they sell steam keys and do pay-what-you want bundles, meaning they have a minimum they aren’t willing to go under due to steam’s 30% cut.
also, this all started because humble was originally just the storefront for wolfire games, to sell lugaru and overgrowth, and they set it up because they thought steam’s cut was too big. mind, this was in like 2009 so there weren’t really any other big online retailers, but on the other hand steam didn’t offer anything special at the time.
the main thing is you can’t sell keys for less than what they cost through the steam store. if you have a non-steam version of the game you can sell that at whatever you want but apparently valve has been… “discouraging” that as well. it’s within their tos but there have been some underhanded tactics to stop it.
I’m not sure why the limit on steam keys is bad. Otherwise everyone could just undercut steam while paying them nothing and outsourcing the service cost to them.
But trying to dictate prices for other platforms is actual blatant anti-competitive behaviour.
welcome to humble bundle. ran by the guys suing steam for unfair business practices.
What’s unfair about steam for humble specifically?
they sell steam keys and do pay-what-you want bundles, meaning they have a minimum they aren’t willing to go under due to steam’s 30% cut.
also, this all started because humble was originally just the storefront for wolfire games, to sell lugaru and overgrowth, and they set it up because they thought steam’s cut was too big. mind, this was in like 2009 so there weren’t really any other big online retailers, but on the other hand steam didn’t offer anything special at the time.
Oh, it’s the 30% again.
I thought steam doesn’t take any cut from keys.Edit: Nevermind, they don’t.
the main thing is you can’t sell keys for less than what they cost through the steam store. if you have a non-steam version of the game you can sell that at whatever you want but apparently valve has been… “discouraging” that as well. it’s within their tos but there have been some underhanded tactics to stop it.
I’m not sure why the limit on steam keys is bad. Otherwise everyone could just undercut steam while paying them nothing and outsourcing the service cost to them.
But trying to dictate prices for other platforms is actual blatant anti-competitive behaviour.