Steam under pressure: emails suggest monopoly accusations and threats to studios

▤ Summary

The article covers a legal dispute involving Valve, where leaked emails reportedly suggest the company pressured Ubisoft over pricing and Steam listings. It also highlights broader antitrust accusations that Valve uses parity rules to restrict developers from offering lower prices or earlier launches on other platforms. The piece references a UK class action and prior executive survey results that frame Steam as a monopoly in the eyes of many developers. It also notes a separate hardware update: Valve raised Steam Deck prices, with the top model reaching as high as US$949. The hardware pricing change appears linked to rising chip costs and broader inflation driven by AI demand.

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