I’m a PC gamer and have been since I was a kid. It’s literally my number one thing I do when I have free time is get on some games and hang with the boys. It’s a big part of my life.
As game companies go, I don’t trust Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard, Bethesda, Sony, Epic Games… It’s a long list. Valve is the only company I even kinda trust (Which isn’t even that much these days). If Microsoft bought Valve I’d probably never buy a PC game again. Because all the companies selling them would be companies I don’t wanna give money.
But it’s not true that they were buying it so it’s a moot point. Just wanted to rant. :)
GabeN has pretty much all the moneys and doesn’t seem to be the kind of guy who needs a dick shaped rocket to feel like his daddy loves him. The only way Valve is going anywhere is after he kicks it.
Without digging too far, seems hit net worth is around $6 billion. Obviously that’s nothing compared to say Bezos but if he wanted to ride a dick-shaped rocket into space I’m sure he could arrange it. He does, however, own the sub that holds the records for deepest crewed dives in all 5 oceans: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSV_Limiting_Factor
As you said though, he seems to be pretty much chill and until the day he passes away I think Valve is safe. And that will be a sad day…
And he does invest heavily into Brain Computer Interface https://starfishneuroscience.com/team/
Preach on man… I feel the same way. If microshit bought Valve, I’d never buy another thing on the platform. And you could effectively forget Linux gaming as well.
If Microsoft bought Valve I’d probably never buy a PC game again. Because all the companies selling them would be companies I don’t wanna give money.
What about itch?
GOG is a subsidiary of CD Projekt (which I personally don’t trust after the disastrous release of Cyberpunk 2077, and the empty promises of bringing GOG Galaxy to Linux; they also stretch the definition of DRM-free in some cases).
I’m sorry…ppl thought this was real? They paid like 60 something billion for blizz. VALVE is EASILY worth that, if not double.
Also Gabe hates Microsoft, and Valve is a private company so he doesn’t have to sell.
I’m assuming there will be a willy wonka style competition to determine his heir any day now
If steam is included, 12b is a joke, if just valves game rights, meaning HL and CS, then the price is not THAT stupid (still quite).
Maybe this would be the way go get HL3, it would ofc be horrible cashgrab, but HL3 would be out.
Edit: bit details, in 2021 Valve had $10b revenue from steam, and $3b revenue from other sources (heh, source, get it)
Steam has to be worth a lot more than 12 billion.
Steam basically IS PC gaming, and probably has more active users than Xbox or Playstation, maybe even combined. There’s no way it’s worth any less than Activison Blizzard
Jesus christ what a nightmare suggestion. That would be the death of the last good site on the internet. The enshittification they would inflict upon us as they fire all the senior staff, “legally” and onesidedly change all the contracts you’ve signed without your consultation, prune content, discontinue support for features and gear (byebye linux users), and increase their cut of dev’s pie - it’d be truly legendary. Legenshitty, that’s how bad it would be.
That would likely also destroy the entire indie dev economy. I highly doubt Microsoft would price things in such a way that continues making it viable for small or single person development teams to make profit.
I’m sure the biggest reason they want to buy it is so they can try to put a stop to gaming on Linux. The prospect of putting windows-only anticheat in the steam client and steam runtime probably has Microsoft executives foaming at the mouth.
Meh, the world is hell, but the games are cool and you can always just steal shit from the people who obviously don’t deserve your money. Really, everyone ought to be doing that on principle, to help bring them down, but try explaining actual morality to the church crowd lol
“Valve would rather disintegrate than sell out” I think that was their answer to rumours of an EA acquisition of Valve, and it seems to stay true to this day
Bandcamp used to be like that, ultimately it is a fundamentally empty promise, someday sooner than you think it will happen to valve. Enjoy it while it lasts but lets keep a keen eye on the future.
Hopefully long down the road, it’s just especially after Bandcamp it’s fresh in my mind that this is never a guarantee.
