Humble Bundle was in part the brainchild of Wolfire co-founder Jeffrey Rosen, who according to LinkedIn left the studio in 2011 to take on the role of CEO at Humble Bundle, which expanded to include a dedicated storefront in the Humble Store and a publishing arm called Humble Games. The company established and ran the first Humble Bundle back in 2010 before spinning out the project into its own entity. Wolfire itself has some digital distribution experience. It also notes that other "deep-pocketed" companies like EA, Microsoft, Amazon, and Epic have all failed to mount a sufficient challenge to Valve's dominance and "anti-competitive restraints," which Wolfire claims is evidence that Valve's monopoly power is "virtually impossible to overcome." The lawsuit also alleges that Valve has "illegally monopolized the market for PC desktop game distribution" through Steam, actively "distorts competition through the Steam Key price parity provision," and uses Steam's discovery algorithm in combination with its price parity requirements to "artificially inflate prices across the industry." "Valve abuses its market power to ensure game publishers have no choice but to sell most of their games through the Steam Store, where they are subject to Valve's 30 percent toll." ![]() Many other stores have tried to charge lower fees, in the range of 10-15 percent, but they have all failed to achieve significant market share," reads the lawsuit. "Valve is able to extract such high fees because it actively suppresses competition to protect its market dominance. Both Google and Apple have also made moves to reduce their revenue share for smaller developers on their respective storefront. Still, that 30 percent fee remains the standard for many Steam developers, and was until recently viewed as the industry standard until Epic Games moved the bar with the launch of the Epic Game Store, which offers developers an 88/12 percent revenue split. Microsoft also pledged to follow suit earlier this week, and said PC developers using the Windows Store will be handed 88 percent of revenue as of August 1, 2021. ![]() At $50 million in revenue, the split will then adjust to 80/20. As part of Valve's tiered revenue system, when a game makes over $10 million on Steam, the revenue share for that title will adjust to 75/25 on earnings beyond that point. Of course, it is possible for some big-earning developers to take a greater cut on Steam. The lawsuit is referring to the 30 percent commission that Valve levies at Steam developers and publishers, which according to the latest GDC State of the Industry survey only a small fraction of developers feel is actually justified. It claims that Steam owner and operator Valve currently dominates the distribution of PC titles, with approximately 75 percent of PC games sales flowing through Steam, and alleges "Valve uses that dominance to take an extraordinarily high cut from nearly every sale that passes through its store." The design of the game does have the potential to be something magnificent.The lawsuit was filed on April 27, 2021, by Wolfire Games and two other plaintiffs called William Herbet and Daniel Escobar, both of whom claim Valve's "anti-competitive practices" have led to them paying "supra competitive prices" for PC games. The concept of Overgrowth does excite those players who love the idea of ridiculous thought mixed in with serious prowess. It's fun to engage with, but it does get pretty easy a couple hours in. Whether you choose to go stealth with your bunny or totally tear the enemy dog apart - each and every way works. The combat is varied, providing some rewarding fights in various approaches. Having said that - if players can look past the many bugs littered throughout Overgrowth - it can be enjoyed. ![]() Let's not even talk about the animations - almost resembling test combat in pre-alpha builds of games. The dialogue never flourishes enough to create an intriguing storyline - and the visuals look incredibly dated for the time it was released. There are enough questionable traits about Overgrowth that make the game a little stale. A story that's taken out of a blockbuster martial arts film and gameplay that varies in combat style would make for a game to remember, right? You will play a bipedal bunny named Turner, who is trying to protect his fellow bunnies from being enslaved by cats and dogs - an almost fairytale-like ambiance. The narrative for the game is almost perfect, considering the category of the product.
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