When I first glanced at the title, I got excited because I saw Steam Machine and $500. 😔
He’s come a long way on the last decade.
I suppose we can be reassured that the Obscene Yacht industry is still going strong despite the cost of living crisis.
Pretty sure we’re all wasting our lives serving capital in order to keep the obscene yachts on the seas.
USA should be more honest and switch from GDP to GOYP.
Why is everyone acting surprised, this has been Gabe’s thing for a long time? He’s super into boats and submarines and owns a submarine company or something like that. i think I’m burned out from the news cycle, getting outraged by this just feels like a waste of my emotional energy that I could spend somewhere it will matter.
Because a lot of them are bots hoping to hurt valve’s hardware line. Not sure if it’s Microsoft or Epic Games that’s paying for them, but you can tell both are getting panicked about the announcements and are splashing money around.
Rich man buys rich people stuff. Wow that’s crazy news.
Never stops being disgusting.
Based gabe
The materials were also chosen with an eye on reducing maintenance and repetitive tasks for the yacht’s staff, so traditional materials like teak decks and wooden handrails are out, and composite alternatives are in. The diesel-electric power plant works alongside a battery storage system that allows Leviathan to operate for long stretches with no emissions, and it also features an advanced wastewater treatment system.
On the one hand, it’s nice that mr Newell seems to be reducing the footprint of their luxury yacht above and beyond most of what I have heard happens in the rest of the luxury yacht industry. On the other hand, I shudder to think of what the footprint for the manufacturing of this custom-designed, one-of-a-kind luxury yacht looked like. Not to mention ‘composite’ usually means some sort of plastic, so now there’ll be one more thing spewing microplastics directly into the ocean…
This is the entire point of capitalism. The greatest system ever. Literally enslaving humanity and destroying the planet…
“composite” is also one of the default materials in modern boat building (fibreglass)
That’s more common in new high-end luxury yachts, it’s a benefit to the guests as well (prob the main motivation?).
Ugh. Why are people like this?
Lifetime of indoctrination into disgusting ideologies.
Gross.
Why not to spend this money on charity? Or a political party who oppose fascist? Or, heck, spend it for weapons for Ukraine! I don’t understand.
Two of your goals are mutually exclusive
Which goals, donating money to charity and opposing fascism? Or opposing fascism and supporting Ukraine?
It’s impressive you can still type with Putin’s cock constantly in your hands
Now, now. Don’t be mean. I an sure they know how to use their mouth, too.
I don’t get the reason for the homophobic attack, but sure, buddy. Putin is a fascist BTW, but arming fascists just because we hate some other fascist more isn’t a good idea.
How is it homophobic? If Putin were a woman I’d have said you have your fingers up her wahoo. No difference.
It’s a homophobic attack linking that to submission and ownership
WHAT
This yacht is a research vessel. Not necessarily a party-hookers-drugs vessel.
Yeah, sounds about right for the state of “science”.
This is like the lie kids tell their parents every time its new PC time for back to school.
“I swear mom! The GPU is for school work!”
Sure thing, bud
It’s… For science!
What is it with millionaires and yachts?
I hate boats, even on a calm day in a lake which is only about 2 m deep I’m constantly convinced the damn thing is going to sink.
Do people actually like being on boats, it’s basically like being in a cramped apartment that is really inconvenient to get to and from, that constantly experiences a never-ending earthquake, why is that anyone’s idea of a good time?
Also I really hope somebody has tested that submarine extensively.
International waters <–> pedos
I dunno about every other country, but age of consent legally applies to US citizens while abroad. I’m sure it’s easier to get away with, but it doesn’t make one immune to the law.
It’s the new fancy castles.
The most you can get detached from the pleb.If you wanted a huge luxury castle you needed the resources of maybe hundreds of villages and a staff of hundreds just for regular upkeep (you had to make all the products needed locally, from cleaning supplies to masonry, etc).
But today building a home for 1bn (that’s basically a limit of sorts, -ish) that can run on a staff of 10 ppl is hitting the limit of usability.
With mega/superyachts (ie luxury ships) it’s a more exclusive game, this dude didn’t just spend half a billon on a “smaller” object (that took 2000 people 4 years to build), it will also cost him 50~100 million in yearly upkeep (+maybe that sum every like 3~10 years for refurnishing, bcs why not, it’s the standard).
And this isn’t counting the usual support megayacht that will probably accompany the superyacht at all times (for extra staff, equipment, quests, maybe area accessibility in some cases).
I love boats. I don’t own one unfortunately, but I’ve never had a bad time on a boat, they’re awesome and fun even if you’re not going out fishing.
I’ve never been on a super yacht before, but I imagine it’d be like a cruise ship without other guests, just your family/friends and employees. I think I’d rather take a cheap cruise tbh.
Privacy and Security. You’re out there where no paparazzi can take bikini pictures of you. It’s easy to secure so that nobody can kidnap you. And take a look at the interior of those Yachts, they are not cramped. Look at this thing:
It’s bigger than your home. It has its own helipad. It is 111m long.
Did you think that photo was going to convince people here?
I’m trying to imagine vikings.
Millionairesbillionaires.It’s a dick-measuring contest from more civilised times.
As RC-1138 would put it, “Times have changed”
There are no good billionaires, kids.
But there are degrees of how bad they are.
The guillotine has a methodically designed schedule.
Technically true, but not worth distinguishing.
Standards are low
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.
Multiple online casinos for underage customers that he runs disagree.
Valve literally invented case gambling…
Can’t remember a single Valve game that is $60 (today $80?) that has a Battle Pass, built in micro transactions that are pay-to-win, half-assed DLCs that should’ve been in base game, or a game being unfinished mess on release.
Valve is not a saint. But even with lootboxes they bring way more good to gaming industry in comparison to literally any other gaming company.
Bonus round!
Can you guess a game that has all these 4 points?
Dota has a battle pass and micro transactions
That is purely comestics.
But the money from that goes to professional players that participate in the tournament and to organizers who organize the event.
How much money from battle pass goes to Fortnite/Battlefield/COD pro players?
You didn’t say anything about where the money goes, you just said you can’t recall a Valve game with microtransactions or a battlepass. Dota has both.
If we want to have a discussion about how they spend that money, then I agree, Valve does a much better job than EA or Blizzard or similar
Can you guess a game that has all these 4 points?
$50 says it’s an EA game
I’LL TAKE THAT…no I won’t take that bet, me thinks!
For cosmetic only items, and in return they let everyone play for free. It doesn’t bother me as a business model.
Gambling addictions have very high suicide ideation and suicide attempt rates. The exact numbers seem ti vary from study to study but I haven’t found any with percentages below double digits.
Gambling addictions are not uncommon either, with 1-3% of the general population being affected [Wikipedia]. Risk factors include starting young and online gambling by the way. Guess who encourages both?
If I had to guess, thousands of people have committed suicide at least partially due to Valve. “Partially” because case gambling could’ve been the entry into other forms of gambling that cemented gambling addictions.
Skill issue.
I don’t think monetizing gambling addictions so others can play for free is a great argument.
Says someone without a gambling addiction.
Uh yea. Why would I have a gambling addition. That shit is stupid as fuck.
Gambling disorder is recognized by the DSM, this comment comes across as victim blaming and ableist.
You realize people can’t choose if they are addicted to gambling right? It’s the same as any addiction. Most people don’t even realize they have a problem until they have hit rock bottom.
Alright then, he get’s an extra sharp guillotine.
What do we get for musk? Dull and rusty seem too merciful
Look up Wikipedia on how they got confessions out of people in the medieval times…
A steam hammer https://youtu.be/zb-wWo2kT-w
But it goes down slowly. Very slowly.ViKings the show, the episode titled Blood Eagle. NSFL
You don’t know what he does in the dark. You don’t know the decisions he makes, the moves he pays for, or the things he does. You only see a very small amount of his actual life.
Neither is you, or anyone except people he works with and is close to.
15 gaming PCs
Priorities, eh?
Half Life 3 takes place on open sea.
Borealis hits the vibe
Waterworld
Most comments ITT boil down to two things:
- “cat shit is shit, so it’s the same as elephant shit”
- “cat shit is not the same as elephant shit, so it’s not shit”
No sarcasm, pure sincerity, that was a beautifully eloquent comment, kudos.
Cat shit is not the same as elephant shit. Contents are different and there is a enormous difference in amounts. Would you rather have an elephant shit in your house of a cat shit in a litterbox in your house?
Yup, that’s part of the deal: cat shit is preferable over elephant shit. The other part is that cat shit is still shit, and it’s still undesirable.
Now look at the discussion in this thread. Gabe Newell is cat shit; some comments are trying to defend him as not shit, some trying to pretend his behaviour is exactly as bad as elephant shit (your typical billionaire). Between a billionaire like Newell spending money on a research yacht versus one like Musk fuelling some random dictatorship, Newell is preferable. And he’s still undesirable as any of those money-hoarding psychopaths.
none of it
Good thing I have toxoplasmosis
Elephant shit for you then :)
(just kidding.)
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.
he’s just another billionaire.
He owns the 50th largest yacht in the world and 5 more, i would argue he’s on top with the worst not just another
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 like Valve more than most companies, but exactly, they are not Saints by any measure.
deleted by creator
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.
It’s quite true, for example, they were one of the first companies to make successful inroads in selling video games in Russia back in the day. Other companies avoided it due to rampant piracy of games in Russia, but Valve successfully (at the time) provided a service and price point that made it more attractive to many Russians than piracy. Being decent to customers is indeed a viable business strategy, and up until the 1970’s was sort of the norm for business (not entirely, but far more than now). It wasn’t until then that businesses became far more extractive from their customer base than trying to build better products for customers.
However, they were also pioneers in certain aspects of gaming that have become detrimental to consumers, such as loot boxes and digital marketplaces. They have done their best to manage and regulate those within their own walled garden, but they have taken a hands-off approach to gambling on Steam marketplace items that takes place on websites outside of Steam (which to an extent is fair since many of them exist in countries where Valve would have very little success in taking them down in any way).
the barrier to entry for a Steam competitor is nearly non-existent
My brother in christ have you heard of network effects?
It’s not network effects (but slightly related), it’s opportunity cost.
Getting your app into yet another app store isn’t hard, but takes time, so you need to make sure it doesn’t cost devs more to add support for you than it earns them. The slightest fuzz and they’ll drop you if you’re small.
But stores like Gog are able to exist just fine. They’re big enough that many devs think it’s worth it to support them. If you want more devs to do so, tell them that’s what you want and show it will be worth it. And if you want to open another store, copy Gog & co
Network effects and chill?
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.
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.
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.
Look at it from a different point of view: those 500 Million were moved from One Good Billionaire to Multiple Evil Millionairs. Yay.
The vessel was built by Oceanco, a firm that’s done such a good job that Newell just decided to up and buy it outright in August
A yacht - and a yacht builder.
You must likely will never earn more than 2 mil in your lifetime. With 2 orders of magnitude and a doubling factor, that’s still not 500M lmao. And just like a car purchase, that’s only for the purchase price, not the upkeep.
A billionaire whose hobby is Marine conservation. That yacht is a floating lab.
Inkfish, founded by Gabe Newell, aims to advance marine science by providing tools and access for deep-ocean exploration, focusing on serving the scientific community rather than personal interests. The organization’s mission is to integrate marine science, engineering, and technology to map uncharted seafloor, study biodiversity, discover new species, and protect ocean ecosystems, while also providing open-source data and technical support to scientists
Imagine believing this.
A billionaire whose hobby is Marine conservation. That yacht is a floating lab.
If your hobby is marine conservation you don’t own a fleet of luxury mega yachts
100000%.
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 majority of them don’t. Hell, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk think the future is for digital-post-humans and the things they are trying to do “for the future” are revolving around a plan where humans as we know them effectively become an extinct species, which is inherently elitist and definitely not beneficial to overall society since it means they effectively don’t care if any of us die to achieve it. Just because Newell has better values than the rest doesn’t mean the situation doesn’t still suck ass.
While all that is indeed good,
No it’s just bullshit.
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.
If this money he is using to advance marine science
He’s not advancing anything but big boats polluting the planet.
I don’t think anyone is saying that billionaires existing is a good thing.
Then why praise one for having a pet project just because it might help the environment? If it’s not a good thing that they exist, why does there need to be a caveat of “but he’s doing good things with his money.”
It is possible to acknowledge that a billionaire is doing a good thing with his ungodly wealth, while also saying that he should not have that level of wealth to begin with.
It’s not “but”, it’s “at least”.
I’d be all for removing all the tax cuts from the rich and funneling it into the sciences. They’ve proven that trickle-down is an excuse to hoard and that noblesse oblige is all but dead, so why not cut out the proverbial middleman.
I’m also not a politician being paid by said rich to keep those cuts in place or add more, so my stance means little.
Whether the concept of billionaires is bad is irrelevant when deciding whether one specific billionaire is bad.
Whether the concept of billionaires is bad is irrelevant when deciding whether one specific billionaire is bad.
Threre is no such thing as an ethical billionaire. An ethical billionaire doesn’t remain a billionaire. If a suddenly recieved a billion dollars I’d be looking into the best way to donate most of it.
I’m sure I could survive for the rest of my life just fine on $500 million dollars, and whatever causes I’m donating my money to know what they need and how to spend it better than I would by offering them a couple of rooms on my third yacht.
It seems really really relevant though…
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.
The fact of having a dragon’s hoard of money while people starve is what I am looking at.
Oh, look at that, Gabe has a dragon’s hoard of money and people are starving.
GabeN is hardly rich enough to end poverty or even just hunger, and that’s not the only important cause people could work on. I’d be happy if every billionaire picked some cause and donated to it, no need for society’s input.
Why? It’s still bad. He still isn’t taking societal input on whether the projects he invests his money into are actually the most wise and sound investments to help the future of all living humans. It’s a distinction without a difference.
Why does he need society’s input? Last I checked, charities didn’t ask society at large, they just get funding from the people who care. Am I wrong to go to the park to pick up litter without asking society at large if that’s the best use of my time?
We don’t need to have everything go through a committee. If he wants to do a good thing, that’s awesome.
That wooshing sound you hear is the point going over your head.
No, I’m explicitly rejecting your point.
This yacht is many things, one of them being a floating lab. It’s not like it isn’t a super-luxury yacht for $500 million, also. Or like he hasn’t a couple more super-yachts.
I mean, good for the man, good that he’s doing marine conservation on the side, or that he actually cares about his companies, employees, etc. But also, wow, what kind of amounts do billionaires spend on playthings, and what you could do with such money for the betterment of society.
You don’t do “marine conservation” by pumping oil into a fleet of personal yachts.
Refreshing to hear this take. Valve and Gabe get glazed so hard when at the end of the day it’s about the bottom dollar for them too.
Honestly I think people love them so much because everyone else has been horrible by comparison.
People love them because they still offer good products and services, some of them completely for free. I think it’s perfectly valid to recognize and appreciate the good, even when there’s also bad.
They don’t need your recognition though, I think the $500m yacht says enough.
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.
Well said, Gus.
If you made people’s nostalgia, they will defend you.
Nintendo has defenders. Disney has defenders. Blizzard has defenders. And so on.
People will defend a company for free because they did something cool ~20 years ago.
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 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.
Oh man on that note talk about Blizzards fall from grace. Just a shell of their former selves.
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.
Honestly I think people love them so much because everyone else has been horrible by comparison.
Yes. They’re only horrible in the way most gaming companies were decades ago rather than the wretchedly awful way the companies are today.
This sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole after skimming through the article…
I’m guilty of going on about the luxury side of this, but 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
Neural interfaces? Uh oh, that reminds me of another billionaire and a heart-breaking story about animal testing.
https://www.gsmgotech.com/2025/05/gabe-newellbacked-starfish-bci-chip-to.html
Unlike bulky, invasive BCIs used in medical settings, the Starfish chip is designed to be minimally invasive, leveraging a proprietary array of microelectrodes that attach to the scalp.
The device’s compact design, roughly the size of a postage stamp, also addresses a common hurdle in consumer neurotech: wearability. Early prototypes suggest the chip could be discreetly integrated into headbands, VR headsets, or even augmented reality glasses.
Oh ok… well that doesn’t sound as bad. Wait, didn’t Valve just announce a new VR headset that has a port which can be used for 3rd party accessories?
BCIs inevitably raise questions about privacy, data security, and ethical AI use. Starfish claims its device anonymizes neural data and processes most information locally, rather than cloud servers. Still, skeptics argue that neural data’s intimate nature demands stricter regulatory frameworks.
Dr. Rachel Kim, a bioethicist at Stanford University, cautions, “The benefits are immense, but we need clear guidelines on who owns brain data and how it’s monetized. This isn’t just another app—it’s a window into the human mind.”
Hmmm…
If I recall correctly Newell himself has made comments on how scary brain interfaces become when the interfaces can start influencing the mind as well as reading it. Giving it positive signals in association with certain ideas or products, essentially a shortcut to what traditional advertising tried to exploit about human cognition, except now it could be forced directly, where you can essentially “force” people’s brains to be happy with a certain situation, idea, or product. He is at least cognizant of the dangers, but who knows how cognizant or how he plans to address those dangers.
He’s just another billionaire. Probably just not the typical sociopathic ones or a narcissist.
Once he had enough money for everything he could ever need he could have devoted himself to building a self sufficient non-capitalist future for valve/steam with irrevocable covenants in its governance that are not manipulated by the next sociopath to take leadership of the company, like Altman is doing with OpenAI.
Point being, he might not be a sociopath like the majority of them, and he doesn’t seem to be evil, but he’s not a saint either.
There’s also the platforms moderation issues with shitloads of bigotry. Feels like a blind eye but maybe it’s just me. They could take a spare billion in profits, throw it into low risks stocks with dividends or bonds, and pay a team to moderate it out of that in perpetuity without affecting his business or his life like how college endowments work. That is unless the goal for him is still more billions.
Once he had enough money for everything he could ever need he could have devoted himself to building a self sufficient non-capitalist future for valve/steam
Who upvotes this nonsense? Non-capitalist? jfc.
Exactly. Valve might have a “flat” management structure, but Newell hasn’t exactly re-organized Valve into a worker-owned co-op either.
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.
Yeah, I don’t understand people who ascribe more to GabeN than running a decent business. Steam has done right by me, so I remain a customer. I didn’t play many games before Steam came to Linux, then I played more and more as Linux support improved (Proton was game changing),.
My opinion of him ends there. Steam is a great product, as is the Steam Deck. If Valve stops making great products, I’ll stop buying. Whether Gabe Newell is a good person is irrelevant here.
Would you buy zionist games? Are you willing to support genocide if the games are good? Do you give a shit about anything at all? You just like playing your lil gamies? Typical USAian.
Tell me what a zionist game is. I’m not from the USA nor do I live there. I’ve told my local representative to have my country recognize Palestine, that’s since been done.
Anyway, I wish you a good day riding upon your high horse.
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 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.
And I mean Gabe
You know dude? This whole post is just pathetic.
Okay, thanks for the feedback.
Likewise, shame should be where shame is due, like with the whole lootbox gambling economy thing.
And while theirs is bad, it’s also one of the less bad of the MTX nonsense since you can trade stuff on the market, no? So even when they’re bad, they’re on the less bad end of the spectrum.
It would be nice to have no billionaires,
I agree, but the next best is to eliminate generational wealth. Maybe there should be caps on how much can be inherited, with the rest going to charities the heirs don’t directly benefit from.
I don’t think billionaires are automatically bad people, but there is a strong correlation between huge wealth and bad people.
Definitely, agreed with you on all these points.
I don’t think anyone thinks he’s a saint, despite the memes. Except if you compare him to the fucking sleazeballs at companies like Epic, Rockstar, Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Ubisoft, EA, Blizzard, etc. etc., not to mention every other publicly traded corporation, he kind of his. Again, by comparison. He single-handedly improves the entire industry. He could very well have developed a locked down Steam OS that won’t do anything but play games but he instead invested in an open source platform that sorely needed it, and makes the world a better place. Steam doesn’t have to put up big banners for Denuvo or AI or games that require a remote account but they do, purely for the benefit of the users.
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. It doesn’t even mean he has to have done everything right, but you do enough right non-anti-competitive things like that, and it makes a difference.
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.
“single-handedly” lmao, as if newell is the guy doing all the work and not the valve employees who work for him… or, yknow, the contributors to all the open-source projects steamos is built on
proton and steamos would be nowhere today without the decades of work by the WINE/DXVK contributors, and the myriad of other open-source projects that make Linux into what it is. all valve did was add their proprietary client on top of that (as well as fund the development of proton, tbf, i’m thankful for them on that one… but again, that work was done by valve employees and contributors, not the billionaire CEO)
as if newell is the guy doing all the work
He’s the one who makes all the decisions. That’s what matters here.
proton and steamos would be nowhere today without the decades of work by the WINE/DXVK contributors
And Proton wouldn’t exist at all without Valve.
all valve did was add their proprietary client on top of that
That’s completely false.
that work was done by valve employees and contributors, not the billionaire
The billionaire is the one who told them to do it.
The billionaire is the one who told them to do it.
So what? They would have eventually done it without him.
LOL what? You can’t be serious…
Nobody should have that much wealth, I don’t care what they do.
I have always respected Gabe’s “fuck gamers I do what I think is cool” mindset though. Fuck gamers.
He used to make games. He stopped making games to sell other people’s games.
I get why people like Steam, but when people say you shouldn’t play games that require other launchers, especially when all-in-one launchers like Playnite exist… I think people should get off his dick a bit.
The problem I have is that Valve used to make GREAT games. And there’s so much trash and shovelware out there, it would be nice to see a good developer come back. The hope is that they will at least make good gaming hardware.
even then, “he used to make games”… was he alone? did he not have a team with him? where are their billions?
valve is an alright company all things considered, but it’s baffling to me how many people act like they’re the second coming… people should know better. valve is a corporation operating under capitalism. they’re not above doing shady stuff for profit.
Also, I’m pretty sure Portal 1 was in development by a studio that was bought by valve when they saw the game prototype. Not exactly “Gabe Newell making Portal”. Though I do think that was a savvy investment (Portal 2 being the better game also).
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.
Valve have really opened the floor for others to make good games though, right? I remember hanging out in indie game dev spaces about… 15-20 years ago, and many people’s best hope was to get accepted by a publisher and get 40% of sale revenue (publisher kept 60%). Getting onto Steam back then was very difficult (before greenlight).
Now anyone can publish on Steam, for better or for worse, and there are heaps of really cool indie games that rise to the top. Indie games were instrumental in the early days of VR as well.
Valve seem to have switched to a supporting role. They are developing hardware because it’s a gap they see in broadening their audience, and they let developers fill in the software because today being a game developer is really accessible.
To be fair, HL: Alyx was a pretty great game, that arguably gave you experience jumps like the original Half Life. I don’t remember much about it but I remember enjoying playing it. The little moments when you discover things like how you can write on a whiteboard by picking up a pen, or that you can only carry two grenades on your belt, but you can pick up a bucket and carry it around full of grenades, things that weren’t really possible in the same way until that new medium that they developed top of line hardware for.
I mean, they are still making games, even if they’re not the games you want. CS2 released not long ago, Deadlock is under very active development, and there’s some decent reasons to believe another game is currently in progress (like their Steam developer page showing 2 upcoming games).
scratches neck
we’re getting HL3 any day now, i swear
I dont have a problem with it. If i had that much money i would buy crazy shit too. I start to have a problem with it when it encroaches on my quality of life (buying politicians, scooping up homes meant for families, etc)
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.
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.
Leviathan has two gyms, a 250 square meter beach club with a spa and bar, diving platforms, and whatever a “dedicated drinks pantry” is. The cherry on top: a room with 15 of the finest gaming PCs ever assembled.
Yup, research vessel.
