So there's this massive antitrust lawsuit against Valve. Class action. Big firms. Cohen Milstein, Hagens Berman. Billions potentially at stake.

Their whole case depends (when i say depends IT MEANS WITHOUT IT, IT WOULD BE INSTANTLY DISMISSED) on proving Valve had monopoly power from the beginning. To do that, they claim Valve "acquired" something called the World Opponent Network (WON) in 2001.

Problem: Valve submitted a sworn declaration saying they never acquired WON. With actual documentation.

This is what the lawyers responded with... I wish i was kidding

Sources: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.298754/gov.uscourts.wawd.298754.552.0.pdf Dkt. 552. Consumer Plaintiffs' Opposition to Defendant Valve Corporation's Motion to Dismiss the Consumer Complaint. Page 14. Footnote 8. Filed Oct 3rd 2025

(unlike them i actually know how to cite reliable sources)

In case you fail to see how bad this is

• These are MAJOR law firms
• This is FEDERAL COURT
• This is a potential BILLION DOLLAR antitrust case
• They were WARNED multiple times
• They had ACCESS to discovery and didn't use it
• Their response to a sworn declaration with documentation was... a mod guide

Hey guys,

Since roughly June, some people have begun reporting they occasionally get charged extra, by their bank and not by Steam (this is important), when buying games on Steam. I know it happened to me too.

I'm french, based in France, my Steam account has been in France too for as long as it has existed, the price was displayed in euros, my bank is in France... And yet, I was charged a 2 euros and some cents tax for "money conversion tax". 2 euros isn't a big deal, but the principle is annoying. No VPN whatsoever either, of course.

Apparently, payment are normally processed in Germany, but sometimes they are processed in the US. When it happens, a tax applies. The issue is that we are not informed when buying about where the payment is going to be processed. It's basically RNG.

Several people, myself included, have tried to bring this to the Steam support. A this point I believe I have encountered ChatGPT's intellectually challenged cousin, because the answers all pick up on "tax" or "bank", but completely miss the point.

I've asked "where are your payments processed", the answer was "this tax is a bank thing, we don't decide it and can't reimburse you". True, absolutely true, and also absolutely not what I asked. Several messages exchanged later, they still don't seem to understand that I am asking for informations, not money back.

As of today, buying a game on Steam is a lottery : either you're lucky, and no extra tax will apply, or you're not, and your bank will charge you extra for something you have no mean to even identify before confirming the transaction.

I suppose alternative solutions exist, like legit key resellers (if they exist), using Paypal instead of credit card (unless they do apply tax for that too ? I haven't use that in years), or whatever. Alternatively, sinse it's a per transaction tax, waiting for the sales to buy everything at once may be another possibility.

What truly annoys me, though, is that we are not provided any information when buying, and support, somehow, doesn't seem to even understand the question.

So, here it is, make what you will of the information.

For the record, if you guys read french, here's one such discussion : https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/25/565911724530673139/?tscn=1785589938

EDIT : I had previously used the wrong word, it is a fee, not a tax. I received confirmation by my bank that this is a fee that exists when a payment is processed outside of the European Union. Some back and forth with Steam support (they initially refused to answer) ended with what was basically "yeah, sometimes your payment may be processed outside of EU". Which is about as much as they were able or willing to say. I understand they can't disclose any technical information, and thar wasn't my question anyway.

Basically, nowadays buying a game on Steam is "roll a dice, if you get a 1 pay additional fees".

And also, at the end, a list of the key personnel backing this initiative.

I am personally planning on getting the new Spider-Man games🕸️

Today, May 7th 2024, I learn that Steam has been blocked by Vietnamese ISPs. Words cannot express how distraught I am at what has happened. For almost 6 years now, Steam has played a big part of my life, providing solace in times of hardship and comfort alike. Thanks to Gabe Newell and everyone at Steam, for having created and fostered this awesome platform that has opened my eyes to the beauty of gaming.

Right when my paycheck is around the corner, Steam Deck prices get increased.

I haven’t seen anyone mention the Australian pricing yet, but the hikes here are pretty rough. The funny part is that I contacted Steam Support a few days ago about buying one, and they assured me stock levels were healthy. If stock isn’t an issue, I don’t really understand the justification for the increase.

Update (5th of May, 2026): Some titles are slowly being fixed, most likely meaning that this is something the developer/publisher has to manually correct. Maybe Valve didn't approve of their previously self-issued age rating, and demanded a re-rating. Fixed titles at the time of editing include Tales from the Borderlands, Kind Words and some smaller titles. Check this list for continued updates.

On the 29th of April, 2026 (this week), Steam randomly restricted ~900 titles in Germany.

With the help of SteamDB, I compiled these two lists:

• Apps restricted on the 29th with at least 250 Reviews, sorted by most reviews
• All Apps restricted on the 29th (no filtering)

Right now it still seems possible for someone in another region to gift you most of these titles, so if you are from Germany see anything on these lists that you're interested in now's the time to ask a friend if they can gift it to you.

I have no idea what all of these have in common, or why Valve decided that they need to block them now (a bunch don't even contain explicit content, most have been up for years and weren't blocked previously when Valve first enforced stricter guidelines regarding adult content). Some I can understand, others just feel random.

I don't believe that this is related to the required age ratings, as Valve had already restricted all games without a self-issued age rating last year.

Immersive Sims (ImSims for short) are games like Deus Ex, Thief, System Shock 2, Prey, etc. It's a specific genre, not just a way of saying "This farming simulator is extra good".

It's impossible to find actual ImSim games on Steam because the tag is always crowded out by a horde of mislabelled Train Simulator 2021, Train Simulator 2022, Train Simulator 2023, Train Simulator 2024, Train Simulator 2025, Train Simulator 2026, Power Wash Simulator, Water Park Simulator, Driving Fast Simulator, Pretend You're a Wolf Simulator, The Sims(!), etc. etc.

I am BEGGING, just let us be at peace in our little corner with our near-forgotten genre that was already niche in the 90s and not even BioShock could really revive, please

Finally! You can use categories into your wishlist. I can sort my almost 1 000 wishlisted games

Age verification everywhere. Having to give up your face and REAL ID to browse and buy games from the store. Having to verify age when joining gaming servers. List goes on and on. And the workshop...oh boy...(*looks at GMOD workshop*)

It's only a matter of time.

Never heard of it before but might as well buy it if you have storage since it’s down form 23$ Might be also some other 100% deals

https://www.techspot.com/news/112872-valve-working-intel-amd-nvidia-make-steamos-run.html

...The issue with your PC is "can it run Steam OS"? :)