„It would be a slow death spiral.” Steam's future worries not only players. Devs also wonder what will happen to Valve without Gabe Newell

Not only players are expressing concerns about the future of Steam. Some developers, like the creator of the Saints Row series, are also worried about what awaits Valve's platform after Gabe Newell's era.

In an interview with Esports Insider, Chris Stockman mainly talked about the reasons for the failure of the latest installment of the wacky sandbox series and speculations about Grand Theft Auto 6. Nevertheless, there was also a question about players' concerns regarding Steam—and all of Valve—after the potential departure of Gabe Newell.

A crazy Microsoft scenario

You might not be a fan of Steam for various reasons, but let's be real, it's hard to talk about PC gaming these days without mentioning it. The growing popularity of Steam and its continuous development have made it the focal point of the PC market.

However, even setting aside accusations of a "monopoly," this dependency of PC gaming on Steam has long raised concerns, mainly in the context of Valve's leadership. Gaben will soon turn 63, and it's hard to expect him to oversee Valve for much longer. Of course, theories about Steam servers being synchronized with Newell's heartbeat are just a joke, but people anticipate either no changes ("Gaben" is formally already retired) or even the sale of platform rights to another company (though this seems unlikely).

Stockman believes that these concerns are not unfounded, mainly in the context of a possible acquisition of Valve by, for example, Microsoft. This may seem absurd given Steam's position, but the unofficial valuation of the platform is around $10 billion. This is much less than what the Redmond giant paid for Activision Blizzard, not to mention the Electronic Arts bought out. However, we might wonder if such a valuation is far too low. Stockman doesn't rule out the possibility that buying Valve could be more expensive than buying EA.

According to him, the chance of such a transaction is "40-60%," but something crazy would have to happen, or Valve or Newell would have to make a huge mistake for such a scenario to materialize. The company currently has no reason to seek a buyer for itself or Steam.

It all boils down to one big question: does Gabe Newell have a plan for what happens to Valve and who takes over after he's gone? Players hope they won't find out the answers to these questions too soon. Stockman also doesn't seem to be a fan of Microsoft purchasing Steam, as he believes it would be a "slow death spiral."

• Steam
• Gabe Newell
• Valve