I'd say Valve controls more than 75%, since it also dictates terms to GOG and others because of integration and such.

no, it is because monopoly has several different definitions, so it depends on which one you use. What you are quoting here is what some legal jurisdiction are calling "Monopoly Power", and depending on arguments this can go down to even market shares of less tthan 50%, in the UK, for example, a company can have "Monopoly Power" at a 25% market share.

However, the definition of the word monopoly means "single sell" and in the strictest sense means a market with a single seller. In economic terms, this is called a "Pure Monopoly".

So in a sense, what you are talking about is not "Monopoly" but "Monopoly Power"

The lawsuit would of course make a conservative estimate that they can definitely prove in court. We might look at an even higher share of the market.

If people think that google has a monopoly in search engines, Amazon has a monopoly in online stores, then yes, Valve has a PC games monopoly.

...

...

... I just love this lawsuit. It essentially reiterates what I've been screaming at the top of my lungs for the past 12 years.

Thanks AB2012, very informative post as usual.

I was not actually trying to imply that you should test everything, merely curious as to how one could go about testing their own libraries. I think I have enough to go on now, thank you.

Whilst I don't have anything to test them against, I have noticed a few games gog games that seem to have very long start up times indeed, if it is of any use to you or others.

As you suspected, Deus Ex Mankind Divided takes ages to load up (I have just finished playing this in fact). I had actually noticed this before this thread but put it down to me having an old machine. Usually pressing escape, return, space etc can get you through the initial splash screens, but not with this game. Probably the ghost wrapper, though I can't confirm for sure.

Now that I know what I am looking for I suspect another two games that I currently have installed: Prey and Xcom (fireaxis). Can't be sure but they fit the startup times you mention. Again. never really gave it a lot of thought until I saw this thread. I am using the long war mod with Xcom though so even less sure on that one.

Anyway, a far from ideal situation, let us see what gog intends to do about it.

I read that as well. Even here in the US, it can be considered monopoly power at less than 50%. So technically steam is still monopoly or monopoly power like you said.

It depends. it doesn not automatically appliy, and where it becomes murky. it depends on the market itself and the other actors within that market. (i.e. if thre is only 3 actors in the market, then a 33% market share is an equal distribution, and you cannot have Monopoly Power at 25%)

just keep in mind that "Monopoly Power" is not the same as "Monopoly". So while it can be argued that Steam has a "Monopoly Power" due to its large market share - it does not have "Monopoly", as there are other sellers in the same market.

I'm not sure if anyone else has replied, but top of my head.

Have Galaxy leave a registry entry (and remove on uninstall) saying "Galaxy Installed = TRUE"

And have the wrapper check the local registry before trying to communicate with a client that might not be installed.

Reminds me of google. Google pays Firefox/Mozilla enough money to make them both able to sustain and be crappy enough to not be a competitor. All to avoid an antitrust situation. If anyone thinks different, nobody pays an enemy for the fun of it. Food for thought.

I doubt steam is considered singular in the market, just because it is popular. They have competition. Just not a lot.

Can people please remember when Microsoft was labelled a Monopoly it had direct competition from these Billion dollar corporations

IBM
SCO
HP
NOVELL
SUN MICROSYSTEMS
APPLE

No one was going "but but but..." back then

Don't forget how Intel handily killed off several microprocessor architectures with their malicious incompetence!

It is not my fault that people are labeling things wrongly.

Just to iterate:

Monopoly - single seller within the whole market / a company has 100% conentration of the market
Monopoly Power - a single company / seller is dominant within a market (as said before, this can be as low as 25% of the market)

It was a response to the post that said "Which is consider a monopoly. But people will keep denying it.". If somone says "Steam is a monopoly" and someone else responds with "No, they are not", then they are correct - because Steam has Monopoly Power, it is not a Monopoly.

and just to be clear, it does not change anything - it is clear that Steam do have monopoly power. but that does not change the usage of the terms.

I appreciate the microeconomics and legal nuance. However, I believe when people that aren't economists or lawyers talking about "monopoly", they're referring to their market share and anti-competitive practices. If Steam has this alleged 75% of the market share and they're not doing anything to make their services and/or prices more competitive for devpubs, then they are a monopoly in everyday language.

They are price setters (30% for first $10M USD to 20% sliding cut) and because of their market share, they don't feel obligated to lower their cuts even if they can do so because Epic (~2.4%) and GOG (~0.15%) are small fry compared to them. When devpubs look at Steam, their market share, DRM, workshop, forum communities, Proton/Linux support, controller remapper, etc., Steam is more attractive than both Epic and GOG simply by their experience and economies of scale.

It becomes even more painful when we know GOG charges the same 30% cut and both devpubs and customers don't get much in return even with the context of market share; that is why I believe it's crucial for CDP management to make it as hassle-free to distribute here as possible. Otherwise, other stores like Ubisoft store are starting to carry 3rd party games and it won't be long until they surpass them.

and thats all fine and good, and yes I know that colloquially most people will conflate monopoly and monopoly power into a single concept. (this happen all the time in all fields, for example "gravity is a force", which it is not ).

However, my point so far has been, and this does not change with your reply either, is that when somebdy says "Steam is a monopoly" and someone else reply "no, they are not" - then they are correct.

and that still does not change my point