Valve to fight EU antitrust charges

>Valve in its April statement on the EU charges said the region locks applied to only 3 percent of all games using its Steam platform
Oh man, this is some good lawyering by Valve here. Toss out that "3% of all games" figure without mentioning that thousands upon thousands of shovelware titles are released on your platform yearly.

Its ok. Soon Valve will be able to charge Austalian prices in the UK, hohoho.

Based Gaben
Fuck the EU

If game banned in Germany==>game should be banned in EU?

>They clearly meant Russia
What the fuck even gives you that idea? No, they didn't clearly mean Russia, their problem were the games that are region locked within the EEA.

If only they ditched regional prices entirely, I'd love to be able to buy games for the equivalent of $60 instead of 70€.

It's called a pro-gamer move opening the floodgates to the autistic indie devs finally came in handy.

>regional prices
*cries in hungarian*

Erm, it is.

Erm, it is.

No, no. Germany goes to the EU to have games banned europwide without having any laws or regulations for determining what games should be banned and no transparency in the process. Only law will be that all member nations must obey EU decisions.

>new video games used to be 40 Euros in Croatia (was just a few years ago, maybe before we joined EU)
>only console games used to be really expensive
>console games were about 65-70 Euros
>now PC games are 70 Euros
>all of these prices were in the Croatian currency I just converted to Euros
>it's cheaper for me to buy a game directly in Euros either digitally or order it physically from somewhere else within the EU than it is to buy in Croatia

based EU economically hampering my country

Why dont those europeans just merge into one totalitarian country already?

Because then they can't pretend EU dictatorship has a democratic mandate.

i'm Dutch and i buy digitally from the USA. 60 dollars vs 70 Euro's. We are really being ripped off either way

>fighting to obtain literal legal acknowledgement that they're not a monopoly
based Gabe

I just don't understand why on average I'm paying MORE than someone in France or Germany when I earn LESS than someone in either of those two countries. Certain prices have become ludicrous since joining the EU. I don't see the benefits. I don't need a worker's visa to leave? Is that it? Jesus fucking Christ.

Prices aren't determined by what you earn

EZ VESZÉLYES!

That's not what this is about. Valve is simply violating EU law by selling in the EU but not adhering to the common market rules. The main fucking point of the EU is it's a common market. They are going to lose this case and they are the only ones stupid enough to waste money on trying to fight it. Why do you think every other party settled? Valve always fights these cases and they always lose. They are so fucking dumb. The law is the law, they aren't going to be allowed to ignore it.

Fucking stupid eurotrash

>regional pricing
Never heard of it since the EU2 region got merged with EU1. In ČR we just pay western prices in Euro even though we don't use that faggy currency. Piracy as always is the best option if you don't want to get fucked by EU and jewish publishers.

gay jews

>3 percent of all games
>not 3 percent of all games sold
That is pretty sneaky

have sex

The EU is based. I hope they fuck Valve in the ass.

Nigga I ain't paying US$60 for games I can get for 1999 RUB, screw off

>Czechs still have Euro on Steam
What

This is fucking retarded. You'd have to be a retard to join EU when they literally say "we're keeping the status quo by refusing poor nations to give better deals to others outside that nation"

This is fucking retarded. You'd have to be a retard to join EU when they literally say "we're keeping the status quo by refusing poor nations to give better deals to others outside that nation"

How the flying fuck is the EU's problem?

If anything, this show that Valve didn't even bother to make a specialised version/payment option for YOUR faggy currency, because it literally matters that little.

Australia only got AUD in November 2018

This is fucking retarded. You'd have to be a retard to join EU when they literally say "we're keeping the status quo by refusing poor nations to give better deals to others outside that nation"

Seriously fuck Gabe, Valve and Steam. They've been subsisting purely off % cuts of other peoples work for 12 years now while creating literally nothing 1st party

Try cut down the seething and the salt if you dont even know what's going on, faggot

Based EU. Just because you're poor doesn't mean you should get the same product cheaper than a rich person.

I hope they fuck Epic next, once they are finished with Valve or simply start suing Epic too.

>other companies already folded under the EU
>valve is clearly breaking EU law
>already earns a bazillion dollars through Steam
>Valve not being the bad guys here

Looking forward to them getting wrecked.

That's what this case is about. They want you to be able to shop around as there's supposed to be free trade.

if EU wants to become one country with a bunch of states just do it, retarded yuropoors

EU are the bad guys for enforcing a law that hurts consumers

This is why the EU can suck a dick.
There's barely any games that offer regional pricing for the Eastern Bloc (Dishonored is the only region locked game I have iirc) and they want to take that away even.
I make 900 Euros a month and that's about average for my country, spending €60 on games on a regular basis is out of the question for me.
I don't get the reasons for it either. Wasn't the EU the first to say that computer software is a product? If Coca-Cola can charge whatever they want for their product in every country, why can't vidya publishers?

Worst of all, the cunts even have the gall to frame this as a customer rights issue.

>free trade
banning regional price and product differentiation is not free trade. It's the opposite of free trade

>The EU is a big group of nations
>Except each nation has its own market and its own price
>Even though most use the same currency
>trading between the nations in the EU is verboten
>Valve is the bad guy for trying to enable EU customers to shop at cheaper prices

>NO NO NO NO!!!!!!! THE CUSTOMER IS NOT ALLOWED TO GET A BETTER DEAL!!!!

they're selling games (very few of them, i might add) at lower prices in low income countries
how does that make them bad guys?

That's what this case is about. They want you to be able to shop around as there's supposed to be free trade.

Luxembourg here, we truly have the best industries

isn't this old news? i rememeber reading about this earlier where it was the game companies making region locked keys and valve itself removed the locks like 5 years ago.

>>trading between the nations in the EU is verboten
?

so why cant I buy cheap russian game like how I can buy cheap russian alcohol?

>If Coca-Cola can charge whatever they want for their product in every country, why can't vidya publishers?
There's nothing to stop you from buying coke from those other countries. This is Valve digitally stopping you from doing that. That's why it's illegal. The problem is not regional pricing, it's that Valve doesn't allow cross region trade within the EU and that's the whole point of the EU. The EU is not telling Valve they have to charge everyone the same price, they are saying stop blocking trade within our common market.

Some people think legal = good, illegal = bad.

Can you read, you inbred shitlord?

>It said the companies agreed to use geo-blocking activation keys to prevent consumers in one EU country from buying cheaper versions of a game in another EU country.

It's literally pro consumer.

nice reddit spacing
how come i go to an Aldi in Poland and they have a lower price for the exact same product than the German Aldi 50 kilometers away and the EU does not lose its shit over it?

>trading between the nations in the EU is verboten
wut
The point of the fine is the keys are geolocked, not that the price is lowered.

What do you mean by this? Games on Steam are cheaper for me. (I don't even buy new games on Steam it's either GMG or Fanatical) And since games on Steam are cheaper for me their prices are in Euros and the local Croatian stores are in HRK so I literally NEVER buy local or even physical.

I've seen nothing but price increases since entering the EU and from what I understand of this they're making it so that if a game is sold in a specific (poorer) EU country then that country's keys MUST be able to be activated by any individual from any other EU country which will result in what? The removal of country/region-specific keys?

>preventing people from being able to buy cheaper versions sold in another country part of the EU like your country is a pro-consumer move
God damn these commie shills are retarded

You can't block EU customers from buying the same product in another EU country
If this goes through then you'll see the end of lower prices for your country, since otherwise everyone would be buying them there and volvo would lose out on funcurrency. Rather just get less sales in those comparatively smaller markets

Because you are free to drive to the Polish Aldi and buy there if you wish, retard. Valve is figuratively stopping you at the border and preventing you from doing so.

Except "preventing people from being able to buy cheaper versions sold in another country" is what Valve does. This is why the EU is suing them. You got it completely backwards.

You do know that's what Valve is doing, right? Not the EU. The EU is trying to stop Valve from doing that.

you're free to move to Poland or Croatia for cheaper games too

It’s cause valve is one of the few libertarian companies out there. They will fight all government laws for the good of everyone.

my eu country keeps trying to block me from buying alcohol from other eu countries, most of it gets lost in customs

The EU wants to harmonize and open up the market internally and stop companies that prevent people from country A to buy digital goods from country B.

This is good stuff and I expect them to crush Valve unless they comply.

>valve removed locks years ago
>5 companies still managed to create geo blocked keys
welp somebody forget to click a button somewhere in the dev tools that let bamco, zenimax, etc. still create these keys.

Except Washington state's obscenity laws.

Except that the removal of region locks would end up raising the prices because publishers will want to avoid price arbitrage.

>for the good of everyone
You mean for the good of themselves. Since when is fighting against a refund option, for example, good for everyone? For fuck's sake, Valve even fought against having to provide a fucking phone number that their customers can call when they have a problem. They are the greediest and laziest fucks on the planet. They are not the good guys.

>for the good of everyone
Wow, you brainless drones are truly something else.

>Poland has cheap games
What the fuck are you on
You pay four times more than in dollars

>the queen btfo yuropoors
It's so close lads, I can taste the freedom

Bro, games in Croatia aren't cheaper. In fact, they more expensive than in Germany or France and whatever the EU is doing with Valve right now will likely not change anything or result in a price increase in Croatia.

>Poorer country gets cheaper versions
>Suddenly EU stops Valve from region locking
>Now everybody can buy cheaper shit from the poorer countries
>Valve has to increase the prices or even normalize them completely so that they can stay afloat
>Cheaper prices are gone for everybody
>poorfags in poor countries can no longer afford games, while the EU looks for other valuable shit to destroy
Like I said, you commie shills really are fucking retarded

>Libertarian
>Supports region-locking prices

it mostly applies to eastern bloc which is a piratecentral anyways, countries with monthly wages of 300-500 euros

>you're free to move to Poland or Croatia for cheaper games too
You obviously have no clue how this works, why do you keep posting?

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I can't tell if you're a shitposter or a brainless zoomer.

>NOO CZECHIANS CAN'T BUY LANDWIRTSCHAFTSHUBSCHRAUBERSIMULATOR 2017 CHEAPER THAN US DAS IS ILLEGAL
This is how petty Germans are. Point at them and laugh.

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I hope EU wins and valve goes bankrupt, subhuman kike trash

explain how he's wrong

using a positive sounding word doesn't make it any better
EU is trying to bone the Eastern Bloc over some shitty pretense again

In the end, it's always Germany against the Jews... Who wrote this script?

>Why does region locking even exist?

>You may wonder why publishers would want to region lock a game, and the answer is economics. While the EEA is a single market, its member countries vary widely in terms of their GDP per capita.

>Germany has a GDP per capita of $47,000, according to CountryEconomy.com. Bulgaria, meanwhile, has a GDP per capita of $9,000. And Germany is not even in the top 10 of GDP per capita in the EU. Norway, which in No. 3, has a GDP per capita of $82,000. That is nine times the GDP produced per person in Bulgaria.

>For comparison, Massachusetts had the highest GDP per capita of all U.S. states in 2018 at $66,000. Mississippi had the lowest at $32,000. But that gap is much closer than in the EU.

>The difference in purchasing power between a person in Bulgaria and a person in Norway creates an issue of pricing. Ideally, publishers want to sell a game for one price in Norway and a significantly lower price in Bulgaria. But the EU is prohibiting that in this situation.

Europe wants Valve to have equal prices across all European countries. This obviously doesn’t work when there are different currencies and different countries having wage gap differences.
People from places with lower incomes have to pay less, but they blocked people from higher income places from abusing that.

EU or the UN. Who's worse?

free flow of goods is one of the base principles of the EU

>valve decides how much a game costs

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>the free market is bad when it benefits the consumer!!1!
Shoo, shoo, Mr. Goldstein.

UN, because that's run by mutts.

EU shut down tunnel-services such as Tunngle. So my vote falls on EU.
Absolute shitters, this is why boomers shouldn't be in charge of anything tech-related.

norway isnt even EU

You can stop being a pedantic EU-cocksucking faggot anytime

UN easily, the EU actually has something resembling authority.

test

"[insert poor EU country's name] salary and German prices" is a common saying around a bunch of EU countries for a reason, I guess at least it creates a great reason to bond with people from other countries I.

>The Kingdom of Norway is not a member state of the European Union (EU). It is associated with the Union through its membership in agreements in the European Economic Area (EEA) established in 1994

UN easily, the EU doesn't have that retarded "5 speshul countries can veto everything ever" caveat that lets even small countries commit war crimes and get away with it as long as they're allied to one of the countries with that veto power.

>who cares about making things affordable for the poor people?! Let them eat cake!
Insufferable white inbred zoomer trash like you are why the EU needs to die

The tyranny of good intentions is downright chilling, so the EU.

reading comprehension isn't your strong suit

It's part of the EEA. Just like Iceland and Switzerland. It's essentially in the EU for the purposes of trade and any deal that has nothing to do with trade that the EU can try to tangentially connect to trade it will try and force down on these 3 countries.

>calling someone out on stupid shit means you're a commie
You're really not the sharpest tool in the shed.

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Why are these united fronts always such a complete retarded clusterfuck?

>trading between the nations in the EU is verboten
nothing to do with trading between EU nations, since the cash you spend on steam goes to valve, who are based in the US.

you dumb fucking retard corporate cuck.

Because what I posted and he replied to isn't talking about the European Union but the EEA which Norway is a member of. How about you take your own advice and learn to read mongoloid.

>completely misses the point to nitpick
>n-no u!
Cant expect more from zoomer scum, I guess

Valve is fighting this cause they turned off any "stopping you"s or as they call them blockers in 2015
You literally can't even read a green text short version let alone the article

Are all Europeans this retarded maybe this is why valve is even having to dispute this, retards in EU can't read

What
Zerotier or hamachi or whatever still work

I dont fucking care where the money goes. All i want to do is what the jews do and get shit cheap

Valve is fighting this cause they turned off any "stopping you"s or as they call them blockers in 2015
You literally can't even read a green text short version let alone the article

Are all Europeans this retarded? maybe this is why valve is even having to dispute this, retards in EU can't read

Then why are you against the EU in this case when that's one of their pillars

>pointing out how his argument fails st the very foundation due to misrepresenting simple facts means you're a commizoomer
kek, but don't stop now retard, my sides are having too much fun with you.

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Germans are peak autists

Because it's completely centralized, out of touch leadership making decisions for places a thousand miles away from them. Imagine if you were the governor of Alaska but you lived in California. It's like that except for hundreds of places.

The EU itself might not be but the technophobe boomers who write these laws regarding the internet surely are.

the EU is so based.

you're welcome for those refunds, mutts.

And Tunngle, Evolve and some other low-profile tunnel-services doesn't.
Hamachi is still up because it's Russian, zerotier I don't know about.

>Valve is fighting this cause they turned off any "stopping you"s or as they call them blockers in 2015
The EU's claim is that Valve didn't turn it off, they just moved it somewhere else, i.e. from the store to the keys themselves.

holy fuck fix your site you dumb fucking gook

EU doing another third world tier shakedown of tech companies because they produce nothing themselves

How about you make a shopping cart?

IT SAYS IN THE ARTICLE THEY DONT EVE HAVE REGION LOCKS ON

How is it a shakedown if you an avoid it by simply not fucking geolocking peoples """property""" out?

>fails at the very foundation
Alright, dumb zoomer, lets adress that, and agree pubs are the ones who decide the price of the game they ship out.
Say that Valve can no longer region lock their games. Now Publishers can no longer put up affordable prices for poorfag nations as mentioned here because blacked soicucks like you have much higher purchasing power yet you can buy it for dirt cheap, thus cutting into their future profits. As a result, they will have to normalize their game prices , which results in poorfags no longer being able to buy anything, which is the main point of the argument. You know, the part you keep avoiding because you have no counter to it other than 'its about meeeeeee!'

test, can I post yet?

>thinks valve region locks games
>makes literally the same mistake that he made before and renders his "argument" useless
>still fails to see the problem with that
Keep going, retard.

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I hope Valve gets fucked for trying to fight laws that benefit the consumer and destroys greedy corporations like Valve.

>EU
>retarded
EU know exactly what it is doing.
Valve is not censoring politically incorrect stuff enough, and that displease greatly the jews owning the EU.

Reminder that the only reason you can refund games on Steam is because of the EU.

Reminder that the only reason you can refund games on Steam is because of the EU. Why are Yea Forums sucking corporation cock so much?

Okay, guys, I don't really understand this regional pricing situation. I live in a poor Eastern European shithole, and all the prices are the same for me as for Germans, while Russians get these insanely cheap prices. Hell, I would honestly see it as a huge improvement if I could purchase software at the American prices.

*Australia

Wasn't it because of Australia?

i agree, we need more open game diatribution platforms like the egs.

Same thing happened to Poland. The most expensive games were from Rockstar and they were 150 PLN. Other AAA titles were 120-140 PLN. Now everything is 200-280 PLN and it's cheaper to buy in Euro/Pounds from GMG, 2game, GamesPlanet and the like than from Polish stores.

The worst jew is EA who prices games at 260 PLN yet still implements language lock and you're stuck with atrocious Polish and Russian dub.

It's about censored and banned games

>the eu killed flash sales
Based indeed

reminder that this is wrong and EU law won't force refunds on digital goods after you've started downloading/streaming them

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Too many divergent interests and views, absolutely no visceral attachment to the group, plus the complete retardation of centralized institutions in general. Nothing spontaneous or 'organic' about them so everything has to be handled bureaucratically.

Valve doesn't region lock games, but it allowed publishers to do so. They stopped allowing that in 2015, and that's around when prices of games in Poland skyrocketed and are almost always the same as in Western EU now.

are video games counted as digital content
by definition it should be but its not listed so on wikipedia

They're not banning regional pricing, they're banning region locks. Does anyone on this board even read?

Banning region locks effectively bans regional pricing because then nothing stops people from countries with higher prices buying keys for those meant for countries with lower pricing. Though the whole debate is null since the vast majority of games cost the same in the EU no matter the country ever since ~2015. In Poland games used to be 120-150 PLN, now they're all 200-280 PLN. (60 Euro is ~260 PLN).

thats the same as banning regional pricing
just like how gog banning DRM is banning new video games

I could buy Assassin's Creed Brotherhood with a figurine, Splinter Cell Conviction CE with a figurine and Splinter Cell Blacklist CE with a figurine for 150 PLN each. Now the figurine alone costs 150 PLN and the game alone is over 200 PLN.

>move to Russia to try and buy games at better prices
Russians don't buy games. They just download them for free from the net.

>png-thumbnail.jpg
okay, this needs to stop

Pretty sure they are counted as software, whether digital or not, so as part of the software umbrella, if it is non-functioning or has some other issue you can get a refund or whatever.

oh yeah
digital content is microtransactions like funboxes

Not sure that's right. I mean, Valve says that when you're buying certain microtransactions, but even if you buy a lootbox; if the server falls over and you don't get anything from the lootbox, I don't think you'd just lose that money. But I think it's the same for digital content; if you pay to stream a movie or event, but half way through the feed stops, or if you don't even start the feed, you should still have consumer protections.

In fact, one time I accidentally bought a film on Amazon. I was thinking about purchasing a video, and thought it would be added to my cart or have some sort of checkout at least. But anyway it just straight up bought it instantly, so I went and got a refund straight away.

The fact that the EU has actual power is what makes them worse

Well you haven't actually started streaming/downloading the movie in your later case
Furthermore, these laws are just the minimum standards companies have to follow, it often makes sense to go beyond that

The EU needs to stop bullying companies, they have all these silly rules and regulations, which only serve to fill their greedy pockets, and put companies at a disadvantage, especially smaller starter companies. It is a corrupt bureaucracy that needs to be put to an end.

Brexit is just the beginning, soon enough the entirety of the EU will collapse.

First valve refusal of providing refunds to customer, now this. Valve is the most anti-consumer company in the gaming industry.
I hope EU is going to ban them for all of their crimes

I love it when underage zoom-zooms who think communism is the big solution end up being so oblivious to their retardation

Not surprised coming from the same people that tried to get us to pay for mods.

God I hope so. I'd like to see Theresa May weasel her way out of the new deadline in october

I'd love to hear from you how making games unaffordable in poorer countries is a good thing, brainlet

Yeah, like paid mods were the biggest problem

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Y-yeah, Theresa.

>Hello, I suck corporate cock