Steam’s dominance in the PC gaming market may have been bolstered by aggressive tactics behind closed doors. Reports suggest the platform operator once threatened to remove Rainbow Six Siege from its service to pressure Ubisoft into compliance.
The gaming company’s internal dealings surfaced in a sprawling Bloomberg report. According to the publication, emails uncovered through an antitrust lawsuit against the Half-Life developer revealed multiple instances where Valve deployed aggressive tactics against publishers attempting to build up their own digital stores.
The report’s most striking example centers on Ubisoft, the publisher behind Assassin’s Creed, and its tactical first-person shooter Rainbow Six Siege. Undated emails tied to the episode indicate Valve employees warned they would pull the popular title from Steam. The alleged threat came after Ubisoft offered a cheaper $15 starter pack through its UPlay store. Valve reportedly gave the publisher an ultimatum: fix the pricing discrepancy or see Rainbow Six Siege removed by the end of the next day.
Warner Bros. Interactive also landed in Valve’s crosshairs. Kassidy Gerber, a member of Steam’s business team, allegedly reached out to the publishing division in 2017 regarding Middle-earth: Shadow of War.
Her message informed executives that pre-orders for the game had been wiped from Steam because the price was significantly higher than what was available at other retailers for the same version of the game. Warner Bros. Interactive’s then-president, David Haddad, reportedly got on the phone within hours to resolve the matter.
Further lawsuit filings claim Gerber later pushed back against the idea that Steam enforces pricing parity rules. During the proceedings, she stated:
I don’t really know what you mean by ‘policy.’ In general, I don’t feel like we have a lot of policies. That sounds kind of bureaucratic to me.
When confronted with one of her own prior statements suggesting otherwise, Gerber said she could not recall making those remarks.
Valve has faced mounting legal pressure throughout 2026. A $900 million monopoly lawsuit hit the company in January. February brought word that New York Attorney General Letitia James would sue over Valve’s use of loot boxes. The company issued responses to that suit in March and again in May.
Ubisoft, meanwhile, continues moving forward with its broader slate. The company has confirmed it is developing new titles for Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Ghost Recon due before March 2029.
