Ex-Valve Game Developer Says Steam Was Killing PC Gaming With Profiteering
Gamers of a certain age will remember a time when the name Valve conjured visions of crowbars and scientists. These days Valve is more about the Steam store, the place where gamers flock to buy all their games digitally and store them in one place. On the gamer side of things, the Steam store is a great way to keep games in one place forever without having to deal with keeping up with discs and install codes. On the developer side, the Steam store is loathed because of the cut to profits demanded
Former Valve employee Richard Geldreich has commented on developers moving to the new and competing Epic Games Store. Geldreich says that "Steam was killing PC gaming" and goes on to claim Epic Games is saving it. The former Valve employee says that Steam was a "30% tax on an entire industry" going on to say that the fees Steam demands are unsustainable.
Geldreich also notes that gamers "have no idea how profitable Steam was for Valve" calling the service a "virtual printing press." Essentially he is saying that alternative game stores are coming out of necessity to save profits for game developers and publishers. The Steam exodus began when Fallout 76 was confirmed for the Epic store bypassing Steam. Borderlands 3 has also been confirmed to skip Steam in favor of Epic Games Store exclusivity when the game launches before eventually landing on the Steam store
Epic is spending serious money grabbing up exclusives to keep them from Steam. Time will tell if gamers merely hold off on buying new games until they land on Steam or if Steam will begin to wither. Many gamers hope that pressure from the Epic Games Store will force Steam to cut down on its cut of the profits and games will start coming back to the Steam store as a result.
