“Nonprofit” and “Valve” don’t belong in the same universe. Valve is and has been 100/ about making money, and it’s been very, very good at it. They behave like they do because they aren’t publicly traded, so there aren’t short-term investors wanting to pump the stock and bail out, so they look at actual long-term investment and profit strategies.

People love Steam around here, but it was the beginning of modern enshittification of gaming. It was literally launched as a way to create an online activation requirement for a single-player game (Half Life 2), and they’ve fully-embraced lootbox mechanics for years.

Gabe is a billionaire yacht collector, not your buddy. Public companies exist to drive up share value at all times. Valve exists to make Gabe more money.