The European Commission launched an investigation targeting Valve’s Steam platform, claiming that multiple gaming publishers worked together to curb cross-border competition with regard to pricing.
As part of its investigation, the European Commission intends to promote a Digital Single Market Strategy that will ensure competitive pricing for digital content across several European nations.
The European Commission claims that Valve promoted price-fixing geo-blocking practices in collusion with publishers Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home Interactive, Koch Media and ZeniMax. The investigation specifically targets the usage of activation keys, which are required to authenticate and use Steam software upon purchase.
According to the European Commission’s initial report, activation keys also serve as a method to block consumers from purchasing digital Steam content at a discount from other regional storefronts. The Commission alleges that the practice breaches European Union competition rules by reducing cross-border competition.
“E-commerce should give consumers a wider choice of goods and services, as well as the opportunity to make purchases across borders,” said competition policy commissioner Margrethe Vestager. “The three investigations we have opened today focus on practices where we suspect companies are trying to deny these benefits for consumers.”
Vestager continued: “More specifically, we are looking into whether these companies are breaking EU competition rules by unfairly restricting retail prices or by excluding customers from certain offers because of their nationality or location.”
ZeniMax responded to the European Commission’s accusations in a statement sent to GamesIndustry.biz, noting that it intends to comply with the investigation.
“We understand that this investigation is part of a broader review of the sale of copyright content and goods (including TV, film and e-commerce),” ZeniMax’s statement reads. “We will be cooperating with the Commission to address any concerns and remain committed to ensuring that our consumers can freely purchase and download our games, subject to applicable legal or technical requirements that may apply.”
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.