Sure, but the point I’m making is, it’s not Steam’s fault; they’re simply doing a better job than their competitors of making their storefront attractive to consumers. Rather than blaming Steam, you should be blaming the other storefronts for not being able to capture market share.

This actually seems like not a terrible spread. The average for the top earners is a little more than 10x the average for the lowest earners… Obviously outliers could be skewing that data (there could be one hardware developer making 30 million while the others work for poverty wages) but from the data we have, this isn’t nearly as wide a gap as I would have expected.

Mono=one poly=seller… and last I checked Steam is not the only seller of video games. They aren’t even the only seller of digital video games. They aren’t even the only seller of digital video games for SteamOS.

They are the largest because they do what’s right by their customers and employees. As a ‘for instance’, I bought Portal 2 for the PS3 many years ago. I no longer have my PS3 but I can still play Portal 2 (as well as Portal which was just thrown in for me) on any PC.

I don’t think it’s misleading, “generating” implies gross profit, not net. It’s not explicit, but it’s also not misleading.

Valve moved into hardware long after its other ventures, so it’s not surprising the hardware devs make less – they’re newer. Still, $430k/yr is an enviable salary…

I don’t get it. Are there any sources for this?

Are you saying the more people get paid the less work they do? This doesn’t make sense to me. This sounds like a management and hiring issue. If someone doesn’t want to work, you replace them with someone who does. Don’t hire lazy fucks, hire competent people.

If I had a job that pays say 1 million a year, and I know I won’t be able to get paid nowhere near as much at another company, I would make sure I work hard enough not lose that amazingly paid job, because otherwise I will have to work for half that and give up my rich lifestyle.

Again, a management issue for letting employees become zombies and a hiring issue for hiring lazy bums.

Ah OK, so the classic monopolies in American History (Standard Oil - controlled 90% of its market; American Tobacco - controlled 80% of its market) were not monopolies.

Again, implying gross profit, not net. It didn’t say “makes” 50 million profit. You are inferring something that is not otherwise implied.

If I want my game to sell I have to release on Steam, though.

Do they have any kind of profit sharing program?

I’d be kind of pissed if I worked there and made like $70k or whatever, only to read this shit.

And Steam controls 80%-90% of the video game market?

That tends to happen when you have a monopoly on an industry where you get 30% of the revenue from other people’s hard work.

Treat customers right and you get rewarded. They are the majority market shareholder because they have earned it, not through deceptive business practices but through being a great company.

If they were a monopoly they wouldn’t allow other game catalogs on their systems, yet I have GOG and Epic on my Steam Deck. In fact, there isn’t even a requirement for me to have Steam on my Steam Deck. Just because a company is the market leader doesn’t mean they got there through unethical means.

If I want my game to sell I have to release on Steam, though.

I know! There’s this great game called Fortnite that no one has ever heard of because you can’t get it on Steam. /s