Gaming Discussions

[BigAl01]

Valve, the company behind Steam and games like Half-Life, Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, and more, is rumored for a $16 billion Microsoft acquisition.  Microsoft seems pretty hungry after its Activision acquisition, with a fresh (and very hot, prepare your salt) rumor that the Windows and Xbox giant is preparing a $16 billion offer to buy Valve. Yes, that Valve, from Gabe Newell.

Dior is a gaming-focused content creator in the Counter-Strike gaming community, and he posted on X that Microsoft is reportedly preparing a $16 billion offer to buy Valve Corporation, which would include the absolutely gigantic Steam store... by far, the most popular PC gaming platform on the market, and stars in the eyes ($$$) of Microsoft.

I don't know why Valve would consider this when they're a private company and no one knows exactly how much Valve is worth, or how much money Valve makes each year. There are some estimates that see Valve pulling in over $10 billion per year in revenue, with Valve CEO Gabe "Lord GabeN" Newell reportedly has a net worth of over $4 billion.

If you consider how many games are on and sold through Steam on a yearly basis, and just some of the gigantic IP that Valve owns like Half-Like, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, Dota, and more... you'd think that a $16 billion offer would be a drop in the ocean compared to the gigantic $68.7 billion merger between Activision and Microsoft. How has that gone lately?

I personally don't see how or why Valve would want to sell, when it is a money printer on its own, forever. It doesn't have a board of directors, it doesn't answer to shareholders... it answers to PC gamers. Microsoft could offer $100 billion to Valve, and yet I just can't see Gabe selling.

Dior, as he is known on X.

[Wally_AMD]

This would be interesting... Steam is such a successful platform (simple in UI design, but offers so much). Curious how and if this plays out...

[cpurpe91]

I think it would be a bad move. 

[CaligoVereor]

I personally highly doubt this is real considering Microsoft (as well as other companies like Embracer) seem to have been closing down many studious under them recently, meaning they have hit a point where they realise spending so much money on acquisitions without knowing what to do with those purchases is a terrible financial decision.

In addition, 16 billion is a terribly tiny sum considering it's Valve we're talking about. Especially now when we have seen how much something like Activision/Blizzard cost Microsoft.

If you look into the article linked and the tweet attached to it it has been hit with a community note stating that there is no reason to believe something like this is happening and it seems to be based on some highly outdated idea Microsoft had years ago. So that seems somewhat plausible, that Microsoft might have considered doing this years ago and Valve probably told them "lol no way".

But, man, imagining a world where Valve gets sold off is kinda scary. I don't think anything good could come out of a timeline changing event like that (for customers).

[GreatnessRD]

I doubt this is real and if it is, let's pray Gabe doesn't fall for the bait. Microsoft owning Steam would 100% be a detriment to the PC gaming community.  Just thinking about it makes me sick to my stomach.

[Axxemann]

If GabeN does it... we're all DOOMED.

[johnnyenglish]

no no no no nononononononono NO! Hold on a minute there, No.

C'mon..

They just killed Alphadog, the studio of Mighty Doom and I was enjoying that.



No more SteamOS if that ever happens, thats for sure. And SteamDeck will be the first victim.

[cpurpe91]

I agree. They would try to lock down gaming to Windows.