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this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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It's kind of weird that Gabe Newell et al shows this much support and appreciation for the long term future than most of the people from his generation, referring more to when he entered the industry than when he was born. In theory, he could profit more in the now instead of investing in a future he might not be around to enjoy, but instead chose the high road.
It's also kind of weird that a person not being scum in a position of power is weird to me. Pretty low standard we've set for humanity.
I'm not trying to hate on Gabe Newell or Valve or anything (and not to say that it isn't a pretty objectively win-win) but I think there's some pretty easily explainable motivation behind this that isn't just "out of the kindness of their hearts"
I think the product they intend to sell is actually the software and services (there's a reason the Deck seems to be sold basically at cost), they're betting on these PC-based portable gaming devices taking off and being a viable segment of the market that other hardware companies will want to invest into, and if they do, what highly functional and easy to integrate (since it's all open source) operating system (and its subsequent game store integration) might they be more likely to use?
And why push upstream? They're by far the largest PC games provider, so more games running on more (Linux) devices can only really serve to financially benefit them
I think one of the main reasons that was missed here is that. Once Microsoft started pushing the windows store as a way to get software on windows Valve started making these moves for Linux. If Microsoft decided one day to lock all software to the windows store this is valves backup plan / bargaining chip.