During his speech at the recent Unreal Fest in Chicago, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney put out a call to create "Team Open", and apparently, that includes Valve and Steam.
In an interview with PC Gamer, Sweeney clarified he'd be all too happy to include Valve in this theoretical open, interconnected gaming ecosystem. When prompted by the interviewer as to why Valve would do such a thing given the position of strength they're in, Sweeney explained his view that they are currently missing out on a lot of opportunities, from Fortnite to Riot's games to Genshin Impact and more.
We'll see. They have a nice thing going on on PC, but they reach what percentage of the PC audience? You know, they don't reach any of the Fortnite audience, they don't have Fortnite and Riot's games and Genshin Impact, and many of the top games in the industry on Steam.
They're missing out on a lot of opportunity that I think they could have if they took the more forward-looking, open view that Epic has taken, and Microsoft has taken. Microsoft Store charges 12%—really good deal. Google's now giving all developers a better deal, and has some really cool things coming for the future.
So, I think there really is the opportunity to form Team Open. Steam's got a pretty sweet business—a lot of gamers love Steam—but imagine if you could have Steam on all of the platforms? What if you could have it on iPhone, what if you could have it on Android? What if they carried a lot of games?
Whether they do it, though, remains doubtful. Valve hasn't really shifted its strategy in the PC ecosystem, except for making new hardware like the Steam Controller, Steam Machine, and upcoming Steam Frame. Moreover, fundamental differences remain between the philosophies of Sweeney and Gabe Newell's company - just recently, Sweeney called Valve "irresponsible" for forcing developers to disclose on Steam whether they used generative AI in the making of their games or products.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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