Is Steam becoming like App Store? We all use Steam daily, and it is great, but publishers side tells a different story.
Details emerging from the discovery phase of an ongoing class-action antitrust lawsuit against Valve have shed light on how aggressively the company has policed game pricing across the PC market. The most unique example involves Ubisoft and Rainbow Six Siege. Rainbow Six Siege is currently the only continues money maker of Ubisoft, update here and there some new operators and we are done. However, apparently it was nearly delisted from Steam.
A few years back, while Ubisoft was still running its UPlay storefront (rebranded to Ubisoft Connect in 2020), the publisher began marketing a cheaper $15 starter pack for the game exclusively through its own platform. When Valve discovered the lower price, it reportedly warned Ubisoft that every edition of Rainbow Six Siege could be removed from Steam "by end of day tomorrow" unless the situation was resolved, giving the publisher roughly 24 hours to act. This is serious threat and would collapse the player count of R6.
The Pricing Consistency Question
The core of the dispute came down to price parity. Valve objected to Ubisoft offering the game more cheaply on its own store than it was available on Steam, a scenario where Steam customers were effectively being given a worse deal than buyers elsewhere. Because Steam is the dominant marketplace for PC games, the threat of delisting carried enormous weight, since losing access to that storefront and its customer base would have meant a significant hit to the game's sales and visibility.
A Second Example: Warner Bros. and Shadow of War
According to reports, Rainbow Six Siege episode was not the only case cited. The same report points to a 2017 incident involving a giant like Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Middle-earth: Shadow of War. In that instance, a Valve employee informed Warner Bros. that preorders for the game had been removed from Steam after the Steam version was priced higher than the same game sold through other retailers. Warner Bros. executives reportedly moved quickly to address the discrepancy, again underlining how much a publisher stands to lose from disrupted Steam placement.
Valve's Position on Competition
These examples have surfaced as Valve faces broader accusations about its grip on the PC market, with the lawsuit drawing comparisons to the antitrust scrutiny aimed at the Apple and Google app stores. Valve co-founder Gabe Newell has pushed back on the monopoly framing, arguing that customers retain plenty of options. He noted that players can choose where they buy their games, whether on Xbox, Steam, the Epic Games Store, or directly from developers themselves. The company has long maintained that Steam operates in a competitive environment rather than a closed one.
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