Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread

DalekFlay

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
14,118
Location
New Vegas
I was in permanent offline mode for 6 months or so in 2012 when I volunteered overseas. People acted like I was lying but I wasn't, it worked fine for that long.
 

Sentinel

Arcane
Joined
Nov 18, 2015
Messages
6,631
Location
Ommadawn
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-19-2010_en.htm
European Commission - Press release
Antitrust: Commission sends Statements of Objections to Valve and five videogame publishers on “geo-blocking” of PC video games
Brussels, 5 April 2019

The European Commission has informed Valve, owner of the “Steam” video game distribution platform, and five videogame publishers, of its preliminary view that the companies prevented consumers from purchasing videogames cross-border from other Member States, in breach of EU competition rules.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: "In a true Digital Single Market, European consumers should have the right to buy and play video games of their choice regardless of where they live in the EU. Consumers should not be prevented from shopping around between Member States to find the best available deal. Valve and the five PC video game publishers now have the chance to respond to our concerns."

The Commission has addressed Statements of Objections to Valve, owner of the world's largest PC video game distribution platform called “Steam”, and five PC video game publishers, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax.

Valve – via Steam – digitally distributes PC video games from each of the five PC video game publishers concerned by the investigation. At the same time, Valve provides "activation keys" to these publishers.

These “activation keys” are required for consumers to play a number of PC video games bought on channels other than Steam, i.e. downloaded or purchased on physical media, such as a DVD. After the purchase of certain PC video games, users need to confirm their "activation key" on Steam to authenticate the game and be able to play it. This system is used for a wide range of games, including sports, simulation and action games.

The Commission's preliminary view is that Valve and the five PC video game publishers entered into bilateral agreements to prevent consumers from purchasing and using PC video games acquired elsewhere than in their country of residence (so-called “geo-blocking”). This is against EU antitrust rules.

In particular, the Commission is concerned that:
  • Valve and the five PC video game publishers agreed, in breach of EU antitrust rules, to use geo-blocked activation keys to prevent cross-border sales, including in response to unsolicited consumer requests (so-called “passive sales”) of PC video games from several Member States (i.e. Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and in some cases Romania). This may have prevented consumers from buying cheaper games available in other Member States.
  • Bandai Namco, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax, broke EU antitrust rules by including contractual export restrictions in their agreements with a number of distributors other than Valve. These distributors were prevented from selling the relevant PC video games outside the allocated territories, which could cover one or more Member States. These practices may have prevented consumers from purchasing and playing PC video games sold by these distributors either on physical media, such as DVDs or through downloads.
The Commission's preliminary view, outlined in its Statements of Objections, is that these business practices partitioned markets according to national borders and restricted passive sales to consumers. These business practices ultimately denied European consumers the benefits of the EU's Digital Single Market to shop around for the most attractive offer.

If confirmed, this would infringe Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which prohibits anti-competitive agreements. The sending of a Statement of Objections does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation.

Background

The geo-blocking Regulation

The investigations into geo-blocking of PC video games complement Regulation 2018/302 on unjustified geo-blocking, which is applicable throughout the EU since 3 December 2018.

The Regulation prohibits geo-blocking and other geographically-based restrictions which undermine online shopping and cross-border sales by limiting the possibility for consumers and businesses to benefit from the advantages of online commerce. Currently, the Regulation applies to PC video games distributed on CDs, DVDs but not to downloads.

The Commission will carry out a first evaluation of the Regulation by 23 March 2020. In particular, the Commission will assess the scope of the Regulation, including its possible application to certain electronically supplied services which offer copyright-protected content such as music, e-books, software and online games, as well as of services in sectors such as transport and audio-visual.

Procedural background

The Commission opened formal antitrust proceedings into the bilateral agreements concluded between Valve Corporation and the five PC video game publishers on 2 February 2017.

This investigation is a stand-along procedure, independent of but following up on some of the issues identified in the Commission's competition sector inquiry on e-commerce.

A Statement of Objections is a formal step in Commission investigations into suspected violations of EU antitrust rules. The Commission informs the parties concerned in writing of the objections raised against them. The parties can then examine the documents in the Commission's investigation file, reply in writing and request an oral hearing to present their comments on the case before representatives of the Commission and national competition authorities.

If, after the parties have exercised their rights of defence, the Commission concludes that there is sufficient evidence of an infringement, it can adopt a decision prohibiting the conduct and imposing a fine of up to 10% of a company's annual worldwide turnover.

There is no legal deadline for the Commission to complete antitrust inquiries into anticompetitive conduct. The duration of an antitrust investigation depends on a number of factors, including the complexity of the case, the extent to which the undertaking concerned cooperates with the Commission and the exercise of the rights of defence.

More information on the investigation will be available under the case numbers AT.40413 (Focus Home), AT.40414 (Koch Media), AT.40420 (ZeniMax), AT.40422 (Bandai Namco), and AT.40424 (Capcom) in the public case register on the Commission's competition website.
 

Sentinel

Arcane
Joined
Nov 18, 2015
Messages
6,631
Location
Ommadawn
Valve replies:
Earlier today, the European Commission ("EC") sent Statements of Objections ("SO") to Valve and five publishers in an investigation that it started in 2013. The EC alleges that the five publishers entered into agreements with their distributors that included geo-blocking provisions for PC games sold by the distributors, and that separately Valve entered into agreements with the same publishers that prevented consumers in the European Economic Area ("EEA") from purchasing PC games because of their location.

However, the EC's charges do not relate to the sale of PC games on Steam - Valve's PC gaming service. Instead the EC alleges that Valve enabled geo-blocking by providing Steam activation keys and - upon the publishers' request - locking those keys to particular territories ("region locks") within the EEA. Such keys allow a customer to activate and play a game on Steam when the user has purchased it from a third-party reseller. Valve provides Steam activation keys free of charge and does not receive any share of the purchase price when a game is sold by third-party resellers (such as a retailer or other online store).

The region locks only applied to a small number of game titles. Approximately just 3% of all games using Steam (and none of Valve's own games) at the time were subject to the contested region locks in the EEA. Valve believes that the EC's extension of liability to a platform provider in these circumstances is not supported by applicable law. Nonetheless, because of the EC's concerns, Valve actually turned off region locks within the EEA starting in 2015, unless those region locks were necessary for local legal requirements (such as German content laws) or geographic limits on where the Steam partner is licensed to distribute a game. The elimination of region locks will also mean that publishers will likely raise prices in less affluent regions to avoid price arbitrage. There are no costs involved in sending activation keys from one country to another and the activation key is all a user needs to activate and play a PC game.
 

Merlkir

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
1,216
Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind - April 15, 2019 – 20:00:00 UTC
ooh hope that's real

Sorry, it's not. My guess (as I'm not working for Kitfox who are publishing) would be a temporary date filled in just because you had to put something in the release date field.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
What tags do you guys exclude?
VQz99L0.png
 

Astral Rag

Arcane
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
7,771
Looks like Steam nuked all my personal Categories overnight. Now all my games are listed under "GAMES" and "VR". It's the same on both my computers.

WTF Gabe, this is triggering my autisms something fierce.

Hopefully it's only a temporary issue.
:despair:

edit: It's still fucked up:
FCw6MP8.png
 
Last edited:

DJOGamer PT

Arcane
Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
7,347
Location
Lusitânia
I remember when I bought my GPU some 3 years ago that the RX480 was very close to the GTX1060 performance wise and costed around 100 euros less.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
Nvidia cards having better price to performance ratios.
In what universe?
In the last few years there was no Radeon card on the market which was reasonably priced, thanks to mining. That's why the GTX 1050 Ti was one of the most popular cards.
OTOH it's pretty easy to pick up a decent card used by a miner for cheap. Make sure the warranty is covered for at least a few years.
 

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
In the last few years there was no Radeon card on the market which was reasonably priced, thanks to mining. That's why the GTX 1050 Ti was one of the most popular cards.
That's a pretty big caveat to your argument.
 

DalekFlay

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
14,118
Location
New Vegas
It's their new tactic to combat the Epic Store, take some features away and then be like "keep buying on Epic's store and we'll take more." If Borderlands 3 is a hit on Epic Store then offline mode sleeps with the fishes.
 

Don Peste

Arcane
Joined
Sep 15, 2008
Messages
4,277
Location
||☆||
Seems the Team Fortress 2 team recently went down from 15 members to just 2...
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom