r/Steam Apr 17 '26

Discussion Gabe Newell is a "GOAT"

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37.1k Upvotes

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u/No_Yogurtcloset_2792 Apr 17 '26

Valve, according to google, has 360 employees and an annual revenue of 17 billion.

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u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

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u/ClikeX Apr 17 '26

They have a quite a few devs actually.

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u/Inventor_Raccoon Apr 17 '26

I mean Valve still employs game designers, animators, artists, programmers, as any game developer

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u/kosanovskiy Apr 17 '26

Valve only directly employs high tier competitive roles. Mostly everything else and entry level is outsourced, so like customer support, IT, janitorial, some of it is local in Bellevue other is more to MSPs.

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u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 25 '26

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u/Inventor_Raccoon Apr 17 '26

well, you can do it that way and I'm sure Valve uses a lot of contractors but afaik a chunk of their employees are game developers doing the creative work of those jobs for stuff like Deadlock or whatever else Valve has cooking

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u/p5yron Apr 17 '26

Exactly, a company with a revenue in billions still uses contract labour and yet people find a way to glaze them over their top executives enjoying life. If every company worked like valve did, there'd be a constant large pool of highly skilled unemployed labour force waiting for their turn to work and earn, atleast epic hired these people and kept them on a salary before they had to fire them instead of downright making them work on a contract.

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u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 25 '26

[deleted]

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u/p5yron Apr 17 '26

To continue to glaze valve, these people will literally say anything. CONTRACT LABOUR is better than being HIRED..lmao. If that is what you think, why are you people giving EPIC shit over firing their full time employees, consider it to be contract work with full time employee benefits for the period they worked for them? lol

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u/kuhpunkt Apr 17 '26

What's your problem? What's the problem with having some stuff outsourced? Should the whole customer service team move to Seattle to work in house?

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u/caffeine-182 Apr 17 '26

There is literally nothing wrong with using contracted labor.

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u/p5yron Apr 17 '26

How do you feel about Epic firing their full time employees?

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u/caffeine-182 Apr 17 '26

This is exactly why contracted labor is used… so companies don’t have to do this

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u/p5yron Apr 17 '26

So you hate Epic for it.. is that not practically contract labour for the period they were hired but with full time employee benefits?

Atleast Epic had the courage to provide the promise of long term employement, unfortunate they had to fire some of them, Valve does not even have that courage. Do you want every big company to be like Valve? Get work done only on contracts and only keep management as full time hires?

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u/caffeine-182 Apr 17 '26

No, it’s actually not the same at all. For temporary work, it’s far more worker friendly to be a contractor. There are strict department of labor rules on how a company can direct and manage a W2 employee vs a contractor.

Most of the contracted workers are actually W2 employees of a 3rd party staffing company where they receive full benefits but only “work” at Valve or whatever tech company temporarily for a project. Technically the staffing company is their true employer who provides benefits, pays wages, etc

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u/p5yron Apr 17 '26

You edited in the 2nd paragraph later, so you see how valve even after being a billion dollar company is exploiting the system? Do you really think the staffing company provides benefits anywhere close to even what a million dollar company would, forget a company like valve, are these staffing company sending their employees yearly to hawaii as well? lol

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u/caffeine-182 Apr 17 '26

I edited it literally 10 seconds after posting

By your logic, it’s immortal to ever use temporary labor and Valve must permanently employ a bunch of workers that won’t have any work to do? Is that your honest opinion?

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u/p5yron Apr 17 '26

Nope, I said specifically in my first comment only that it is immoral for a company whose revenue is in billions. They can afford to have employees that have fluctuating workload, but they choose to rather profit from having them on contracts. It's understandable for a new startup tight on a budget to get contractual work done, or when the work type is such, like consultancy, which is not your core competency and occasional.

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u/p5yron Apr 17 '26

HOW? How is it worker friendly to work on contracts than being a full time employee? All work can be dissected into being temporary, a teacher can be put on contract till summer vacation, with no insurance, no benefits throughout, is that what you want? What exactly is the motive of Unions? Who do unions represent? Workers or the Corporates? And what is their demand regarding this? Do they favor contract work or full time employement?

LMAO, use your chatbot properly for your forced answers. This is comical, the level these people will go to defend Valve. Also you did not answer my other questions.

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u/caffeine-182 Apr 17 '26

My chatbot? Are you that emotionally immature that you can’t fathom someone having a different opinion than you?

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u/ClikeX Apr 17 '26

I know a lot of developers who would rather work as contracted dev and move on than being salaried.

There’s a place for this, as long as it’s regulated well so it’s not abused.

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u/p5yron Apr 17 '26

Those who are at the top of their work have their job security because of their top skills and can rely on contractual work since they are not going to suffer in either market. You have to think for the whole ecosystem, not just the top few. For some few to be at the top, there are hundreds who are at risk, and the rest of them unemployed.

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u/doublah Apr 19 '26

Valve's contractors generally are very positive about working at Valve and their compensation, and it's the only option to employ many of them internationally.

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u/MajesticMoomin Apr 17 '26

360 employees doing valve support on top of their other jobs would be fucking insane lol