Former Epic dev says Valve 'played capitalism so well they broke it' — and Steam can never be replaced

Valve "played capitalism so well they broke it" and now Steam can't be replaced

Kiaran Ritchie, a former principal animation engineer at Epic Games, argues that Steam's 30% cut isn't really paying for infrastructure but for access to an enormous userbase that PC developers can't afford to skip. Even a genuinely better launcher, he says, would draw no interest from Steam users, and he doubts the situation can be fixed. The remarks follow his claim that you could 'vibe code' a Steam rival in a week, which drew a jab from Epic CEO Tim Sweeney.