Same tbh, I don’t want to see it but I think it’s a hard pill to swallow that eventually it’s gonna go down the same route other massive companies have. It is amazing it held up so well this far, probably thanks to Gaben himself.
My biggest fear is steam workshop tbh. So many games depend on it that it’s become synonymous with modding for many users, which hurts games not on steam or mods not on the workshop. I know I’m preaching to the choir here but such massive centralization and monopolization can’t be good. Especially since the steam workshop isn’t even that good - it lacks many features that other mod portals or managers have, like version control, preset switching, virtual installs, or even something as simple as mass subscribe/unsubscribe or a sortable list.
I don’t think we have anything to worry about with Steam. It’s privately held, so they aren’t bound by investors or shareholders squeezing them to wring out infinite growth and ROI every quarter
Valve has a pretty unique flat structure that could protect them from a corporate buyout, even more if Gaben decides to transfer ownership into an employee trust and turn it into a full co-op when he leaves.
Same tbh, I don’t want to see it but I think it’s a hard pill to swallow that eventually it’s gonna go down the same route other massive companies have. It is amazing it held up so well this far, probably thanks to Gaben himself.
My biggest fear is steam workshop tbh. So many games depend on it that it’s become synonymous with modding for many users, which hurts games not on steam or mods not on the workshop. I know I’m preaching to the choir here but such massive centralization and monopolization can’t be good. Especially since the steam workshop isn’t even that good - it lacks many features that other mod portals or managers have, like version control, preset switching, virtual installs, or even something as simple as mass subscribe/unsubscribe or a sortable list.
I don’t think we have anything to worry about with Steam. It’s privately held, so they aren’t bound by investors or shareholders squeezing them to wring out infinite growth and ROI every quarter
The bus factor of that is 1 though. If Gabe Newell gets hit by a bus all bets are off.
Valve has a pretty unique flat structure that could protect them from a corporate buyout, even more if Gaben decides to transfer ownership into an employee trust and turn it into a full co-op when he leaves.