Steam in the long term

[danutz_plusplus]

Every now and then this thought enters my mind, and I wonder what Steam is going to be like when Gabe loses control of it (if the assumption is right, that Steam is as good as it is because Gabe alone is holding back other private forces and hasn't gone public yet).
It's obvious that a lot of the decent state it's in is because it never went public and also hasn't sold to other private investors. But we're on a ticking clock as to when all of this will be reversed, and then Steam will be as most companies out for endless and exponential growth.
And at that point we're gonna be on a down-slope to hell.

I wonder there's any legal workaround that could be employed to ensure this doesn't happen. Or at least make it hard. But I doubt there is.

 

[Couchpotato]

Gabe could turn his company into a non-profit foundation on his death. That would allow him to set up a guidebook and legally binding contract for how to run the company.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Gabe could turn his company into a non-profit foundation on his death. That would allow him to set up a guidebook and legally binding contract for how to run the company.

Yes. That would be the best.
I don't want sharks to transform this into something else.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I'm not sure what the chances are, of that happening. I'd imagine very small? I hope I'm wrong.

Also, what I'm more worried about is when the platform goes under. Steam I believe said they're going to patch all games and remove the steam drm. If this was designed from the start it should be fairly easy to do.
But under new leadership that doesn't give a fuck about this, they might not. And that's just the steam drm, without going into each particular game, if it has any online dependency.
I think ultimately it's gonna be up to piracy to save these, should that day come. And considering it will be a huge undertaking for the amount of games that will suddenly not work, I'm not sure how fast that will be.

Yeah, it's more than ever more important to support platforms like GOG. I'm gonna make a more concerted effort to make that my main destination. Even with the issues that one has. (patching/downloading issues). Ownership is more important than ever.
Also, since we're on the topic, I'm not sure why a lot of people seem to think that physical is more long-lasting than digital. In the first place, even if it's physical it can still depend on remote resources. And even if it's physical and standalone, if the disk itself has drm not allowing you to copy it, it's in no way safer place than a digital copy. Digital and DRM-free is king. And as to where we store it, that's just a small detail.

 

[Redglyph]

Who says the new leadership would be bad? They had an original company that has almost no structure and hinges a lot on sharing and promoting the same spirit. Wouldn't Mike Harrington be able to take over?

Regarding shares, I think they can use any system that doesn't give away the control in case they must find other investors.

Even if Valve came to disappear, would it really be a big deal? Someone will take over with a new platform. I don't think GOG is a viable option, but Epic could replace it, or maybe Amazon will finally make its own (Vapor - which wouldn't be my first choice, but it only needs to be stable).

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I'm mainly speaking about the longevity of our game libraries. Will we have our libraries available in 10-20-30 years?

About the new leadership, highest chances are it will be worse. Including taking the company public. And we know what the fate of most companies that end up there is.
And then gradual gutting of the company and product, when the well is dry as to what you can milk from customers. As has happened with most companies that end up there.

 

[wolfgrimdark]

I'm not that pessimistic myself, nor do I care about my game libraries all that much - but I don't have a collector mindset. Sure there are some old games (Skyrim, FO4, and a few others) I like to play I would surely miss but not the end of the world.

While none of them are great, and have their problems, there are other game management sites that do okay. I suspect there would be changes and growing pangs but overall would be fine.

I'm a big Steam fan myself, like it over any of its other peers, and find it easy to use, so hopefully it won't change too much but also not too worried about it.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

My main motivation for all of this is that I'll never know what I want to play/replay in my retirement years.
My backlog is so huge that I don't appreciate getting through a lot of them until then. And it'll likely keep growing.
I'll probably need to start prioritizing them in the order of the ones that I'd like to play before biting the dust.

 

[Pladio]

I'm so unlikely to play games from today 30 years from now that it really does not matter.

There will be a few games a decade or two old that I may have wanted to replay, but would I truly be sad to not be able to play those when there will likely be 5,000 new games I could each and every hour by then ?

 

[Carnifex]

I don't see steam ever going away, it's so colossal that at this point it should be able to easily evolve into whatever comes next. I'm far more concerned about great old games, they seem smaller and less durable, and I use them far more than I use steam. In any case, it's always good to keep some physical media handy as well as ten to twenty classics on the hard drive, as the ones from decades past tend to not take up too much space.

 

[Arkadia7]

He has at least a couple sons, according to wikipedia, so chances are he will bring one or both of them into the business as his successor. I'm not a fan of all of his business maneuvers, for example, allowing porn games on the site....why? Steam was great and doing well before that change, and it tainted steam a bit after they allowed that. Anyway, besides that though, yea, he has been a good boss of Steam, by and large. Apparently he is the wealthiest guy in all the video games industry (estimated fortune of 4 billion) so it has treated him well.

 

[notdart]

Gabe could remove a lot of speculation by stating in a public fashion what will happen when he is no longer in charge. Without a factual statement it is just speculation as to what will happen. Yes a public foundation would be good for consumers but more likely than not his son will claim his estate and not knowing much about them i would not be shocked if they sold it to the highest bidder. But of course Gabe could have a real succession plan in place and then perhaps something more pleasant would happen.

 

[JDR13]

Gabe could remove a lot of speculation by stating in a public fashion what will happen when he is no longer in charge.

I'd rather he announced Half-Life 3, but yeah....that too.