Gabe Newell: The Next Videogame Billionaire?

[Owlslayer]

Awesome. We need more people like him. Not like him, but with such a mind. You know what i meant....

Dammit.

 

[ShakerSilver]

Good for him. Steam is easily the best gaming platform I've ever used, and Valve is quite an awesome company with all the great games they've released so far.

 

[Corpse XxX]

Newell should be given 20 virgins of his choosing for his efforts..

 

[theriddlen]

Think of how much chicken wings he can buy for this money!

 

[Therumancer]

Hey, despite my mixed opinions on Steam and not being a big FPS player all I can say is congrats. Good to hear he's doing that well.

I wonder if there will be an official annoucement when he hits the mark....

 

[Smooth Operator]

Ya that's all nice, now go put some of that money into Episode 3!!!1!

 

[Hashime]

It is probably because valve are the coolest developers around my case and point:

They are masters at keeping loyal customers and not being dicks.

 

[CarlMin]

Gabe Newell is ingenious. I really look up to that person.

 

[Souplex]

This is a sad day for gaming.
*Cries a single, manly Native American tear*

 

[Fuselage]

I think this demonstrates it well.

Spoiler

 

[Beryl77]

Well I just preordered Portal 2, so I just made him a bit richer.

 

[Vrach]

Good for Gabe, out of all the Developing companies Valve has got to be the best of them all.

70% protif margin on steam? With a profit margin like that, why wouldn't someone use steam to sell their game?

Because sometimes you don't want someone else's DRM restricting your game. But other than that, aye, Steam rocks

 

[wildpeaks]

This is a sad day for gaming.
*Cries a single, manly Native American tear*

Why ? :/

Is it bad that he succeds at promoting PC (and Mac) gaming without selling the company or going public (which would block its relative independance) ?

I mean sure, some may dislike Steam for various valid reasons, but overall, it had imho a beneficial effect: some may worry that they are so large that they shadow other similar digital distribution companies, but imho they increased the market visibility a lot, and the other companies also beneficed from that effect (even if I'm sure that now, they'd like to grab some bigger parts of the market), but that's fine, at least it's driving innovation further.

Personally, the only part I regret is that Valve still doesn't have more leverage to force the few remaining (largest) publishers to remove their additional redondant and frankly useless DRMs. They seem able to do in most cases, but large companies like Ubisoft seem still too powerful to be influenced.

(or maybe I'm just a crazy cynical idealist)(yes it's a strange combination

 

[Demonicdan]

I think he deserves success, who would you rather give your money Gabe or Steve Jobs?

 

[Irridium]

Publishers get a 70% profit margin?

So then why the fuck are digital prices on par with physical prices? If its cheaper to distribute, and earns more money, shouldn't the price of the stuff be a little lower?

 

[Low Key]

Publishers get a 70% profit margin?

So then why the fuck are digital prices on par with physical prices? If its cheaper to distribute, and earns more money, shouldn't the price of the stuff be a little lower?

Because when you factor in how much PC games get pirated, getting it for $10 less than console owners is a fair trade.

 

[Irridium]

Publishers get a 70% profit margin?

So then why the fuck are digital prices on par with physical prices? If its cheaper to distribute, and earns more money, shouldn't the price of the stuff be a little lower?

Because when you factor in how much PC games get pirated, getting it for $10 less than console owners is a fair trade.

They're starting to go to $60.

Well EA/Activision games are.

And besides, piracy is also big on consoles, so thats not that great of an excuse.

 

[Low Key]

Publishers get a 70% profit margin?

So then why the fuck are digital prices on par with physical prices? If its cheaper to distribute, and earns more money, shouldn't the price of the stuff be a little lower?

Because when you factor in how much PC games get pirated, getting it for $10 less than console owners is a fair trade.

They're starting to go to $60.

Well EA/Activision games are.

And besides, piracy is also big on consoles, so thats not that great of an excuse.

Pirating is about 1,000% easier on the PC.

 

[Irridium]

Publishers get a 70% profit margin?

So then why the fuck are digital prices on par with physical prices? If its cheaper to distribute, and earns more money, shouldn't the price of the stuff be a little lower?

Because when you factor in how much PC games get pirated, getting it for $10 less than console owners is a fair trade.

They're starting to go to $60.

Well EA/Activision games are.

And besides, piracy is also big on consoles, so thats not that great of an excuse.

Pirating is about 1,000% easier on the PC.

Still, there are better ways to go about combating piracy then stupid DRM and raising prices.