Gabe Newell caps off Steam Machine week by taking delivery of a new $500 million superyacht with a submarine garage, on-board hospital and 15 gaming PCs
Gabe Newell caps off Steam Machine week by taking delivery of a new $500 million superyacht with a submarine garage, on-board hospital and 15 gaming PCs
We'll eat Gabe last
That sounds like a reasonable compromise.
While he stays on a boat, that boat's purpose is a marine lab for conservation research. Helps to know why it has a submarine.
Billionaires shouldn't exist, but this isn't as evil as the headline makes it sound. If I basically lived on a research boat, I'd want LAN parties, too.
Okay, so we just make him use his money for good all the time under threat of throwing him into a skillet.
There are no good billionaires, kids.
Gabe is a pretty good billionaire. He has made a lot of people happy. He doesn't spend his money trying to manipulate society. I think Gabe deserves a new yacht.
There was an article about a year ago posted to Reddit about how Gabe owns 6 yachts worth $1B. I called him out in the comments and got flamed by every gamer on the platform. It's crazy the mental gymnastics these simps do to defend others living like Gods.
We are so used to billionaires being obnoxious assholes that one that isn't obnoxious about their billions feels like one of the good ones, I guess.
He made his money (like any other billionaire) by overcharging and underpaying. He wastes his money on useless bullshit like any other billionaire. But he's not obnoxious about it, which causes people to just ignore the part about billionaires that's actually bad (the way they became billionaires).
I agree mostly, but Valve employees are reportedly paid an incredible amount of money compared to the market average, so underpaying would probably only refer to the hefty (but industry standard) 30% cut of game sales they take from game publishers.
He charged less than others and pays better than others.
Valve also can't take much of a lower cut on game sales because their current cut is the market average and valve would get in legal trouble for monopoly practices and unfair competition because they're already so much more popular than the few competitors they have. What Gabe could do is give money away and be like alteuistic.
once you hit $100M, you have enough to never work again. you could spend the rest of your living days spending time in a community making sure everyone there is fed, housed, and safe.
even just maintaining your personal status quo of working the way you did to get into 9 figures is inherently supportive of the global system of torture all of us are forced to live in. while i agree gabe newell, jay-z, and taylor swift shouldn't be the main focus of our ire, i find the degree of worship they receive confusing.
G*mers are fucking troglodytes.
Why is everyone acting surprised, this has been Gabe's thing for a long time? He's super into boats and submarines and owns a submarine company or something like that. i think I'm burned out from the news cycle, getting outraged by this just feels like a waste of my emotional energy that I could spend somewhere it will matter.
Rich man buys rich people stuff. Wow that's crazy news.
Never stops being disgusting.
Because a lot of them are bots hoping to hurt valve's hardware line. Not sure if it's Microsoft or Epic Games that's paying for them, but you can tell both are getting panicked about the announcements and are splashing money around.
That or you won’t outrage against your god Gabe.
“ Elon, trump, bezos, sure fuck those guys, but I don’t have the energy to say fuck Gabe! “
I hate Elon, Trump and Bezos for reasons other than their expensive hobbies tbf. The company Gabe runs may have what is essentially a monopoly, but it doesn't engage in monopolistic practices and it gives a lot back to the community, especially if you're a Linux gamer.
EGS just sucks and Sweeney himself said he's not interested in improving it, except by paying for exclusives. Which is funny, because Epic Games used to be pretty great for the gaming industry - with their grants and stuff. GOG is cool, but often publishers don't want to sell their newer games without DRM. Steam is just the de facto best experience for buying games.
Nah, he's another rich guy. I don't play video games anymore, don't really care. Fuck gaben. But also rich guy continues to pursue his boat hobby just doesn't feel like news, and definitely not news that it's productive to be upset about. What do I get out of being angry at Gabe for buying another boat? Nothing, and being angry about seems to be making my life worse not better.
Funny, I was just reading about this sort of thing in "How to blow up a pipeline". It's the sort of argument that seems obvious in retrospect.
When someone in the global south uses a coal stove to cook their food, they're doing it by necessity. When a billionaire sails out on a mega yacht, it's pure excess. Yeah, banning them won't make the difference between 1.5C and 2.0C of global warming, but it's low hanging fruit.
We can also ban private jets, and the only significant impact to the economy would be that some billionaires have to travel around in first class like some kind of lowly multimillionaire or upgraded plebian.
It does not matter if you think Valve makes good products or not.
It'd be cool if these mandated these things be solar/battery/sail powered.
To be fair, if I had the money, I'd get a yacht to get out of society as well. I would gladly sail out to sea as long as possible, and plan things from there.
The fash should bomb the yachts instead of murdering poor people off the coast of venezuela.
I can see how banning might be controversial, but I sure wish they'd tax the hell out of them. Make that yacht not a million, but 10 or 100, a billion. Give that tax money to services like healthcare or UBI. I can see unique perks to yachts, if you genuinely want one as a dream I'm not gonna stop you, just commit to that being the dream you want.
In practise I can see how politicans would (or do) just use that money for themselves anyway...
Love your balanced take. Thanks for not taking about eating out guillotining humans my friend. :)
Fucking disgusting. There's no way to be a billionaire while not being a total shitstain that just sucks the society dry.
Most comments ITT boil down to two things:
Cat shit is not the same as elephant shit. Contents are different and there is a enormous difference in amounts. Would you rather have an elephant shit in your house of a cat shit in a litterbox in your house?
Yup, that's part of the deal: cat shit is preferable over elephant shit. The other part is that cat shit is still shit, and it's still undesirable.
Now look at the discussion in this thread. Gabe Newell is cat shit; some comments are trying to defend him as not shit, some trying to pretend his behaviour is exactly as bad as elephant shit (your typical billionaire). Between a billionaire like Newell spending money on a research yacht versus one like Musk fuelling some random dictatorship, Newell is preferable. And he's still undesirable as any of those money-hoarding psychopaths.
none of it
No sarcasm, pure sincerity, that was a beautifully eloquent comment, kudos.
Good thing I have toxoplasmosis
Elephant shit for you then :)
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(just kidding.)
Gross.
This is that research vessel he talked about a while back.
Leviathan has also been designed with scientific work in mind: Newell's interests now include Starfish Neuroscience, a company focused on neural interfaces (popularly known as "brain chips"), and Inkfish, a marine research operation. Part of this is a "convention-defying layout" that apparently brings teams together, which makes me think about all the times I've read about desks with wheels at Valve.
Unlike his other yachts, this one actually has a purpose.
It's still a luxury yacht decked out with nearly all the things you'd expect from a half a billion dollar superyacht. Only part of it is customised for research. If the main goal was to turn half a billion dollars into a research boat, this isn't the boat that would get made.
Alternatively, it's a luxury yacht for small teams of passionate scientists to keep them happy and comfortable for long periods, and also a floating town for Gabe to live in
Also, if you want to criticize it there's one implication that worries me... Part of the concept is that this yacht will be a floating lab that can pick up and move to avoid regulations
Actually a few of the current ones and the purchase of the yacht facility a few years ago have all been to support inkfish.
But when Gates donates to his random pet projects we rage right?
He should probably be taxed more
Eat the Rich includes him
I suppose we can be reassured that the Obscene Yacht industry is still going strong despite the cost of living crisis.
Pretty sure we're all wasting our lives serving capital in order to keep the obscene yachts on the seas.
USA should be more honest and switch from GDP to GOYP.
Most Obscene Yachts don't come from the US anyway
The materials were also chosen with an eye on reducing maintenance and repetitive tasks for the yacht's staff, so traditional materials like teak decks and wooden handrails are out, and composite alternatives are in. The diesel-electric power plant works alongside a battery storage system that allows Leviathan to operate for long stretches with no emissions, and it also features an advanced wastewater treatment system.
On the one hand, it's nice that mr Newell seems to be reducing the footprint of their luxury yacht above and beyond most of what I have heard happens in the rest of the luxury yacht industry. On the other hand, I shudder to think of what the footprint for the manufacturing of this custom-designed, one-of-a-kind luxury yacht looked like. Not to mention 'composite' usually means some sort of plastic, so now there'll be one more thing spewing microplastics directly into the ocean...
"composite" is also one of the default materials in modern boat building (fibreglass)
This is the entire point of capitalism. The greatest system ever. Literally enslaving humanity and destroying the planet...
That's more common in new high-end luxury yachts, it's a benefit to the guests as well (prob the main motivation?).
To be fair: the Emission free battery electric part is actually worse than burning diesel, unless taken from a grid or used in low power operations. If you use it to circumvent fuel Emission standards it's good. If you use it with regular fuel while entering a harbor it's good for the local environment while being bad for the global. (Overall probably good, in that case)
Since a yacht would have a lot of idling while chilling at sea it's probably a net good.
Well I'm sure that they can charge it when docked. Would be idiotic if they didn't factor that in, given how much time yachts spend docked.
And marine diesel engines also usually run at a fairly steady speed, they don't really get revved up. The big ones anyway, I mean. In diesel-electric systems you can run the diesel engine at its most efficient speed to power the electrical system which is what actually moves the ship.
So I think it's a net good... compared to a straight diesel yacht. But obviously the better option would be no yacht.
Why not to spend this money on charity? Or a political party who oppose fascist? Or, heck, spend it for weapons for Ukraine! I don't understand.
You don't understand that billionaires are greedy?
I don't get these naive responses.
You can understand when someone in your own class is greedy, but they get really rich and its suddenly a surprise?
Well, you can take my message as an emotional rant
I'm all for enjoying some luxuries in this world, but with this amount of money that anyone gets it could be given to better help all.
Ok, I looked, he has a piss poor record with donations:
Educational and Research
Foundry10: Newell co-founded this educational company focused on exploring and researching non-traditional learning methods.
-not a donation. In 2024, foundry10 had total expenses of approximately $2.02 million, against a revenue of $1.83 million. He spent more on shitters for this yacht.
Racing and Motorsports
Heart of Racing: In 2020, Newell co-founded this racing team to raise funds for children's charities.
-no, this is to own a race team.
Seattle Children's Hospital: The Heart of Racing partners with the Seattle Children's Hospital, with a commitment to raise money for its pediatric cardiac care unit.
no actual money mentioned.
Space and Other Projects
Gnome Chompski: In 2020, Newell sent a titanium replica of the Half-Life 2 gnome, "Gnome Chompski," into space with Rocket Lab.
Blew junk into space, ok Elon.
Donation: He pledged to donate $1 to the Starship Children's Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand, for every person who watched the launch stream within 24 hours. The total amount raised was over $286,000.
Not exactly charity. it was a tool to get people to watch a launch.
Other projects: Newell has also autographed posters for charity auctions, such as for the AbleGamers Charity.
I'm sure tens of dollars were raised.
Other projects: Newell has also autographed posters for charity auctions, such as for the AbleGamers Charity.
I’m sure tens of dollars were raised.
I dunno, I imagine a few of the Gabe Newell cult worshipers would pay top dollar for the signature.
Are you spending your money on charity or weapons for Ukraine?
Sometimes I give money to anti-fascists, political activists and regular people who got repressed so they can pay to a lawyer.
This yacht is a research vessel. Not necessarily a party-hookers-drugs vessel.
This is like the lie kids tell their parents every time its new PC time for back to school.
"I swear mom! The GPU is for school work!"
Sure thing, bud
Yeah, sounds about right for the state of "science".
It's... For science!
What is it with millionaires and yachts?
I hate boats, even on a calm day in a lake which is only about 2 m deep I'm constantly convinced the damn thing is going to sink.
Do people actually like being on boats, it's basically like being in a cramped apartment that is really inconvenient to get to and from, that constantly experiences a never-ending earthquake, why is that anyone's idea of a good time?
Also I really hope somebody has tested that submarine extensively.
Privacy and Security. You're out there where no paparazzi can take bikini pictures of you. It's easy to secure so that nobody can kidnap you. And take a look at the interior of those Yachts, they are not cramped. Look at this thing:
It's bigger than your home. It has its own helipad. It is 111m long.
Millionaires billionaires.
It’s a dick-measuring contest from more civilised times.
As RC-1138 would put it, "Times have changed"
I love boats. I don't own one unfortunately, but I've never had a bad time on a boat, they're awesome and fun even if you're not going out fishing.
I've never been on a super yacht before, but I imagine it'd be like a cruise ship without other guests, just your family/friends and employees. I think I'd rather take a cheap cruise tbh.
It's the new fancy castles.
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The most you can get detached from the pleb.
If you wanted a huge luxury castle you needed the resources of maybe hundreds of villages and a staff of hundreds just for regular upkeep (you had to make all the products needed locally, from cleaning supplies to masonry, etc).
But today building a home for 1bn (that's basically a limit of sorts, -ish) that can run on a staff of 10 ppl is hitting the limit of usability.
With mega/superyachts (ie luxury ships) it's a more exclusive game, this dude didn't just spend half a billon on a "smaller" object (that took 2000 people 4 years to build), it will also cost him 50100 million in yearly upkeep (+maybe that sum every like 310 years for refurnishing, bcs why not, it's the standard).
And this isn't counting the usual support megayacht that will probably accompany the superyacht at all times (for extra staff, equipment, quests, maybe area accessibility in some cases).
As a NOT millionaire (technically I am homeless though in far better shape than some) boats are enjoyable and even fun. Paddle boats, row boats (my favorite), canoes, small and medium powered craft can all be a blast. I've never been on a yacht and wouldn't choose to the same as never having chosen to be on a regular tourist cruise or in a casino except for work. I don't like people that much.
That cramped cabin and constant earthquake is only on a ship really. Even choppy seas aren't too bad.
It sounds like you mostly hate water, which I understand. My gf is the same.
Do you use swimming pools and if so, do you avoid the deep end?
For me, I grew up around water, lakes and beaches, and my grandfather was in the coast guard auxiliary and had a cabin cruiser. Even a good summer weekend involves climbing into an inner tube and floating down a river all day.
I'm trying to imagine vikings.
Fuck billionaires, him included. A personal submarine bay is just baller as fuck, though.
Imagine the amazing LAN parties!
30% is too much! Clearly Steam doesn't need that much to operate (the percentage of each sale that go to Valve)
What's with this obsession over Valve making profit? Should they never expand or develop new things? BTW tell your boss I want Unreal back
Yeah, I want such giants (that are basically core infrastructure of a sector) to be regulated.
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Just whip up a law saying their margins can't be over 5% of a game's sale price (the reason is to boost smal devs & market competition). Worst case 10 ppl don't get richer.
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(It's a bit like capping the price of a medicine, but for cultural reasons instead of healthcare reasons.)
What, are they gonna quit the business bcs making only 100 million a year in net profit just isn't worth it & would rather go do manual labour in the mines instead?
(Same logic as with taxes - if there was a 90% tax over 10 million ppl would still do the same things they do anyway, we were just taught to believe that someone earning 1bn per year would say 'no, it's not worth it for those 100m after taxes, I quit and now you can't buy my good overpriced phones anymore so you lose'. It would never happen. The only difference would be in their wealth concentration, ie in their power over government/lobbies/public media.)
I never understood the appeal of anything rich people like. A yacht? An HOA? A supercar? These don’t appeal to me at all. If given them I would hate them.
I mean it might be fun to buy a politician but otherwise it sounds boring.
I mean yachts seem to be his hobby, he has several. Idk, they can be kinda cool, but only in retirement and on vacations. Day to day, completely useless and cost a lot of money to maintain even when not used. And I don't think megayachts are as cool as smaller ones because part of the appeal to me is to get away from everyone. I wouldn't want 100 people on my yacht. Maybe 4-5 of my closest friends, but you can do that with a yacht costing two orders of magnitude less (and even that is if you want a passagemaker. Something that doesn't have to be able to cross the ocean can be had for well under a million I think)
Supercars are fun IF you track them. Wouldn't want to drive one in traffic. Much prefer a luxury car for that if I was rich. Of course I think any rich person who owns supercars and hypercars, also has luxury cruisers to waft around in (or to be wafted around in).
HOAs I'll never get. Fuck anyone who thinks they can impose rules on what I do with my own yard.
Something that doesn't have to be able to cross the ocean can be had for well under a million I think
Well, well under a million. You can cross the ocean safely and in comfort on 30k yachts, 10ish metres.
Same. I'd probably build a giant dog park, giant playground for kids, lots of natural trails, etc. make it all free.
Build shelters for anyone to use, garages where people could work on their cars safely and out of the elements, bike repair stations, things like that.
Farmers markets with real prices, completely remove all investors and profit hell, just back to basics. Healthcare too.
Fuck a super yacht. Tells you how selfish people are, completely unaware how they got where they are.
They could spend 10k/day and never spend all their money, not even a dent. Just selfish pricks. Bring the guillotine.
My friends and I have this imaginary scenario of funny things we could do with lots of money. A few that come to mind:
I think I'm going to start referring to this scenario as #withGabeNewellsmoney
The only insane rich people things I'd do that a dentist couldnt are, like, a lazy river with fish and some cool greenhouses. Maybe some science funding for weird shit I want.
Real. Give me a state of the art lab for multidisciplinary scientific research and some of the world's best scientists to do as they wish in that lab. I have so many unanswered questions about the universe.
This is how I find out that he has a yacht called "Rocinante".
I couldn't find the date where Gaben bought it, but the boat was originally built in 2008 and for someone else, so I guess I don't know if Gaben is a "The Expanse" fan or just a fan of "Don Quixote". I'd prefer the former.
Anywho.. #EatTheRich
If it's the latter, at least it's self deprecating
Might equally be a Rush fan.
🎵 I set a course just east of Lyra
And northwest of Pegasus
Flew into the light of Deneb
Sailed across the Milky Way
On my ship, the 'Rocinante'
Wheeling through the galaxies
Headed for the heart of Cygnus
Headlong into mystery 🎵
When I first glanced at the title, I got excited because I saw Steam Machine and $500. 😔
Same lmao
15 gaming PCs
Priorities, eh?
lmao.
You can tell that microsoft is worried about the steam machine, since they've started spinning up the propaganda machines against Valve.
Fucking billionaires
Sounds like a porn site
Dude, I thought you were cool.
Owning a yacht is like the lamest thing you could possibly do!
With the coolest things being feeding the hungry and housing the poor obviously.
This one is just the latest in his collection, looks like this is #7
I lost a lot of respect for Gabe after just reading quickly through that. How can you justify having 1, let alone 7?
I agree with RagingRobot@lemmy.world, buying a yacht could be one of the lamest ways to spend money.
He's come a long way on the last decade.
This isn't a new pic. Just keeps getting reused for those articles.
Imagine having a dedicated yacht hospital for yourself when most can't afford decent healthcare. I hope people stop idolizing Gabe, he is just your run of the mill billionaire.
He does at least use his vessels for research via his company Inkfish. They map the ocean floor, discover new species, study different underwater environments etc. They actually hold world records for deepest manned dives of all 5 oceans.
Billionaires still shouldn't exist though of course (not /s)
Ye but he's one of the good ones
Least bad perhaps. There are no good ones.
Gabe looks a lot like me. I think I see where they could have cut some corners.
Is that honestly the most comfortable sitting arrangement he could buy with $500M?
Everyone on here acts like Gabe is THEIR billionaire, and Steam is THEIR capitalist billionaire corporation.
Gabe is a dirtbag and a thief by the sole virtue of being a billionaire. Nobody earns a billion dollars, you get it by stealing wages and time from the workers below you.
Steam is a dirtbag corporation as well, no matter how many fanboys try to sweep Steam’s history of fuckery under the rug
you get it by stealing wages and time from the workers below you
That and turning kids into gambling addicts.
Ugh. Why are people like this?
Lifetime of indoctrination into disgusting ideologies.
Perks of not taking your company public? I hate two comma mfers as much as the next red blooded American, but Gabe ain't the one.
What you're after is a bit of socialism.
We don't have to kill all the millionaires and billionaires, they are just required to contribute to the world more than they take, as long as they do that they can have their luxury yachts.
The problem is almost none of them actually do contribute anything to the world and most of the ones that do contribute things that the world doesn't want. Elon Musk contributes a lot of electric cars to the world, which would be a good thing, it's just a shame they're all dangerous killing machines.
Elon Musk actively hinders his companies from succeeding. People need to stop glorifying his involvement in companies he paid to have his name on.
they are just required to contribute to the world more than they take
They wouldn't be millionaires or billionaires then. You don't get millionaire without appropriating the labor of others.
Yes! I'm actually closer to a communist but socialism would be a welcome change in the US.
At the most he's the least horrible of them.
High chance if he decided to take home "just" $10 million per year, he could pay every single one of the Valve employees at least 100k more every year.
That or they could take less than 30% from developer profits.
In fairness, the employees are the highest paid in the industry, making well over 1/2 million a year + bonuses, and even the janitor I believe is well paid, from a leak that came out once in the news.
They also have very few employees surprisingly.
And they're private, so there's no "line must always go up" mentality either.
Should they be paid even more? Yes, but compared to basically all other corporations, he's like last on the list. Not to mention gaming on Linux and open source software (and now, VR on Linux) has basically become possible and easily achievable thanks to Valve, so at least some of that huge money is going back directly to the relevant community. That's way more than can be said about any other tech company.
He's still on the list, but he might be the furthest down.
I like the way they list those things in the title. Like which one is the most expensive: the hospital, the submarine garage, or fifteen gaming PCs?
Do they have 5090s in them?
Would bet cash money this article was sponsored by Tim Sweeny, who is also a billionaire lol.
Not saying this excuses Gabe Newell in any way, but this was made purely to attack Valve's newly announced product.
They had no issue when a billionaire with an order of magnitude more wealth than both Tim or Gabe went around advertising his shitty Amazon MMO:
It's impossible to say where New World will be in a year, whether it will be on the road to obscurity or finally giving World of Warcraft something to sweat about, but right now it's a huge success that validates the commitment and patience Amazon has taken with it. Bezos may not have had a direct hand in its creation, but as the person who greenlighted Amazon's foray into gaming more than a half-decade ago, you can understand his pride in it.
Half Life 3 takes place on open sea.
Borealis hits the vibe
Waterworld
Parasite.
And how much would Half-Life 3 cost to develop?
Developing a good game is not only a money problem.
The good talent that wanted to make that game left because Gabe waited too long.
Or like... Food and medicine for the desperate of humanity?
There's dozens of other people bringing that up in this thread. And to be fair, if Gabe put the money Half Life 3 development, those programmers, writers and artists would be getting paid.
Not one person 🧵 mentioned the mafia tactics he employed to get billions in larceny.
I've thought he was a piece of shit ever since he tried to monetize modding. He was so out of line, even redditors downvoted him to hell.
I buy from gog or directly from the dev nowadays.
He'll taste like chicken, too. Fuck these obscenely rich.
Pork, actually. Everyone's favorite dish: gilded long pig
I mean if you can’t have a gigayacht what even is the point of being a billionaire. And then letting a magazine write an article about it so all the other billionaires know you’re flexing on them. I mean the guy deserves the basics at least.
Ok the on board hospital does make sense if he spends all his time living on the water
He bought that off the tears of teenagers not getting the knife they wanted over and over and over again. Scumbag.
Well that's not fair, a lot of his money also comes from scammers laundering stolen credit card funds through steam game keys.
what does he need the 15 gaming pcs for??
LAN parties
Imagine being the IT person that maintains those. Do they get to live on the superyacht on call? Or do they get serviced when he takes the yacht into the shop. These are my questions. I'm sure he knows about PCs but ain't no billionaire maintaining 15 gaming PCs himself.
I mean I guess this is better than 500 million sitting off shore bank accounts. A big part of the problem is rich people don't spend their money.
this is better than 500 million sitting off shore bank accounts
You'd think so, but not really. In terms of pollution, a mega yacht pretty much makes a private jet look like a bicycle.
He might as well just hand most of the money directly to a refinery in Cancer Alley.
A big part of the problem is rich people don't spend their money.
True, but a bigger part of the problem is that when they DO spend it rather than pathologically hoarding it, it's often on things that are actively harmful. Such as corrupt politicians, AI nonsense, and mega yachts.
I had always questioned when game developers complained steam took an unfairly high percentage of their income... Then I see this and it all makes sense now.
Personally, if I had GabeN money to spend on a yacht, I would commission something similar to S/S Delphine, S/S Norrskär or / S/S Storskär, I love the classic lines of a late 1800s, early 1900s small ship.
Modern yachts/ships look so boring...
I would probably donate most of it to a worthy cause. I don't need anywhere near that amount of money, anything over $5M gets donated.
Talk is cheap.
Why specifically $5M and not say $1M? Building a house should apparently cost you half of that, and I assume the rest is for investing into passive income?
I agree with the other guy, talk is cheap. I probably don't need a 4k TV or multiple consoles, but I immediately started planning and buying after a raise.
If I were a billionaire I would buy an old ass ship (forgive me IDK much about naval history) like an ironclad, retrofit it with a nuclear reactor and then full horsepower it through a yacht yard
would commission something similar to S/S Delphine, S/S Norrskär or / S/S Storskär, I love the classic lines of a late 1800s, early 1900s small ship.
if you show up with one of these other billionares would think you got it from a ship breakyard
Nah, they would be restored to perfection and upgraded with modern tech
I'm a Steam user...dammit now what? Sail into a Beaufort 12 storm with that colossal waste of everything.
The 'Steam is a pseudo monopoly' thread was NOT like this. It was a bunch of commenters simping for Valve and Gabe, even here on Lemmy.
...Which is why they can charge 30%, and Gabe has a few mega yachts.
I can think that Steam at least provides a ton of services and value for that 30% , while also being annoyed that governments don't tax people more.
If only Valve was a public company and we could get a real look in their finances. I think many people would have a very different opinion of them. My little conspiracy theory is that this lack of transparency is why they’re flying under the radar of EU Digital Markets Act as they sure look like a gatekeeper.
Gabe Poowell.
Fuck this guy.. Like Taylor Swift he's just a leech on society :(
Good comparison. Two billionaires that enjoy their yachts and private jets, didn't get rich by speculating with food or shelter, are well respected by their employees and mostly leave us alone. Better them than the chairman of the party, king or whatever.
living the dream
The dream that you can be a good person and a billionaire.
Vibeo games so expensive and he could only afford a 500 million dollar yacht. Wtf Nintendo
15 gaming PCs, now that's just too many.
On his 7th yacht.
Wow I was a day one Steam Machine, Frame and Controller buyer until this. Maybe people like me are the problem.
It's not you, it's the billionaires who are the problem. It doesn't matter what you buy.
I still don't get why people go to bat for valve, despite all the anti consumer shit they regularly do.
They are anti-developer (though dev opinions differ), but most people aren't affected by the anti-consumer stuff. The only instances I know are censorship with niche visual novels and case gambling (and things like crashing CSGO economy sound like good things in that regard), unless there's more I don't know.
Contrast this to Nintendo just saying throwing lawsuits everywhere, among other things.
They had to be forced into allowing refunds. They're pretty shit with dealing with hacked accounts. Their forced price parity rules effectively raise prices across the industry.
Other companies being worse doesn't make this one defacto good.
I too take to the seven seas.
This dude was pretty cool like 16 years ago.
He can go fuck himself now though.
Y’all paid for this. He should make room for you too.
You mean the guy that took millions of gamer's money for a series everyone loved and that allowed his company to survive, only to abandon that series in favor of making mountains of cash with another product, may not be the standup guy a bunch of fanboys thought he was?
No way.
Pretty sure 99.99% of his wealth at this point comes from Steam taking 30% cut and lootboxes in CS.
Gabe's company isn't publicly owned, but he clearly made his billions putting his money into the stock market, probably hedge funds.
Thats getting away with raping children money.
Why do you think dude loves international waters...
Based gabe
Rich asshole who throws money that could alter the lives of thousands on yet another yacht.
that moment when the One Good Billionaire™ casually orders a boat that costs several times more money than most of us will ever see in our lifetimes 🙃
i get that there's worse out there but i'm tired of people acting like newell is a saint... he's just another billionaire.
People need to remember a lot of the pro-consumer things that Valve has ever done were things they were forced to by regulation.
Like being able to return games? That was to comply with an Australian law, and it was just easier to implement it for everyone than just do it for Australia specifically.
I like Valve more than most companies, but exactly, they are not Saints by any measure.
In general, I think being decent to customers is a business strategy, because the barrier to entry for a Steam competitor is nearly non-existent, and there's always piracy. Still, capitalism working the way it's "supposed to" is still capitalism.
Well you say that but Sony also has an online game marketplace that operates in Australia.
I don’t know how it works in Australia, but in the U.S. their return policy is not nearly as generous as Steam’s. In fact it Sony’s return policy only really exists on paper. In reality they don’t really do returns at all.
I think we're just at a point where a company not constantly trying to find ways to squirm out of every single thing is a breath of fresh air.
"Hi! We're valve. We're mostly following the law without fuss, mostly make money by getting people to buy things they want, and our excessively wealthy owner acts like a preposterously rich person, not a comic book villain: Fantasizing about living his life isn't deeply concerning. The hardware we sell isn't deliberately worse for consumers to no benefit to ourselves" -- Hands down one of the best "big" companies out there.
While I won't defend that he could be much more altruistic with his money, but complying with different refund laws at a digital level is super easy to do. Even more so for Australia, since it isn't like anyone bouncing between country borders all the time there.
Everyone also seems to ignore that they started the lootbox epidemic.
A billionaire whose hobby is Marine conservation. That yacht is a floating lab.
Inkfish, founded by Gabe Newell, aims to advance marine science by providing tools and access for deep-ocean exploration, focusing on serving the scientific community rather than personal interests. The organization's mission is to integrate marine science, engineering, and technology to map uncharted seafloor, study biodiversity, discover new species, and protect ocean ecosystems, while also providing open-source data and technical support to scientists
While all that is indeed good, we shouldn't have to rely on the benevolence of the wealthy to be able to have a better world. No offense, but that kind of stuff should be paid for by taxation. He is doing some good here, but it's also his pet project, his choice where the money goes, no one else, no input from society at large. It's still overall not a real great thing, because it means that we have to just hope that billionaires have pet projects that help society and the earth at large. The majority of them don't. Hell, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk think the future is for digital-post-humans and the things they are trying to do "for the future" are revolving around a plan where humans as we know them effectively become an extinct species, which is inherently elitist and definitely not beneficial to overall society since it means they effectively don't care if any of us die to achieve it. Just because Newell has better values than the rest doesn't mean the situation doesn't still suck ass.
This yacht is many things, one of them being a floating lab. It's not like it isn't a super-luxury yacht for $500 million, also. Or like he hasn't a couple more super-yachts.
I mean, good for the man, good that he's doing marine conservation on the side, or that he actually cares about his companies, employees, etc. But also, wow, what kind of amounts do billionaires spend on playthings, and what you could do with such money for the betterment of society.
If your hobby is marine conservation you don't own a fleet of luxury mega yachts
Imagine believing this.
This sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole after skimming through the article...
Neural interfaces? Uh oh, that reminds me of another billionaire and a heart-breaking story about animal testing.
https://www.gsmgotech.com/2025/05/gabe-newellbacked-starfish-bci-chip-to.html
Oh ok... well that doesn't sound as bad. Wait, didn't Valve just announce a new VR headset that has a port which can be used for 3rd party accessories?
Hmmm...
If I recall correctly Newell himself has made comments on how scary brain interfaces become when the interfaces can start influencing the mind as well as reading it. Giving it positive signals in association with certain ideas or products, essentially a shortcut to what traditional advertising tried to exploit about human cognition, except now it could be forced directly, where you can essentially "force" people's brains to be happy with a certain situation, idea, or product. He is at least cognizant of the dangers, but who knows how cognizant or how he plans to address those dangers.
Refreshing to hear this take. Valve and Gabe get glazed so hard when at the end of the day it's about the bottom dollar for them too.
Honestly I think people love them so much because everyone else has been horrible by comparison.
People love them because they still offer good products and services, some of them completely for free. I think it's perfectly valid to recognize and appreciate the good, even when there's also bad.
If you made people's nostalgia, they will defend you.
Nintendo has defenders. Disney has defenders. Blizzard has defenders. And so on.
People will defend a company for free because they did something cool ~20 years ago.
Yes. They're only horrible in the way most gaming companies were decades ago rather than the wretchedly awful way the companies are today.
You must likely will never earn more than 2 mil in your lifetime. With 2 orders of magnitude and a doubling factor, that’s still not 500M lmao. And just like a car purchase, that’s only for the purchase price, not the upkeep.
Yeah, I don't understand people who ascribe more to GabeN than running a decent business. Steam has done right by me, so I remain a customer. I didn't play many games before Steam came to Linux, then I played more and more as Linux support improved (Proton was game changing),.
My opinion of him ends there. Steam is a great product, as is the Steam Deck. If Valve stops making great products, I'll stop buying. Whether Gabe Newell is a good person is irrelevant here.
And I mean Gabe is overseeing the Valve team's success, allowing his employees to develop at their pace and following what appears to be their passion. They aren't shoehorning AI or whatever the latest buzzword to goose some imaginary number. Gabe was pissed at Windows enough, he used to work for Microsoft, so he's instrumental in helping break Microsoft's monopoly on gaming operating systems by supporting Linux compatibility and releasing first party hardware.
He deserves credit for the culture he cultivates in his company and shares in its success. Likewise, shame should be where shame is due, like with the whole lootbox gambling economy thing. The main reason why it is viewed as refreshingly good is because they seem to be one of the few big companies that still believe that profit growth comes from valuing employees, suppliers (gamedevs) and consumers, rather than trying to squeeze every last drop of profit no matter how cruel. It should be the norm yet it seems to be the exception.
It would be nice to have no billionaires, but right now we live in a world where government tells states to clawback aid they gave to hungry families so taxing the rich, or acting in any way that resembles normalcy, is a lot to expect right now. We can let Gabe make a silly luxury purchase.
If Valve burns the trust it has earned, then I will move away from them too, I don't owe Gabe or Valve anything.
Would you buy zionist games? Are you willing to support genocide if the games are good? Do you give a shit about anything at all? You just like playing your lil gamies? Typical USAian.
He’s just another billionaire. Probably just not the typical sociopathic ones or a narcissist.
Once he had enough money for everything he could ever need he could have devoted himself to building a self sufficient non-capitalist future for valve/steam with irrevocable covenants in its governance that are not manipulated by the next sociopath to take leadership of the company, like Altman is doing with OpenAI.
Point being, he might not be a sociopath like the majority of them, and he doesn’t seem to be evil, but he’s not a saint either.
There’s also the platforms moderation issues with shitloads of bigotry. Feels like a blind eye but maybe it’s just me. They could take a spare billion in profits, throw it into low risks stocks with dividends or bonds, and pay a team to moderate it out of that in perpetuity without affecting his business or his life like how college endowments work. That is unless the goal for him is still more billions.
Exactly. Valve might have a "flat" management structure, but Newell hasn't exactly re-organized Valve into a worker-owned co-op either.
Who upvotes this nonsense? Non-capitalist? jfc.
A yacht - and a yacht builder.
Nobody should have that much wealth, I don't care what they do.
I have always respected Gabe's "fuck gamers I do what I think is cool" mindset though. Fuck gamers.
He used to make games. He stopped making games to sell other people's games.
I get why people like Steam, but when people say you shouldn't play games that require other launchers, especially when all-in-one launchers like Playnite exist... I think people should get off his dick a bit.
The problem I have is that Valve used to make GREAT games. And there's so much trash and shovelware out there, it would be nice to see a good developer come back. The hope is that they will at least make good gaming hardware.
even then, "he used to make games"… was he alone? did he not have a team with him? where are their billions?
valve is an alright company all things considered, but it’s baffling to me how many people act like they’re the second coming… people should know better. valve is a corporation operating under capitalism. they’re not above doing shady stuff for profit.
Valve have really opened the floor for others to make good games though, right? I remember hanging out in indie game dev spaces about... 15-20 years ago, and many people's best hope was to get accepted by a publisher and get 40% of sale revenue (publisher kept 60%). Getting onto Steam back then was very difficult (before greenlight).
Now anyone can publish on Steam, for better or for worse, and there are heaps of really cool indie games that rise to the top. Indie games were instrumental in the early days of VR as well.
Valve seem to have switched to a supporting role. They are developing hardware because it's a gap they see in broadening their audience, and they let developers fill in the software because today being a game developer is really accessible.
To be fair, HL: Alyx was a pretty great game, that arguably gave you experience jumps like the original Half Life. I don't remember much about it but I remember enjoying playing it. The little moments when you discover things like how you can write on a whiteboard by picking up a pen, or that you can only carry two grenades on your belt, but you can pick up a bucket and carry it around full of grenades, things that weren't really possible in the same way until that new medium that they developed top of line hardware for.
I mean, they are still making games, even if they're not the games you want. CS2 released not long ago, Deadlock is under very active development, and there's some decent reasons to believe another game is currently in progress (like their Steam developer page showing 2 upcoming games).
scratches neck
we're getting HL3 any day now, i swear
I don't think anyone thinks he's a saint, despite the memes. Except if you compare him to the fucking sleazeballs at companies like Epic, Rockstar, Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Ubisoft, EA, Blizzard, etc. etc., not to mention every other publicly traded corporation, he kind of his. Again, by comparison. He single-handedly improves the entire industry. He could very well have developed a locked down Steam OS that won't do anything but play games but he instead invested in an open source platform that sorely needed it, and makes the world a better place. Steam doesn't have to put up big banners for Denuvo or AI or games that require a remote account but they do, purely for the benefit of the users.
It's like he said decades ago, or near decades ago. Piracy is a quality of service problem.
When you do the right thing the right way, people will come and you can make a shit load of money. It doesn't even mean he has to have done everything right, but you do enough right non-anti-competitive things like that, and it makes a difference.
Same thing like you said about SteamOS. They didn't have to make it open, and could have made money, but the ecosystem that can be built around an open platform, and the people you can draw to it are going to be miles better than a closed system where thats the mindset from the top.
"single-handedly" lmao, as if newell is the guy doing all the work and not the valve employees who work for him… or, yknow, the contributors to all the open-source projects steamos is built on
proton and steamos would be nowhere today without the decades of work by the WINE/DXVK contributors, and the myriad of other open-source projects that make Linux into what it is. all valve did was add their proprietary client on top of that (as well as fund the development of proton, tbf, i'm thankful for them on that one… but again, that work was done by valve employees and contributors, not the billionaire CEO)
He owns the 50th largest yacht in the world and 5 more, i would argue he's on top with the worst not just another
I dont have a problem with it. If i had that much money i would buy crazy shit too. I start to have a problem with it when it encroaches on my quality of life (buying politicians, scooping up homes meant for families, etc)
Yeah, everyone is like "I wanna call it the GabeCube".
I dunno man, I get that Valve is letting them work on cool shit but the people working on these things should get credit too. We don't know how big Gabe's involvement too and I don't want to deify a billionaire for no obvious reason.
Look at it from a different point of view: those 500 Million were moved from One Good Billionaire to Multiple Evil Millionairs. Yay.
Tbf gabe has been pushing for ocean exploration for a long time since we barely know our oceans and he has the money to fund that. Very cool stuff normal people can't do.
The governments of normal people could be doing it but the money is going to billionaires instead.
He’s done things like partner up for a charity race team in IMSA and WEC. So don’t expect him to not spend his money.