• Hootwog@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Pretty sure generating buttloads of steam keys for resale on a different platform to keep valve from taking their 30% is a violation of steam’s TOS?

    • ashok36@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Nope. There’s rules about pricing parity but you can generate and sell as many of your own keys as you want.

      • miss phant@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        6 months ago

        You can’t actually, they won’t let you generate more keys if you sell fewer units through Steam directly (probably not 1:1, they don’t state precise numbers as it’s up to their discretion).

        • ashok36@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Here’s the relevant part of their website for reference:

          If you request an extreme number of keys and you are not offering Steam customers a comparable deal, or if your sole business is selling Steam Keys and not offering value to Steam customers, your request may be denied and you may lose the privilege to request keys.

          I find it hard to believe Sony would run afoul of these guidelines. I’m not sure what they mean by “if your sole business is selling steam keys”. Maybe referring to shovelware ‘developers’ that use steam for laundering money, if I had to guess.

          • msage
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            6 months ago

            But Sony would run afoul of these guidelines.

          • ChuckEffingNorris@lemmy.ml
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            6 months ago

            Parity in this case would likely mean nearly everyone just buys directly from steam. No doubt Sony would infect the gaming process by injecting their launcher no matter what you do, but steam will get their 30%.

            I don’t know what Sony could offer on their own storefront that plays well with parity rules to make people choose it over steam.

            But the thought of them operating their own store front and offering steam keys with every sale won’t happen. Valve have stopped that in the past.