Valve's "Pricing Parity" Is Why Hitman 3 is No Longer Being Discounted

gamerant.com:

Since launching at the start of last year, Hitman 3 has received positive praise from gamers and critics alike, perpetuating the series as one of the best stealth franchises going. With the bald and stoic assassin being one of the most recognizable characters in gaming, it seems that there is still potential left in the series. However, there has been some controversy surrounding the latest installment's launch on Steam, and while Hitman 3 recently went on sale over on Epic Games Store, it seems to be back to full price for some reason.

Hitman 3 was available, for a short time at least, at a discount to celebrate the start of Epic's own Lunar New Year event, similar to Steam's. It seems that the game was selling for 50% less than the full price on the storefront. However, at the time of writing, it's now off sale and once again selling for the standard $60 / £50 / €60, which is the same price that Steam is currently selling it for. It looks as though the discount was applied and then removed within an hour of each other. While there doesn't appear to be any official reason, it could be down to Valve's pricing policy, something which affects other digital storefronts.

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The news may be confusing to some people. It doesn't seem to make sense that Epic Games Store can't discount a product on its own site, just because Valve hasn't. However, Steam has a policy whereby games can only be included in a sale once it's been on the store for more than 30 days, which could explain why the discount was taken off.

It basically has to do with Steam's pricing parity and PC gaming dominance. Essentially, Valve has the monopoly on PC gaming, with a controversial business practice that «unofficially» makes it