• Deceptichum@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Had you cared to read the fucking article.

    The original charges centered around activation keys. The commission said Valve and five publishers (Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax) agreed to use geo-blocking so that activation keys sold in some countries — like Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary and Latvia — would not work in other member states. That would prevent someone in, say, Germany buying a cheaper key in Latvia, where prices are lower.

    • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Had you cared to read the fucking article.

      I did and unlike you I even understood it.

      That would prevent someone in, say, Germany buying a cheaper key in Latvia, where prices are lower.

      ACTIVATION KEYS from key retailers. It’s not about prices within the Steam storefront.

      • Deceptichum@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Valve said that the charges didn’t pertain to PC games sold on Steam, but that it was accused of locking keys to particular territories at the request of publishers

        It’s not like Valve played no role in this.

        Games can be sold on other places besides the Steam store. This still negatively impacts consumers.

        • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It’s not like Valve played no role in this.

          I never claimed otherwise.

          This still negatively impacts consumers.

          Some consumers maybe. It will benefit others.

            • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I can order any goods via mail from across the border, like a BluRay of a PS5 game.

                • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  digital goods are regulated differently than physical goods.

                  But this is still about activation keys which are frequently printed out, put in a plastic case, and then sent to retail markets.

                  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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                    1 year ago

                    That sounds like a separate thing entirely. I could be wrong, but I don’t think Valve has any say in how keys not sold through the Steam storefront are resold, so supposedly the lawsuit should target whoever is distributing keys in that way. AFAIK, Steam only offers two ways to buy a game–buy the game for yourself and buy as a gift–and in neither case does Steam offer the keys directly to users.

                    And then there’s this from the article:

                    In a statement back in 2021, Valve said that the charges didn’t pertain to PC games sold on Steam, but that it was accused of locking keys to particular territories at the request of publishers. It added that it turned off region locks for most cases (other than local laws) in 2015 because of the EU’s concerns.

                    So AFAIK Valve isn’t distributing resellable keys that are region locked, it’s region-locking at the point of purchase and allowing developers to request region-locked keys. So it would be on publishers to abide by EU laws, no?

                    The again, I don’t live in the EU, nor have I ever bought a physical Steam key (not sure if Valve directly offers that in any way).