Steam's dominance of digital PC game sales is fearsome. In a 2021 survey, more than a quarter of game dev studios reported that they make over 50% of their yearly revenue from Steam sales. Despite its successes, however, Valve's former economist says the company could've been even more terrifyingly powerful.
Before a stint as Greece's finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis worked with Valve as its economist in residence, studying the player economies emerging from the exchange of in-game commodities like TF2 hats. In an interview with Aftermath, Varoufakis said that, by never shifting its sights from games, Valve failed to follow its true calling: macroeconomic forecasting.
