the effects are eliminated its program (the “Commitment Period”) and if (1) the person or entity was located in the United States and its territories or (2) the game was purchased or acquired by a United States entity United States: consumer during the Class Period.”
A “commission” would mean a cut of sales made by Valve through Steam, which starts from 30% and decreases to 20% as sales increase. Valve defended interest as the “industry standard” when the Wolffire lawsuit was first filed, but this is no longer the case: Epic Games Store AND Microsoft both companies capture only 12% of sales made through their stores.
There’s still a long way to go before everything gets sorted out, but the class action certification means that if Wolfire and Dark Catt ultimately prevail, Valve could pay some big money in compensation. Speculatively, this could be enough to inspire fresh thinking about Steam’s revenue share policy.
Valve decided to make another change in the ruling because the judge rejected its request to exclude the testimony of Dr. Steven Schwartz, appointed by the plaintiffs as an expert witness. “Dr. Schwartz’s methods are reliable and within acceptable standards,” the ruling states, while Valve’s arguments against including him in the study “concern the weight of the evidence rather than admissibility.”
I’ve reached out to Valve and Wolffire for comment on the ruling and will update if I hear back.
