• M500@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Just run the company in a way where you don’t really care about maximizing profit. As long as you’re not at a loss and are liked, you will be successful.

    Valve could probably be much more profitable at the expense of being a bigger dick, but Gabe is chill.

    • senoro@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Also because valve is private, they don’t have any legal obligations to return maximise profit. They can purposefully lose money if they want and it’s not illegal. (At least to my knowledge)

          • Dudewitbow@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Thats actually what valve does. Valve mandates all games on platforms must be the same retail price (e.g a game on Steam cannot be sold for 60$ retail, but be sold for 50$ on epic), not including deals and sales.

            Its standard with how physical stores demand that digital copies of games must retail at the same price as physical else stores would see that as an attack on the business by the company.

            There is essentially some level of price normalization.

      • Altima NEO@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, that’s it right there. Not being public means they don’t have to appease shareholders who want maximum growth and returns.

      • M500@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I’m guessing this is a big part of it. A private company can do just about whatever they want as there are not shareholders that you are working for.

        • Dudewitbow@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Private companies can have shareholders(all nfl teams but the Packers), its just a game of finding shareholders who doesnt care about constant short term profit.

    • Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Its unknown exactly how much money Valve makes but it is a safe bet they are probably one of the most profitable companies on the planet considering they get a cut of more or less every single PC game sale. Others have larger revenues but, relative to expenditures, they are likely a top 100 if not top 50.

      But yeah. Everyone just needs to figure out a billion dollar idea, luck out that people liked them enough to ignore the negatives while everyone else (Stardock, Atari, Gamespy, etc) were getting torn apart, and then maintain an effective monopoly for two decades. Easy.

    • rambaroo@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      But they do run it to maximize profit. There’s just allowed to do it creatively instead of obsessing over short term gains.

      I mean the company essentially gave up on AAA games for well over a decade because they were making more money from steam, and Gabe famously only approves projects that have a plan to turn a profit or expand Valve’s market.

      They didn’t spread into Linux out of sheer principle. It gives them more control and influence over the market to separate themselves from Windows. And they’ve done tons of shady stuff with steam like refusing to give refunds until they were sued by state governments.

      • Tilgare@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I don’t read it so cynically, yes it’s in their best interest and a very smart play, but I don’t read malice into it though. Good business move, but also good for the communities and projects they’re contributing to.

    • atyaz@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      Just run the company in a way where you don’t really care about maximizing profit.

      Our system of government makes this illegal for publicly traded companies.

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It helps that they aren’t struggling to keep the lights on.

      You can’t really do what you want if youre constantly worried if you can pay bills. Same for people, same for companies.