Previously, the Valve executive has stayed away from the trial because of health concerns regarding COVID, but now he has no excuse: he has to attend the proceedings in person.

In the US District Court for the Western District of Washington on November 16, Wolfire Games said that Newell is uniquely placed to testify on all aspects of Valve’s business strategy, and that his presence in person would be sufficient to test “Gaben’s” credibility. Newell has so far preferred to testify only from a distance because of his concerns about the pandemic, but this time there is no way around it.

The court argues that Newell has not presented sufficient evidence that he is at risk of serious illness, so he has essentially been subpoenaed to be there. True, everyone has to wear a mask, but Newell will be required to remove it when answering questions (which is why Wolfire Games said it would pass a credibility test during his questioning).

But let’s talk about Wolfire Games: they launched an antitrust case against Valve in April 2021, alleging that Newell’s company is using anti-competitive practices. The 30% profit margin was the main problem (this is a common rate in litigation, for example Epic Games complained about it in the Apple and Google cases), and the developers believe that Valve is exploiting its dominance to squeeze a significantly high profit margin from almost every sale. The application was rejected in November 2021, as the judge who issued the decision found that the complaint did not present sufficient allegations to show that an antitrust situation had indeed occurred in the market.

However, in May last year, Wolfire Games tried the case again, and we have not yet heard about the verdict (which is why Newell has to be present; he has no recourse at this time). If there is a verdict between the two sides, we will certainly cover it in the news.

Source: Gamesindustry