Valve's digital storefront and quintessential home for PC gamers, Steam, is currently under fire from multiple lawsuits. One aimed at microtransaction practices in games like Counter-Strike, and two more, both aimed at the 30% cut Valve takes with every purchase made on Steam, one in the UK and another in the US. It's the latter of the two that we have an update on, as a deposition of boss Gabe Newell reveals how Newell is trying to argue against Steam being a monopoly, claiming that players have "enormous choice" when it comes to buying their PC games.
That comes from a new report from Bloomberg, which dives into the class-action antitrust lawsuit launched by Wolfire and Dark Catt. The report also reveals incidents where Valve allegedly threatened other developers if they tried to price their games cheaper than their price on Steam. One such high-profile situation, according to the report, was Valve allegedly threatening to remove Rainbow Six Siege from Steam if Ubisoft didn't stop offering a cheaper price for the game's Starter Pack on its own Ubisoft Connect launcher.
Newell, for his part, denies that Valve has any such practices or policies. "Valve does not have a policy or practice of dictating prices to third-party software developers on other platforms," Newell said in a deposition from 2023 that was only now made public thanks to Bloomberg's report.
"Customers have enormous choice," Newell said in the deposition. "Where they purchase their products, whether they buy the game on an Xbox, whether they buy it on Steam, whether they buy it on Epic Games Store or whether they buy it directly from software developers."
Whether you believe Steam has a monopoly on the PC market, its biggest competitors know it can't be beat after years and years of Steam dominance. If this lawsuit and the one in the UK don't go Valve's way, then that could mean immense changes for the industry and how players buy their games. Though, considering how many players are so entrenched in Steam's ecosystem, it would be interesting to see how many would stick with Steam, even if it meant paying a marginally higher price.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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