Page:Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Valve Corporation (No 3).pdf/16

 games from third party game developers. Instead, the game developers provide Valve with executable file software for the games to be uploaded in Washington State.

25 When a problem arises with a game developed by a third party, Valve often puts the customer in contact with the third party developer. If Valve ultimately chooses to give a refund to the customer, then Valve will ordinarily deduct the refund from the royalties which it pays to the third party developer.

26 The top three games developed by Valve are all multi-player games. They have a common theme of either battle (Dota 2, a free game), terrorism (Counter-Strike Global Offensive, priced at US $14.99) or shooting (Team Fortress 2, a free game). The consumer who downloads a free game commonly discovers that there are opportunities for purchases of digital items within the game.

27 The top three games developed by third party developers are Grand Theft Auto V (single or multi-player which needs no further description, priced at US $74.99), the Elder Scrolls V (a fantasy video game, priced at US $34.99), and Sid Meier's Civilisation V (a single or multi-player strategy game to become Ruler of the World, priced at US $69.99).

28 Apart from the approximately 4,000 games available for purchase or free download, the Steam Client also provides consumers with many other functions including friends lists, chat, user groups, community groups, Steam cloud, Steam music player, video driver updates, and user profiles. Valve's evidence referred to many of these other functions and many Steam products in detail. It is sufficient to observe that many of Steam's non-game offerings are very closely associated with Steam's core provision of games. Some examples follow.


 * (1) Steam Wallet, as I have explained, is a method of paying for Steam games.


 * (2) Steam subscribers can "create content" that can be used in Valve's games and sold to other subscribers, for which Steam receives a portion of the sale proceeds. Senior counsel for Valve gave examples of such content as a digital "hat" or digital "sword" (ts 199).


 * (3) Steam subscribers have a licence to make modified versions of Valve games and to distribute them for free.


 * (4) Steam curators are individuals or organisations who make recommendations to others about video games.


 * (5) Steam Wish list is an ability for subscribers to add games on to a wishlist.