If Valve puts these 10 bucks into their own pocket each time...
Yeah, right, and other companies are like charities and don't put anything in their pocket.
As far as I know from my discussions with independent developers Valve is pretty OK when it comes to their terms & conditions.
It wasn't meant in any bad way... it's just a clever move from Valve and everybody would do it the same way. I mean they add just 10 bucks and the people will still buy it. If you would increase the price of a game in the stores here by 10 Euros... the sales would definitly drop.
There are really great deals on Steam (like weekend offers). I bought Two Worlds for 10$ (was something around 7€ then) while it was sold in the shops here still for 40 euros... but I won't buy anything "blind" on Steam... it's just an alternative for me.
dude, don't feel screwed, a reseller over here who only sells over the net, mostly the cheapest games and such, sells it for 70 euros
For me, steam is cheap. With the dollar to euro ratio I'd be paying 48 euros for it, plus some currency change fee or some other bs. I'd say steam is cheaper then!
Dude 70???
The problem with the "other bs" is that our lovely 19% VAT can make quite a heavy impact on the price. :/