They don't need your recognition though, I think the $500m yacht says enough.

Network effects and chill?

It's like he said decades ago, or near decades ago. Piracy is a quality of service problem. When you do the right thing the right way, people will come and you can make a shit load of money. Same thing like you said about SteamOS. They didn't have to make it open, and could have made money, but the ecosystem that can be built around an open platform, and the people you can draw to it are going to be miles better than a closed system where thats the mindset from the top.

There are a lot of things governments are not doing that people with money do that benefit everyone and that's a good thing imo. Governments want to be liked and be re-elected by the mass and that means doing the things a lot of people care about wich is a good thing too. A lot of good is also being done in the world not by billionaires or governments but by groups of people with goals that asks for funding from average people and rich people to reach their goals. I will always applaud people for doing good things. That doesn't mean i can't be very critical when they are doing bad things. As far as i know the boats gabe newell is buying are for research and not to chill and have parties.

That wooshing sound you hear is the point going over your head.

Valve is notably better (not good, but better) than the other companies you've listed. That is, of course, an anomaly. A good monarchy lasts only as long as the monarch. A good company that exists for longer than the average human lifespan will quickly become no different from its peers.

I love you

I still don't get why people go to bat for valve, despite all the anti consumer shit they regularly do.

I've read horror stories on how valve is run. It's flat amongst the average dev, but they still get those scary phones calls from wherever other location the management works in where they randomly cut projects and dozens of jobs at any time.

And I mean Gabe is overseeing the Valve team's success, allowing his employees to develop at their pace and following what appears to be their passion. They aren't shoehorning AI or whatever the latest buzzword to goose some imaginary number. Gabe was pissed at Windows enough, he used to work for Microsoft, so he's instrumental in helping break Microsoft's monopoly on gaming operating systems by supporting Linux compatibility and releasing first party hardware. He deserves credit for the culture he cultivates in his company and shares in its success. Likewise, shame should be where shame is due, like with the whole lootbox gambling economy thing. The main reason why it is viewed as refreshingly good is because they seem to be one of the few big companies that still believe that profit growth comes from valuing employees, suppliers (gamedevs) and consumers, rather than trying to squeeze every last drop of profit no matter how cruel. It should be the norm yet it seems to be the exception. It would be nice to have no billionaires, but right now we live in a world where government [tells states to clawback aid they gave to hungry families](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/11/10/federal-judge-snap-recipients-state-provided-benefits/87194473007/) so taxing the rich, or acting in any way that resembles normalcy, is a lot to expect right now. We can let Gabe make a silly luxury purchase. If Valve burns the trust it has earned, then I will move away from them too, I don't owe Gabe or Valve anything.

Gabe is a pretty good billionaire. He has made a lot of people happy. He doesn't spend his money trying to manipulate society. I think Gabe deserves a new yacht.

And how much would Half-Life 3 cost to develop?

True that text is small files, but some Skyrim saves are easily in the dozens of MB for example. I'm sure you multiply that by millions and it adds up. Surely them needing to store many copies of the game files themselves is a larger file size footprint for them though.

Like what?

No, I'm explicitly rejecting your point.

I agree they're better. I am also blinded a tad, they made Team Fortress 2, my all time favorite game. But they're better for now. There's nothing stopping them from changing their ways when Gabe retires/dies. Maybe they have a private agreement/contract for the next guy to abide by. Maybe they don't. All I know is, Valve is mostly good right now. All major players in the tech space had *some* good intentions at one point (except Facebook). Google used to be about finding content on the internet quickly, easily, and without ads. Now they hide content, spam you with ads and fake overviews, and fight ad blockers. Let's not forget Valve started the microtransaction hell of gaming with their crates in Team Fortress 2. It worked so well they made the game free for more people to buy more crates. Blizzard's Overwatch didn't make you buy a key to open them, Valve still does. Will Valve turn evil overnight? Probably not. But when Gabe is gone, the next billionaire will be as greedy to start with. They're far from the greediest gaming company, but they probably won't roll back any of their percentage cuts or ease off on the gambling in their games. And I'll just have to sign and shake my head as I told people that trusting a company you like remaining a company to like isn't a good thing in a world like ours.

StarCraft was one of my favorite games growing up. I can still quote most of the Terran units. I don't know when or where to say they officially went from "Good with issues" to "Bad with some good games". Doesn't help they ignored their work culture for over a decade.

How? All you're really doing here is stereotyping rich people. For example, Americans are generally fat (higher obesity rate than much of the world), but that doesn't mean *all* Americans are fat. To determine whether a random American is fat, we need to actually look at them, not just know their nationality.

I'm not giving Valve recognition, I'm recognizing that Valve offers good/useful products and services. Maybe I should have said "acknowledge" instead of "recognize", but you're saying something different than me.

I do think Gabe has good intentions at least... But... Well... I've never played resident evil, but I've read plenty of cautionary sci-fi tales