this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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Linux Gaming

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[–] ono@lemmy.ca 183 points 1 year ago (15 children)

That leaked email conveniently assumes the owner of Valve would sell it. I can't think of a reason for Gabe to do that.

[–] gamer@lemm.ee 54 points 1 year ago (5 children)

This is the biggest problem with Valve at the moment. They're awesome, but only because of the current leadership. Once these guys retire or die, it's very likely Valve will enshittify like every other business.

Valve needs to be hit by regulators at some point. They just have too much market power.

[–] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I wish the decent guys who started companies would leave a directive for the company that must be followed to prevent it from becoming just another shitty piece of garbage like everything else these days has become thanks to the geniuses with business degrees running the world.

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[–] xkforce@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Money? Remember when people thought that about Mojang?

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 44 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Mojang, at least, was not founded by two guys who gave Microsoft the finger on their way out the door at their previous job.

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[–] mlg@lemmy.world 154 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Gaben already refused to sell to EA and made it abundantly clear that we would rather let valve die than go public.

Microsoft also just recently said they'd buy Nintendo if they could.

All this means is that Microsoft is filthy rich and still doesn't know how to make an original quality game studio. They seem to overly rely on buying out studios and IPs that are successful to rake in more money.

spoilerAll of which reeks of an oligigopoly and reminds me of even worse companies like Oracle and AT&T

[–] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 31 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The funny thing about selling valve, what would it even give for Gabe? He's already filthy rich. What more could one want with more money?

Saying no to selling only makes sense in his position, in my opinion. At least I personally would think so. Because then you still keep what is effectively your creation, and can use it to shape the world.

At some point you really do just have enough money.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 17 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Well, the idea is you can do something else with the money instead of it being tied up with that company. You could start another venture if you want to. I'm pretty sure Valve is what he wants to be doing though, so starting a different company isn't really something he'd want to do.

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[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.one 20 points 1 year ago

Yeah where's our antitrust enforcement?

The oligopoly thing has definitely been fucking everything up for decades.

[–] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 108 points 1 year ago (5 children)

The thought of another company buying Valve, especially one like Microsoft, makes me actually sick. I have spent so much fucking money on my Steam library at this point. If my Steam library gets jacked by some billionaire dickheads it's all over, I'm never paying for anything again.

[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yargghh?! Seriously though, I was furious when they bought Mojang and partially enshittified Minecraft.

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[–] uberkalden@lemmy.world 100 points 1 year ago (5 children)

This is so stupid. Of course they would buy it. Valve won't sell, but let's do the click baits!

[–] hansl@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They’d buy Sony and Nintendo if those were up to sell. For the right price (I dunno, in the hundreds of dollars according to my bank account), I’d buy them too.

[–] sugartits@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

in the hundreds of dollars according to my bank accoun

You decadent bourgeois pig

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[–] Chunk@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah 100% this. Why would you not buy Valve? The store is a cash cow and the userbase is huge. They have a lot of good faith with the community too. These must be rage bait articles.

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[–] Four_lights77@lemm.ee 90 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Gaben is one of the few people in tech I trust to resist the money MSFT would be willing to throw at something as successful as valve. I mean - they’re the closest thing to a trustworthy company as you can find these days.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 39 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, I doubt he cares about the money at this point, and he did leave MSFT, so I'm guessing he isn't interested in selling. He also went out of his way to use Linux to stick it to MSFT.

As long as he runs the company, I don't see it happening.

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[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 80 points 1 year ago (12 children)

I like to think Gabe knows all too well the importance of remaining a private business. Publicly traded businesses are the root cause of a lot of problems in the world.

[–] azulavoir@sh.itjust.works 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I work for a company that has specifically stated it will never do that and has stuck to those guns for 50+ years

[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

I work for one who said the same thing then 2 years ago sold for $12 billion dollars to a public company. The employees didn't get very much of that either.

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[–] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 66 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Gaben used to work at Microsoft and left because he hated it.

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[–] qwertyqwertyqwerty@lemmy.world 61 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Gabe has been a large proponent of avoiding the kind of consolidation that Microsoft is doing. He saw the writing on the way years ago when Valve released the Steam consoles. I don't think (and certainly hope) that he wouldn't sell.

[–] cypher_greyhat@lemmy.world 59 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (14 children)

I am ruined if this happens. MS would discontinue Proton / Linux and Mac support.

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[–] headmetwall@lemmy.dbzer0.com 50 points 1 year ago (14 children)

Day 1 of suddenly having the urge to keep an offline and DRM free copy of all my steam games.

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[–] DAMunzy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 43 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I love Steam (have 2000 or so games on it) but I realize it is only a matter of time before it gets enshittified.

[–] betsysoul@discuss.tchncs.de 35 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Maybe, but it's still a private company.

[–] TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Yeah, there is some hope for as long as Valve isn't publicly traded. It's investors that push companies to care only for short term gains.

Valve is not saintly, they have their own sketchy aspects like how they profit over that cosmetics trading market, but releasing the Steam Deck shows they are still thinking of the long term future of PC gaming.

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[–] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 40 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I imagine they would immediately drop proton and move the steam deck too some windows bs

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Windows CE is back babyyyyyyyy!

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[–] Krzak@discuss.online 39 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It's impossible for me to understand not having enough. M$ is like some megacorp villain that wants to swallow everything

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[–] clutch@lemmy.ml 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

When one company in an industry has nearly endless cash, as Microsoft and Apple do, it is natural that everyone else would be seen as acquisition targets

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The difference is Valve is completely privately owned, Microsoft cannot force a sale.

With a publicly traded business, the business must be run in the interests of the shareholders, ie it must pursue profits above all else. Thus a buyer can effectively present "an offer you can't refuse", at least the business can't refuse on behalf of shareholders (maybe the shareholders could vote and refuse). With a private business the owner generally has free reign to run the business as they see fit, they could run it into the ground if they so desired.

So it doesn't matter how much cash Microsoft or whoever have, so long as Gabe doesn't want to sell.

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So long as Gabe doesn't like die or have a personality changing stroke. Not sure what Valve's plans are for his retirement

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[–] MenacingPerson@lemm.ee 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Embrace, Extend, Extinguish moment

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[–] rip_art_bell@lemmy.world 33 points 1 year ago (7 children)

People would riot. GOG would have a massive influx of traffic.

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[–] arefx@lemmy.ml 27 points 1 year ago

This would be a nightmare

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

It's a private company that isn't for sale. There was another leak a week ago where they were trying to acquire Nintendo which IS publicly traded, but I think the private shares still control 51%, but that's old info.

[–] panja@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

Hopefully Gabe doesn't allow that to ever happen

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