In 2018 a group of Valve staff tried to figure out just how efficient they were being—and found they were making more money per head than Apple, Facebook, and nearly every tech giant out there
In 2018 a group of Valve staff tried to figure out just how efficient they were being—and found they were making more money per head than Apple, Facebook, and nearly every tech giant out there
A well-oiled Steam machine.
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Gabe has known it his whole life, build a product that people want and they'll buy it. Seems more and more other big tech companies are trying to tell people what they want to buy, and people are hesitant about that.
The true meaning of "The Customer is Always Right". It's not referring to Karen trying to get 30 cents off shake n bake. It means if you make one product that you really believe in, but people don't want it, then you should build the thing they want.
Valve has done that with Steam. They built something that is easier to use than any alternative. They listen to their consumers and build products that people actually want and use. And it's turned into a cash cow.
The customer is always right, in matters of taste.
They seem to use the extra money to try to create new product categories too. Failed with the steam machine and steam controller, but that laid the way for steam input so people didn't have to mess with potentially sketchy software anymore for non Xbox controllers. And explored VR and tried a different take on the Steam machine with the Steam Deck the next go around.
Just to add: the Steam Controller may have been a commercial flop, but I still maintain that it is one of the best controllers out there, in particular for playing strategy games from the couch (right pad > mouse). I still use mine regularly and have a couple backups. The price of the Steam Controllers now reflects that it's technically a niche success.
Edit: and the dual trackpad setup plus integrated configurator technically does live on for the Steam Deck
Trackpads have been quite nice on the Steam Deck. I've used it for papers please so normal mouse games seem great for it. And touch menus for shortcuts have been handy.
I'm really sad I missed the chance to get a Steam Controller.
However, you rarely want to make the product customers ask for. If you asked customers what they wanted when Valve started, they would've said a better way to store CDs. Or for the iPhone, customers wanted a better physical keyboard (like BlackBerry), whereas Apple provided an on-screen keyboard to provide more screen real estate.
A good company should listen to what customers say, and then design products the customer didn't expect that solves the problem even better. But rarely should you build what the customers claim to want.
The customer knows the problems they have, they don't necessarily know what an effective solution looks like.
"Piracy is a service problem."
Customers always know they can resort to a hidden extra option. They choose not to because Steam makes it so easy and painless.
Streaming services are now going to learn that lesson the hard way.
build a product that people want and they’ll buy it.
Gabe knows better, they are a professional salesman. Nobody wants or wanted a third party launcher to launch their games, or borrowing them with DRMs, or getting all your personal information mined. With gimmicks such as releasing games that only work on steam or sales applied to products that never expire, they managed to build a monopoly and get so popular that steam self propel its need.