Steam is arguably the world's largest computer game purchase platform, despite the presence of various other offerings such as the Epic Games Store, GoG and so on. Recently, it has been reported that Valve, the developer company behind Steam, is facing a lawsuit in the United Kingdom for allegedly manipulating the price and market of computer games through the platform.
This lawsuit is also not new. It was filed in 2024, but was only recently allowed to proceed by the Competition Appeal Tribunal, with a claim of £656 million (~RM3.5 billion).
The lawsuit, filed by digital activist Vicki Shotbolt, claims that Valve, through the Steam platform, has manipulated the computer game sales market in the country by not allowing game developers to sell their computer games at cheaper prices than the Steam platform.
Meanwhile, the 30 percent commission cut from the sale price on Steam also causes developers to set expensive prices on the platform so that they can get the profit they deserve.
Meanwhile, Vicki also said that computer games purchased on Steam are not compatible with additional DLC (downloadable content) purchased from other platforms, and how for many games on the platform, users must always be logged into a Steam account before they can start playing them.
Steam currently has 132 million active users worldwide, and is reported to have recorded a profit of $16 billion in 2025, which is an increase of 5.7 percent over the previous year.
