Green Man Gaming CEO demands reform to stop digital game sales being monopolised

The CEO and co-founder of Green Man Gaming, the largest official third-party digital PC storefront in the world, is demanding major reform for how digital storefronts are regulated, claiming a small number of huge companies may be holding monopolies on the market in certain ecosystems.

Third-party digital retailers sell official game keys from publishers whereas first-party platforms, such as PlayStation, XBOX, Nintendo and Steam, are platforms owned and operated by specific publishers to sell their own titles and other games directly.

Steam "controls 74-75 per cent of the global PC digital distribution market", according to data from trend intelligence and strategic foresight firm Quantumrun Foresight.

And the options gamers have natively on consoles themselves are even more scarce.

There's only the PS Store available on PlayStation, the Microsoft store on XBOX consoles and the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo Switch 2 and original Switch consoles. No other options are accessible on the consoles themselves.

So if gamers buy a console and want to buy games digitally, the primary way which they're encouraged to do so is through the storefront that's accessible on that console (for example, buying games through the PS Store on a PS5) so they can download them directly and start playing them.

To note, that's for digital purchases made directly on consoles. Digital codes for these products can be bought from third-party retailers, either through other digital storefronts or codes in a box, and there are physical copies of games that can be purchased, which are more often than not from third-party retailers.

But the vast majority of digital game purchases to play games on consoles are made directly through that console's dedicated storefront.

One of the first-party platforms that is coming under increased scrutiny at the moment is Valve, which is facing a number of lawsuits at the time of writing.

There's one in the UK on behalf of 14 million UK gamers that alleges Valve of using its dominant market position to lock users into the Steam ecosystem and one in the US by the New York Attorney General that in-game loot boxes violate state gambling laws which Valve has hit back on.

In an update shared in March, Steam said: "The New York Attorney General recently filed a lawsuit against Valve claiming mystery boxes (like crates, cases, and chests) in some of our games violate New York gambling laws.

"We don't believe that they do and were disappointed to see the NYAG make that claim after working to educate them about our virtual items and mystery boxes since they first reached out to us in early 2023."

But Paul Sulyok, founder and CEO of Green Man Gaming, says both of these Valve lawsuits are "missing the point" and is demanding sweeping reforms to how these kind of platforms are actually regulated.

Speaking to Indy100, he said: "With PC, Valve has created an ecosystem, it is the biggest player in that ecosystem, and as the biggest player it has a responsibility for the entire ecosystem.

"What the lawsuits against Valve are missing is constraints on core competition. Valve produces the keys that are distributed to the publishers that are given to retailers.

"If Valve does not deliver the keys to the publisher or it creates an environment where the publisher can't take the keys, then it is acting like a monopolist which is a real problem for our industry as a whole.

"There is a whole slew of both British and US federal laws constraining the power of a monopoly within a certain ecosystem.

"I am an enormous fan of Steam, I think what Valve did when it launched the Steam platform with Half-Life 2 was basically create an environment, a community and an industry that didn't really exist before.

"But things have changed since then."

And Sulyok says it's not just Steam that's allegedly doing this.

Since PlayStation announced plans to discontinue physical discs for PlayStation games releasing from January 2028 onwards, there have been a number of lawsuits against Sony Interactive Entertainment, including from groups concerned the reduction in purchasing options will result in higher prices due to lack of competition and for Sony to be investigated by an antitrust commission.

The UK's Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) has even blasted this decision as "a triumph of corporate convenience over consumer choice".

Sulyok claims PlayStation, Microsoft and Nintendo are "all equally guilty of constraining access to products".

"There are two ways this can go," he said.

"Either the core first-party platforms, so PlayStation, XBOX, Steam and Nintendo, decide they want to go down the monopolistic route of their own platform, control the entire ecosystem and therefore weather the consequences of that.

"Or they open up and they allow real, fair competition by charging for services they give away for free, open up the system and, principally, open up the supply to publishers.

"At the moment, it's abrasive, it's a friction point on the industry and it does not allow creatives who are creating these products to maximise the impact of their product.

"I don't think there's an understanding of the video game marketing from senior legislators, I don't think they realise it's the $250bn industry that it actually is and I think that's a real problem."

A spokesperson for the UK Department for Business and Trade said: "We want to ensure platforms selling games thrive in a competitive market that works for gamers.

“That's why we have ensured the Competition and Markets Authority has the powers needed to investigate and address anti-competitive behaviour."

Indy100 has also contacted Valve, PlayStation, XBOX and Nintendo for comment but has not yet received responses.

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