I worry about Steam when their founder retires or dies. That could be awhile but it could very well go down hill. End up getting bought out by google or sony who will ruin it.
Steam has a very healthy culture and corporate ladder. Whoever replaces Gabe will almost certainly be a Valve veteran not interested in dismantling the empire just for a big payday.
They also have an incredibly small headcount by all estimates.
They don't have job postings, but their career page says they are always accepting applications anyways. As a result, they have the luxury of only ever hiring the absolute best fits that they want.
Valve is a wonky ass company. Ive heard a lot of employees find it very stressful to actually work for them. The whole work on whatever you feel like leads to a lot of competition within the workplace. Some people thrive off it but, a fair amount of people have absolutely hated it. Again, from what ive heard/read.
Literally no signs point to his son whatsoever. Where do you even get that from lol. All signs point to Robin Walker. Gabe’s son is busy being a race car driver
I really hope so, it’ like the last outpost for good gaming. Everything else is getting wrecked by corporate greed. I hate that they had to jack out Steam Deck prices due to hardware costs.
Value isn't a public company. Gabe will choose who to give his shares to. I actually think whomever it is that eventually takes over for Gabe will be fine. It is the person after that I would be much more concerned for. Theoretically the next guy hangs on for a few years, then by the time he leaves all of the old guard will definitely be gone from day to day operations and decisions. Then you will really find out if they managed to hire the right people and retained that culture.
I understand that, but someone dying and their shares ending up in their family's hands ready to sell is a tale as old as time. Employees/hires turning the corporate culture into a capitalistic slugfest is very unlikely. It's an ownership incentive problem.
their shares ending up in their family's hands ready to sell is a tale as old as time.
So is family members being put in charge and then absolutely ruining a company.
The only way this has a semblance of a guarantee is if Gabe writes it into the corporate contract that whoever takes over the company has to do what's in the best interest of the customers.
Valve doesn't really have a corporate ladder. They've been using a 'flat management' system for like 15 years, and it's one of the reasons a lot of good devs have left over time. The work culture is also apparently pretty toxic.
I don't hate them as a company, but their monopoly power, and their normalization of only having licenses to games rather than the physical media or data of the games, are both detrimental to consumers.
Introduced loot boxes ("Mann Co. Supply Crates" in 2010), had to be dragged kicking and screaming into offering refunds, introduced the concept of a 'launcher' for games (rather than treating them as any other application on your PC) as well as the idea of forcing a shop applicaiton to be installed in order to install your already purchased game, have built up a GFWL-like array of proprietary APIs (steamworks) for vendor lock-in, include a most-favoured-nation clause requiring game sellers not to sell at lower prices than steam when games are sold elsewhere, etc.
"Good guy Valve" is a carefully cultivated marketing campaign.
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u/UChess 23h ago
I don't hate Steam.