Gaming IndustrySteamIn 2018 a group of Valve staff tried to figure out just how efficient they were being—and found they were making more money per head than Apple, Facebook, and nearly every tech giant out thereWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Gaming IndustrySteamIn 2018 a group of Valve staff tried to figure out just how efficient they were being—and found they were making more money per head than Apple, Facebook, and nearly every tech giant out thereWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Valve)
Back in 2021, indie developer Wolfirefiled an antitrust lawsuit against Valvethat accused the gaming giant of anti-competitive business practices—including a long-standing habit of taking unfair cuts from game developers on its store. Valve’s30% fees have come under criticism before—and theyarenotably high when compared to some other online platforms. Valve offers cuts, but only if your company’s earning millions on millions—no alms for the little guy.
When the suit wasdismissed without prejudice later that year, the judge ruled that “[Valve’s] fee is commensurate with the Steam Platform’s value to game publishers”. However, a dismissal without prejudice gave Wolfire 30 days to bring the suit up-to-par, which it did,reigniting the legal battlein May 2022.
As per aGameDiscoverCo newsletter, details have emerged from the suit’s discovery phase—both sides' legal teams were able to exchange documents to help build out their cases. One particularemail chainbetween Valve employees stood out, though. Turns out, Valve was making more money per head than just about anybody.
The emails are heavily redacted, but they confirm that in 2018, Valve was perhapsthemost efficient big tech company, period. “Since I like to fiddle with numbers, I brought net income into this comparison,” writes Valve’s Kristan Miller. “… breaking these numbers down as net income/hour/employee shows some interesting comparisons.”
Earlier in the chain, an annual comparison also bore out the same results—meaning that, in 2018, Valve was raking in, at minimum, over $780,400 net income per employee based on Facebook’s second-place numbers—while Apple came in third place with $476,160. Granted, the overall architecture of businesses will shift this number around a lot—and this is a measure of raw efficiency rather than volume.
Still, it’s proof that Valve does an obscene amount with very little. Whether the situation has changed circumstantially over the past six years is unclear—but unlikely, considering Valve hasn’t exactly changed its business model and, as a company, it’s continued to move fromstrength to strength.
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As for the Wolfire lawsuit, well, that’s to be decided in court. From where I’m sitting, though, I’ve plenty of complicated feelings. Steam might be the best option out there, but monopolies aren’t great for anybody—at the same time, business is business.
Steam’s absurd efficiency could be a product of merciless penny-pinching from indie devs, but it’s just as likely we’re watching a well-oiled machine continue to belch out cash in an expected fashion. Still—to take Zuckerbeg to task when it comes to money per head is genuinely jaw-dropping, and a reminder that the gaming industry is absolutely freaking massive, which makes therampant layoffsof 2024 and 2023 all the more grim.
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