Definitional arguments are the least entertaining for anyone. So I’m sorry we have different definitions. Allow me to expand your quote from Wikipedia
“In law, a monopoly is a business entity that has significant market power, that is, the power to charge overly high prices, which is associated with a decrease in social surplus.[3] Although monopolies may be big businesses, size is not a characteristic of a monopoly. A small business may still have the power to raise prices in a small industry (or market).[3]”
In your opinion, can steam unilaterally raise the price of all games, and people will just have to accept it? If yes then sure it’s Monopoly.
If steam increases all game prices by 100%, and doesn’t give the developers a cut, I imagine we’re going to see people move to GOG epic etc.
I’ve never heard of this site before, but it compares prices against different game stores. So last of us part I, is available on a variety of different game stores, at different price points.
What would you call the 30% Steam tax, a justified price? Furthermore you can have a monopoly even if alternatives exist because especially at a certain size many of your users will be lazy and/or simply don’t care enough to switch. I like Steam and their service and prefer it over other storefronts except itch.io because they do a fantastic job and don’t act especially evil in most ways but I also aknowledge that a small developer essentially has to eat that fee. The only real competitor is Epic and that’s just a terrible user experience so many (including me) will rather buy a different indie game than use that and releasing a game on your own can be hard and expensive, well and also comes with less publicity because Steam is also a great way to get some promo.
Definitional arguments are the least entertaining for anyone. So I’m sorry we have different definitions. Allow me to expand your quote from Wikipedia
“In law, a monopoly is a business entity that has significant market power, that is, the power to charge overly high prices, which is associated with a decrease in social surplus.[3] Although monopolies may be big businesses, size is not a characteristic of a monopoly. A small business may still have the power to raise prices in a small industry (or market).[3]”
In your opinion, can steam unilaterally raise the price of all games, and people will just have to accept it? If yes then sure it’s Monopoly.
If steam increases all game prices by 100%, and doesn’t give the developers a cut, I imagine we’re going to see people move to GOG epic etc.
Update: https://www.cheapshark.com/search#q:The Last of Us Part I
I’ve never heard of this site before, but it compares prices against different game stores. So last of us part I, is available on a variety of different game stores, at different price points.
What would you call the 30% Steam tax, a justified price? Furthermore you can have a monopoly even if alternatives exist because especially at a certain size many of your users will be lazy and/or simply don’t care enough to switch. I like Steam and their service and prefer it over other storefronts except itch.io because they do a fantastic job and don’t act especially evil in most ways but I also aknowledge that a small developer essentially has to eat that fee. The only real competitor is Epic and that’s just a terrible user experience so many (including me) will rather buy a different indie game than use that and releasing a game on your own can be hard and expensive, well and also comes with less publicity because Steam is also a great way to get some promo.