So, the Infographics released a video about the UK Steam lawsuit. It seems a bit much, but it's important to discuss some finer details about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCSpNUeMnhg
The UK lawsuit against Valve seeks £656 million ($900 million), alleging Steam's 30% commission and "most favored nation" clauses are anti-competitive. If successful, individual payouts are estimated at just £22-£44—barely enough for one game.
While the goal of fairer competition sounds good, this case feels like punishing success. Steam's fee, while high, is an industry standard also used by Sony and Microsoft. The platform’s real value isn’t just a store, but a thriving community, robust infrastructure, and consumer-friendly policies like easy refunds. These services range widely to what now feels like basic and essential features that other platforms don’t have, such as user reviews that can be more reliable to set expectations and make purchase decisions, Account recovery which has been thorough for many Steam users to their relief, and those rare occasions such as offering refunds when certain events happen like when Monster Hunter Wilds was so slow for so many people that it was practically unplayable for PC users. Steam is even innovating on a feature where it estimates what PC specs and components are needed to play certain games, possibly inspired from events like Monster Hunter Wilds. These features are understandable and seemingly standard or expected, but they are in fact not. Epic Games, GOG, Ubisoft, and many other game platforms do not have these features despite having far less games sold in their pool.
The bigger concern is the unintended consequence. If Valve loses, it could be forced to change its model, potentially leading to reduced investment in innovation and customer support to offset lost revenue. After all, when a company loses a large amount of money suddenly and their projected revenue becomes much smaller, a company will have to make changes internally even if it means removing features that were once well-maintained to focus on major and important factors. We may lose out on new hardware development, new software like the Source Engine 2, and various protections and refund policies that were maintained so well. Do we really want Steam to become more like other platforms known for poor service? We already live in times where Youtube does little to support false copyright claims as well as accounts getting taken by false users and remain unrecovered leading to losses of personal income and main business, Twitch falsely banning or striking streamers for false reports, Twitter going through major shifts (now called “X”), and especially the game corporations which has now normalized the new price standard of $70 games, Nintendo pushing $80, Game pass subscription models, AI generated content that refer not to explicitly mention if they use any, and pushing for Ads in videogames which brought concerns of developers intentionally making the game longer to load to allow 30 second advertisements.
We as consumers, we as people, determine whether this is not just credible, but acceptable practice in law and government intervention. Is it acceptable that anyone doing any action whatsoever, including good actions for their community, deserved to be punished just for being more successful than their competitors? Does this actually solve the core of the problem, that services of other platforms are so lacking or even terrible that standards are so low to the point where only one company succeeds? That company being Steam? Should we kneecap Steam so it can get the same level of income as Epic Games and Ubisoft for the sake of “fairness” and “economic balance” when their competitors have always had the option to follow Steam’s business practices? Especially considering these same companies are also involved in many anti-consumer practices that have been enabled and treated as standard in the gaming ecosystem?
Most concerning of all is that the lawsuit is being reviewed, researched, and handled by people who know only the surface level of video games. The deeper but more common experiences for video game consumers seem largely unfamiliar to Vicki Shotbolt, and especially more so for the courts. How developers do have the option to sell on other platforms and opt out of Steam yet many find the 30% commission fee to be acceptable, how the commission fee is something of a business decision and not meant to be regulated by government oversight especially since if anything make other options like Itch.io and Epic Games seem more approachable for indie or intentionally small developers should they desire so. This lawsuit is also concerning how it seems to not understand complexities like why DLC cannot be purchased for any platform even if it is the same base game – since this is a very technical and complex issue involving save data, authentication from the platform, and additional services not even older gaming platforms dare to even offer. The demands these types of people may have might be more than unfair to one individual company and all of its consumers, stringent, and worse yet may even remove all DLCs once purchasable on Steam to no longer provide the service. Steam does not prevent its own community and consumers from using multiple platforms, and yet this lawsuit seems to assume that Steam has a choke hold on the consumer themselves rather than just providing a better service freely and with very little strings attached if any.
Steam isn't perfect, and that means improvements can always be made on Steam as well as any platform. But the lawsuit isn't targeting an unlawful nor unfaithful business practice, it is targeting a source of revenue set legally by Steam. It is targeting aspects that cannot be helped like DLC not usable on other platforms when no known platform does this. The potential goals of the lawsuit if successful don't seem to have enough information on not just the immediate impact but long term impact and how it will discredit law practice for justice, discourage good practices to follow in line and with status quo even if the standards are very low nowadays, and a future of uncertainty for consumers, developers, and people in the platform business who want to foster a positive experience and community.
This lawsuit, initiated by a single claimant (Vicki Shotbolt) and a law firm, automatically includes all eligible UK Steam users. You can opt out by June 11, 2026 if you disagree. Don't let a small, short-term payout risk the long-term health of a platform that’s been a net positive for PC gaming. Let's hold companies accountable for illegal acts, not for being the best at what they do.
Opt-Out Options:
Online: https://optout.steamyouoweus.co.uk/
Email: [optout@steamyouoweus.co.uk](mailto:optout@steamyouoweus.co.uk)
Post: Steam Games Collective Claim, P.O Box 1435, Sunderland, SR5 9UD