637
Steam keeps on winning (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
343 comments fedilink hide all child comments

From the opinion piece:

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] [email protected] 142 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

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] 110 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Dude, he's 61. You guys are making it sound like he's as old as a presidential candidate..

[-] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

You don't need to be old to die tomorrow.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

True, but that's unrelated to people pretending that he's older than dirt 🤷

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

61 != 450,000,000

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yes its so damn bizarre. Every time talk about steam comes up, people start talking about how ancient Gabe is. What are they on? Lol

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It's probably teenagers talking. To them 61 IS nearing death.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

Long live the King!

[-] [email protected] 24 points 2 years ago

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.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

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

[-] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago

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

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

First time hearing about this. Hope it works out.

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

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

[-] [email protected] 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.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

So steam is a family owned company?

[-] [email protected] 16 points 2 years ago

Gabe is only 61. But based on his size he will probably go from health issues from that sooner than old age will get a skinnier Gabs.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

That’s because at a certain point things like this should just become services.

But that’s wildly against capitalists mindset so…

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

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.

Agreed, further the behavior of valve has to be understood like that of bandcamp before it was sold, an anomaly in a capitalist system that is vastly underperforming and dysfunctional from the perspective of those with money and power. It isn't, valve is doing great (so was bandcamp) but and I really want to stress this point for the naive gamers here who dont have a very well developed sense of the political realities of capitalism as an ideology (as opposed to some "natural order" of commerce or trade), it doesnt matter if valve is in its most profitable state right now. When it falls under the control of different rich business people it will immediately begin having its heart ripped out, rationality actually comes a lot less into the picture than you think if you believe in economics as a pure science rather than a belief system that uses more math and acronyms than most.

If there arent robust alternatives to valve then, it will be a big step back.

this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2023
637 points (95.4% liked)

Games

39758 readers
1502 users here now

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Rules

1. Submissions have to be related to games

Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.

This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.

2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil

No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.

We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.

3. No excessive self-promotion

Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.

This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.

4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts

This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you're submitting before posting to see if it's already been posted.

We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.

5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW

Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.

No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.

6. No linking to piracy

Don't share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.

We don't want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.

Authorized Regular Threads

Related communities

PM a mod to add your own

Video games

Generic

Help and suggestions

By platform

By type

By games

Language specific

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]