Might just pressure publishers to release DLCs before they're ready.
probably. Valve is clearly telling them to simply not have a season pass until they'ee confident they can actually release the content. But studios of course won't listen.
I do like the sound of this rule change, and it is funny watching Gaben use his monopoly power as the sole functional digital storefront for PC games to fuck with publishers. This does make me wonder, though, if this wouldn't lead to a more concerted effort by AAA studios to back a different distributor, cause if there's anything that Capitalists despise, it's being told what to do with their Capital.
It could, but there's "room" for this sort of thing as long as valve spends their political capital wisely. Now they need to lay low for a few years.