Last year, I pointed out how many big publishers came crawlin' back to Steam after trying their own things: EA, Activision, Microsoft. This year, for the first time ever, two Blizzard games released on Steam: Overwatch and Diablo 4.

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[–] echo64 292 points 1 year ago (110 children)

I know everyone loves Valve, but it feels super weird to be celebrating a monopoly so much and so ferociously. (I know Steam isn't a technical monopoly. We don't need to have that discussion)

Gaben is old, and he's gonna retire. It'll likely be a lot sooner than anyone here is comfortable with. When Valve gets sold, or even when gaben isn't in total control anymore, things are going to start changing, and there isn't going to be a healthy, diverse marketplace to soften that.

There is a very good chance that the PC platform will be a really horrible place because of the lack of consumer choice in which they can purchase and play games.

[–] [email protected] 142 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (17 children)

This genuinely doesn't get talked about enough. Steam is a private company and Gabe Newell seems to be the de facto "head" of the company, despite its famously "flat" management structure. There is no guarantee a new leader will have the same values or lead the same way. There is ripe opportunity for Steam to become a steaming pile of shit. I don't know about the exact ownership structure beyond Newell, but unless the employees are far more empowered through things like ownership stake in the company, new leadership could effectively destroy how things currently work at Valve to be replaced by any number of terrible business decisions.

Gabe is old as hell. It's coming.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Hopefully they have some sort of transition plan for who will take over when Gabe retires. As long as they hand the reigns over to someone with similar ideas and not some business type they could be fine given they are privately owned.

[–] cottonmon 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Has there been any news at all on who the potential successors are?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Read somewhere that his son who has a similar philosophy was going to take over

[–] cottonmon 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

First time hearing about this. Hope it works out.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Because nepotism usually works out amazingly and never goes badly. /s

[–] cottonmon 4 points 1 year ago

I looked it up and apparently Gray Newell doesn't work at Valve, so it's actually unlikely that he's going to be the successor.