The antitrust lawsuit against Valve is back on

pcgamer.com:

The antitrust lawsuit between Valve and Wolfire Games is back on track. The suit was dismissed in November 2021 for failing to meet necessary standards, but without prejudice, meaning Wolfire had 30 days to amend the complaint and refile it. Somewhat unexpectedly, that's what it did, and a judge has now ruled that the case can move forward.

The original lawsuit contended that Valve uses its dominance of the PC gaming market through Steam to suppress competition, while extracting «an extraordinarily high cut from nearly every sale that passes through its store.» That keeps game prices artificially high, according to Wolfire, the indie developer of games including Lugaru and Overgrowth and originator of the Humble Bundle. 

«In order to afford Valve's 30 percent commission, game publishers must raise their prices to consumers and can afford to invest fewer resources in innovation and creation,» the lawsuit stated. «Gamers are injured by paying higher retail prices caused by Valve's high commissions.»

And while the Epic Games Store has made previously unprecedented inroads into the digital PC market, it was actually cited as a failure in the suit because Epic was only able to do so by spending truckloads of cash on exclusive deals and giveaways.

Valve, naturally, defended its practices, saying its 30% cut «has become the 'industry standard',» and that it actually faces competition from some of the biggest companies in the business, including Microsoft, Epic, and Amazon. It also criticized Wolfire's suit for a lack of specific claims: The claim that Valve forbids developers from selling discounted Steam keys through other distributors, for instance, arose from «a single anecdote» involving one unnamed developer, Valve said.