The legal dispute between Wolfire Studios and Dark Catt Studios against Valve first started in 2021 and has since been granted class-action status. This was first reported by GamesIndustry.biz, where they stated that they saw a court document that shows the motion for class certification to be granted. United States District Judge Jamal N. Whitehead granted the motion. By doing this, it means that the antitrust lawsuit that was started by Wolfire Studios and Dark Catt Studios now has the potential to become a significantly larger dispute.
Wolfire first filed the lawsuit in April 2021, claiming that Valve’s commission is “an extraordinarily high cut,” constituting anti-competitive practices. The lawsuit also argues that Valve uses its dominance to “exploit publishers and consumers.” However, this claim was actually dismissed in November 2021. Once that happened, the developer decided to reevaluate, update, and adapt their arguments in May 2022. As this happened, VR game developer Dark Catt Studios also filed its own antitrust lawsuit in June 2021. Some of the claims they made were dismissed, but they were allowed to continue the lawsuit based on some of their claims that were found to have validity.
Since the lawsuits were so similar, a court order was then issued in July 2022 to confirm that both cases would be consolidated into one.
The document says that the class action will apply to any developers, publishers, or individuals who paid a commission to Valve in connection with a game sale. The class action refers to the 30% cut the firm takes from each purchase. The class action will be referring to the people on or after January 28, 2017.
Valve is not the only one who has been involved in a lawsuit for similar problems as of late. Sony is also involved in a class action lawsuit, as they removed the ability for retailers like Amazon, GameStop, or Best Buy to directly sell digital codes for PlayStation games. This led to a feeling that Sony was monopolizing the titles, and causing consumers to have to pay higher prices than they could have at an alternative retailer.
In the order, the judge has made the decision to deny Valve’s request to exclude the testimony of an expert. This expert is Dr. Steven Schwartz, who has called both studios to argue their case for them. In this case, Wolfire Studios and Dark Catt will both be the class representatives for the action.
At the moment, there’s no telling how long this class action will take, as the class action for Sony isn’t due to appear in court for a couple of years.
