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Gabe Newell caps off Steam Machine week by taking delivery of a new $500 million superyacht with a submarine garage, on-board hospital and 15 gaming PCs
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I think the underpaying would be not having nearly as many employees as similar sized companies. They could have several divisions producing games while also developing their hardware and software. He has been happy to make changes at a slower pace while their store keeps taking large cuts of each sale.I suppose so, but maybe they don't want to grow too large. Microsoft absolutely devouring studios the last few years has not produced any truly great games. Valve clearly know how to make a good game still, when they want to.
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Erik Wolpaw, who wrote Portal, was absolutely a Valve employee by that time already though, and *very arguably* the writing is what made the game so special. The team developing it wouldn't have had Wolpaw as a pull for a writer without being acquired by Valve.Well, I agree that the writing is really good. But the gameplay hook is what really makes it a great game tome.
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30% is too much! Clearly Steam doesn't need that much to operate (the percentage of each sale that go to Valve)
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that moment when the One Good Billionaire
casually orders a boat that costs several times more money than most of us will ever see in our lifetimes 
i get that there's worse out there but i'm tired of people acting like newell is a saint... he's just another billionaire.Tbf gabe has been pushing for ocean exploration for a long time since we barely know our oceans and he has the money to fund that. Very cool stuff normal people can't do. -
Tbf gabe has been pushing for ocean exploration for a long time since we barely know our oceans and he has the money to fund that. Very cool stuff normal people can't do.The governments of normal people could be doing it but the money is going to billionaires instead.
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>Like being able to return games? That was to comply with an Australian law, and it was just easier to implement it for everyone than just do it for Australia specifically. Well you say that but Sony also has an online game marketplace that operates in Australia. I don’t know how it works in Australia, but in the U.S. their return policy is not nearly as generous as Steam’s. In fact it Sony’s return policy only really exists on paper. In reality they don’t really do returns at all.I agree, it's easier to do it worldwide, but that doesn't stop companies from writing extra code to comply with local restrictions only locally. Look at all the US companies where their websites function differently if you are in california or not. It was a law, but they were by no means forced to be good about it and let everyone in the world benefit.
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I agree mostly, but Valve employees are reportedly paid an incredible amount of money compared to the market average, so underpaying would probably only refer to the hefty (but industry standard) 30% cut of game sales they take from game publishers.I've been told over and over again that Valve *needs* that 30% and they can't possibly do all that they do with a lower margin. Clearly hosting some files, hosting a forum, processing payments, etc is about ONE THIRD of all the talent and effort that goes into creating a game.
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While all that is indeed good, we shouldn't *have to* rely on the benevolence of the wealthy to be able to have a better world. No offense, but that kind of stuff should be paid for by *taxation.* He is doing some good here, but it's also his pet project, his choice where the money goes, no one else, no input from society at large. It's still overall not a real great thing, because it means that we have to just *hope* that billionaires have pet projects that help society and the earth at large.The situation sucks, but I guess we have to count our "wins" these days. If this money he is using to advance marine science was taxed, I guarantee it would be given straight to the US Military for creating more weapons of mass destruction. A lot of things need to change in this world.
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Whether the concept of billionaires is bad is irrelevant when deciding whether one specific billionaire is bad.It seems really really relevant though...
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I think the underpaying would be not having nearly as many employees as similar sized companies. They could have several divisions producing games while also developing their hardware and software. He has been happy to make changes at a slower pace while their store keeps taking large cuts of each sale.More developers doesn't always means faster shipping of products, but it can lead to disconnected and soulless releases. Valve only release something new when it makes sense to or they have an innovation that means it makes sense to. They don't really work at a slow pace in my opinion, it's just you may not always see constant changes in one part of their products all the time because of how the engineers work (freedom to work on whatever). Probably for the best they aren't hiring thousands of people to pump out random stuff that is only there to make money. They make stuff that makes sense.
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that moment when the One Good Billionaire casually orders a boat that costs several times more money than most of us will ever see in our lifetimes
i get that there's worse out there but i'm tired of people acting like newell is a saint... he's just another billionaire.
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People need to remember a lot of the pro-consumer things that Valve has ever done were things they were forced to by regulation. Like being able to return games? That was to comply with an Australian law, and it was just *easier* to implement it for everyone than just do it for Australia specifically.I think we're just at a point where a company not constantly trying to find ways to squirm out of every single thing is a breath of fresh air. "Hi! We're valve. We're mostly following the law without fuss, mostly make money by getting people to buy things they want, and our excessively wealthy owner acts like a preposterously rich person, not a comic book villain: Fantasizing about living his life isn't deeply concerning. The hardware we sell isn't deliberately worse for consumers to no benefit to ourselves" -- Hands down one of the best "big" companies out there.
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Fucking disgusting. There's no way to be a billionaire while not being a total shitstain that just sucks the society dry.
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I've been told over and over again that Valve *needs* that 30% and they can't possibly do all that they do with a lower margin. Clearly hosting some files, hosting a forum, processing payments, etc is about ONE THIRD of all the talent and effort that goes into creating a game.Lol yep they're an extremely wealthy company with that 30%. But it seems like almost every other storefront operates under those margins for digital sales (not just in gaming). I do value the cloud saves, I think those would actually add up a bit for their storage requirements as well as hosting all of the game files in presumably many locations globally. 15%, they'd still be a multibillion dollar company
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In general, I think being decent to customers is a business strategy, because the barrier to entry for a Steam competitor is nearly non-existent, and there's always piracy. Still, capitalism working the way it's "supposed to" is still capitalism.
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that moment when the One Good Billionaire casually orders a boat that costs several times more money than most of us will ever see in our lifetimes
i get that there's worse out there but i'm tired of people acting like newell is a saint... he's just another billionaire.
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This is that research vessel he talked about a while back. >Leviathan has also been designed with scientific work in mind: Newell's interests now include Starfish Neuroscience, a company focused on neural interfaces (popularly known as "brain chips"), and Inkfish, a marine research operation. Part of this is a "convention-defying layout" that apparently brings teams together, which makes me think about all the times I've read about desks with wheels at Valve.
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People need to remember a lot of the pro-consumer things that Valve has ever done were things they were forced to by regulation. Like being able to return games? That was to comply with an Australian law, and it was just *easier* to implement it for everyone than just do it for Australia specifically.While I won't defend that he could be much more altruistic with his money, but complying with different refund laws at a digital level is super easy to do. Even more so for Australia, since it isn't like anyone bouncing between country borders all the time there.
