Yeah, it’s a monopoly. That’s not a value judgement. It’s not calling them evil or criminal or anything. It is a necessary recognition of their market position. I.e. - they have competitors, but those competitors do not matter.
Standard Oil only ever controlled 85% of America’s oil.
Monopoly is when your competition does not matter - not when it does not exist. There will always be someone competing with you. But if I open Mindbleach’s Video Emporium and move six units per quarter, the impact on Steam is approximately dick.
Courts do not require a literal monopoly before applying rules for single firm conduct; that term is used as shorthand for a firm with significant and durable market power — that is, the long term ability to raise price or exclude competitors. That is how that term is used here: a “monopolist” is a firm with significant and durable market power.
Absolute monopolies do not exist. If there’s one asshole selling PC games out of a car boot, Steam does not have a literal absolute monopoly. And yet: not even Epic Games, a bajillion dollar company, has any meaningful impact on Steam’s superdupermajority control of the PC gaming market. Steam competitors existing does not mean they matter.
Ability. Not a history of doing anticompetitive behavior, just the ability to do it. Monopoly is a precondition to that abuse.
From the same page: “Obtaining a monopoly by superior products, innovation, or business acumen is legal; however, the same result achieved by exclusionary or predatory acts may raise antitrust concerns.” “Finally, the monopolist may have a legitimate business justification for behaving in a way that prevents other firms from succeeding in the marketplace. For instance, the monopolist may be competing on the merits in a way that benefits consumers through greater efficiency or a unique set of products or services.”
Is it a fnord? Is there some other word you would understand to mean, there’s only one big-ass store people treat as the default, and if they start being dicks, we’re all in deep shit?
So you think if Steam decided to cancel all of its sales and double the price of everything people would keep purchasing from them? If not then they do not have the ability. We already know they don’t have the ability to prevent competition in the market due to the competition in the market.
if they start being dicks, we’re all in deep shit?
We’re really not. If they start being dicks other stores already exist that we can use instead.
If Valve bumped their cut from 30% to 40%, do you imagine publishers would rush to EGS? Epic’s cut is already 15 points lower than Valve’s. It hasn’t moved the needle.
Valve kills studios by saying ‘no thank you.’ They have immense power. They just don’t use it in any way that freaks people out. The mere possibility shapes the entire industry. Only niche studios try weird shit, because large studios don’t risk poking the bear. Games want to feature nudity and intimacy, but most are so self-censored, they could be televised. The cultural prevalence of nude mods is proof of demand that has been frustrated.
If you’d rather blame Mastercard and Visa openly dictating what art can and can’t be sold, by all means, we can talk about their joint control of online payment. But it might get blunt if you insist one store taking Bitcoin means that’s not a duopoly.
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Yeah, it’s a monopoly. That’s not a value judgement. It’s not calling them evil or criminal or anything. It is a necessary recognition of their market position. I.e. - they have competitors, but those competitors do not matter.
So not a monopoly.
Absolute monopolies are fiction.
Standard Oil only ever controlled 85% of America’s oil.
Monopoly is when your competition does not matter - not when it does not exist. There will always be someone competing with you. But if I open Mindbleach’s Video Emporium and move six units per quarter, the impact on Steam is approximately dick.
So is Epic’s.
Monopoly:
https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/single-firm-conduct/monopolization-defined
Absolute monopolies do not exist. If there’s one asshole selling PC games out of a car boot, Steam does not have a literal absolute monopoly. And yet: not even Epic Games, a bajillion dollar company, has any meaningful impact on Steam’s superdupermajority control of the PC gaming market. Steam competitors existing does not mean they matter.
So again, not what we’re seeing at all.
Epic has little impact because Epic is shit at making a store people actually want to use.
Ability. Not a history of doing anticompetitive behavior, just the ability to do it. Monopoly is a precondition to that abuse.
From the same page: “Obtaining a monopoly by superior products, innovation, or business acumen is legal; however, the same result achieved by exclusionary or predatory acts may raise antitrust concerns.” “Finally, the monopolist may have a legitimate business justification for behaving in a way that prevents other firms from succeeding in the marketplace. For instance, the monopolist may be competing on the merits in a way that benefits consumers through greater efficiency or a unique set of products or services.”
Is it a fnord? Is there some other word you would understand to mean, there’s only one big-ass store people treat as the default, and if they start being dicks, we’re all in deep shit?
So you think if Steam decided to cancel all of its sales and double the price of everything people would keep purchasing from them? If not then they do not have the ability. We already know they don’t have the ability to prevent competition in the market due to the competition in the market.
We’re really not. If they start being dicks other stores already exist that we can use instead.
If Valve bumped their cut from 30% to 40%, do you imagine publishers would rush to EGS? Epic’s cut is already 15 points lower than Valve’s. It hasn’t moved the needle.
Valve kills studios by saying ‘no thank you.’ They have immense power. They just don’t use it in any way that freaks people out. The mere possibility shapes the entire industry. Only niche studios try weird shit, because large studios don’t risk poking the bear. Games want to feature nudity and intimacy, but most are so self-censored, they could be televised. The cultural prevalence of nude mods is proof of demand that has been frustrated.
If you’d rather blame Mastercard and Visa openly dictating what art can and can’t be sold, by all means, we can talk about their joint control of online payment. But it might get blunt if you insist one store taking Bitcoin means that’s not a duopoly.