Judge dismisses Steam antitrust case for lack of factual support

Wolfire’s lawsuit is based in part on an argument that Valve illegally bundled its Steam game store (which sells games) with a separate Steam platform (which provides game library management, social networking, achievement tracking, Steam Workshop mods, and more).Wolfire argued that Valve was using its dominant market position in digital PC game sales (accepted in the lawsuit as 75 percent of the full PC game sales market) to illegally support the platform in a way that was uncompetitive.
However, in a ruling issued late last week, Judge John Coughenour of the Western District of Washington said illegal bundling would not occur because the Steam store and platform “are a single product in an integrated gaming platform and marketplace.”This is because revenue from game sales on the Steam store goes directly to backing the “free” services available on the platform.In the rare event that a game sold elsewhere uses the Steam platform, Valve allows developers to create a free key to enable the integration, avoiding any potential harm.
Judge Coughenour also said Wolfir failed to prove Valve’s standard fee of 30 percent on Steam was “hyper-competitive”.Instead, the 30% fee has remained the same since digital downloads were “in their infancy,” long before Wolfir claimed that Steam became “dominant” in the market in 2013.
In any event, Judge Coughenour also wrote that Wolfir failed to determine how Valve’s alleged monopoly power directly hurt developers.For example, even though the court accepted Wolffire’s contention that Valve’s actions resulted in “a decline in production and quality” across the industry, the original lawsuit “did not provide facts describing how Wolffire directly suffered losses.”
Technically, Wolffire has 30 days to amend its complaint to address the criticism and lack of facts raised in this dismissal.But the sweeping decision doesn’t bode well for the future of the case, to say the least.
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