I’ll start with a brief background. Recently, Valve updated the Steam Market policy: on some currencies, a lower price limit was introduced and the commission structure was changed. On one hand, I support the idea of slightly raising the minimum price, but the change in the commission structure seems unclear and unjustified 🤔.

Now we essentially have a destroyed market for low-priced items, inflated fees, and the removal of fractional pricing — which is extremely important because it allows users to set the exact price they want, not the one dictated by the company ⚠️. Valve should not have interfered with this aspect at all. I propose reducing the lower price limit, which was raised by 10 times — and on some currencies even by 100 times — as well as restoring the ability to use fractional prices. In addition, for all cheap Steam items, it would make sense to introduce a maximum price of 5 cents (or the equivalent in other currencies). Such a 2–3× increase is acceptable if the company wants to earn more from fees, but the commission rate itself must remain unchanged — 15% regardless of the amount, not based on the new tiers introduced by Valve. I can already predict that other third-party markets will now become more attractive, because Valve’s decision is extremely shortsighted and creates barriers, confusion, and a lack of desire to use the market or develop any projects within Steam 🚫.

I hope Valve reads this post and reconsiders this update, because this policy change is unnecessary at the very least. To be honest, this is one of the strangest decisions I’ve seen from a company that earns money on commissions yet seems intent on killing its own active market 😕. I call things by their names — and if someone doesn’t like it, that’s not my problem. I suggest doing the opposite of what the company has proposed 🔄