Steam users are divided over the platform’s future, with some worried that it could potentially be made worse if a new owner were to take over.
As posted on the Steam Reddit page, one user has predicted a possibly bleak future for the platform that could happen in the wake of founder Gabe Newell’s departure from Valve.
Referencing a rather morbid 4chan post from 2024, the scenario lays out a situation where Newell is no longer the President of Valve, creating a power vacuum within PC gaming.
The post then goes on to discuss a potential Microsoft buyout of Steam, where features are slowly cut out and ads become more prevalent and unskippable, eventually becoming a lot worse following the hypothetical takeover.
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It’s a possible future for the platform, but certainly not likely. For starters, Newell is only 61 years old and is in seemingly good health.
He’s more likely to retire in the next few years and hand-over his position to someone he trusts to keep the company’s values intact.
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While Newell’s retirement plans aren’t public (and considering how much the guy loves to work at Valve, he probably doesn’t even know it himself yet), theories have suggested that his son, Gray, could potentially be his successor as opposed to a different Valve employee.
You may know Gray Newell as the inspiration for the alien boss baby that appeared at the end of Half-Life 1.
Another reason to not suspect Newell’s retirement could spell the end of Steam is that Newell doesn’t have as much impact on the day-to-day at Valve as he used to.
There isn’t a lot of public information on the internal structure of Valve, but there are various project managers and other workers that oversee various parts of the company’s portfolio.
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So, should Newell’s involvement with the company cease to exist in a few years’ time, it’s unlikely for anything too dramatic to happen.
“Valve is winning. If it continues to win, the next person has all the incentive not to f**k it up,” writes one person on the Steam Reddit page.
“It will depend on if Valve remains a private company or goes public,” another user writes. “If it goes public then it doesn't really matter who's in charge of what they want. The constant and endless growth a public company has to achieve makes their decisions for them.”
“As of now, his son is supposed to carry on who's supposedly handling the business like he did,” confirms another. “But the ‘likely to die before 75’ is bs anyway.”
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In my experience, no good thing lasts forever. Steam has been an incredible platform for PC gamers for the past two decades, but there’s always a chance that it could one day go to the dogs. The important thing is to appreciate it while it’s here.