No one is expecting them to work for free. But they’re expected to not use their market dominance to collect significantly higher fees than the competition, while pressuring game devs to not make their games cheaper on platforms with lower fees, which is something they’re currently being sued over.
So, only gog is as expensive for devs on PC as Steam.
And of course they would ask as much as steam would, if they were in valve’s position.
But they aren’t and valve is actively using their position of power to keep them there (besides the stores being worse, feature wise, but a lot of people would ignore that for 20% cheaper games on epic, for example).
Of course Steam charges fees they provide a service! Why is Valve the only game company expected to work for free?
No one is expecting them to work for free. But they’re expected to not use their market dominance to collect significantly higher fees than the competition, while pressuring game devs to not make their games cheaper on platforms with lower fees, which is something they’re currently being sued over.
The only distributor that has lower fees is Epic.
If you believe, in a Steamless world, Epic wouldn’t raise their fee to 30%, I have a Half-Life 3 to sell you.
And Microsoft and itch.io.
So, only gog is as expensive for devs on PC as Steam.
And of course they would ask as much as steam would, if they were in valve’s position. But they aren’t and valve is actively using their position of power to keep them there (besides the stores being worse, feature wise, but a lot of people would ignore that for 20% cheaper games on epic, for example).
Itch.io doesn’t provide anywhere near the service Valve does, it would be ludicrous for them to charge the same.