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Travel back to 2011, when Gabe Newell warned that any platform that stands still will be 'left behind rapidly.' Discover his surprising thoughts on Steam's future and the competitor he saw as a threat at the time: EA's Origin.
Transcript
00:00In a shocking revelation, it turns out that Gabe Newell, Valve co-founder and operator of the game industry's largest
00:07navy, is sometimes wrong about things.
00:09Back in 2011, in a recently rediscovered interview with, um, us, Newell said that the idea that Steam is somehow
00:18the answer to digital distribution just wasn't right.
00:21It ignores the fact that every two or three years, something is going to change dramatically, said Newell at the
00:27time.
00:28If you stand still, and you're not doing the things you need to, to be valuable in the future, you're
00:33going to be left behind rapidly.
00:35What was Steam's biggest threat at the time? The upstart origin client from EA, which, well, hasn't exactly set the
00:42world on fire in the intervening 14 years.
00:45In 2026, Steam is still dominant. Sure, it might not have stood still, but it hasn't changed dramatically, and it's
00:52definitely still the answer to digital distribution on PC.
00:55Check out the full story on PCGamer.com and follow us here for more gaming news.
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