Gearbox Software"s President and CEO, Randy Pitchford, has expressed his concern about Steam"s domination of the digital distribution market and its potential exploitation of small developers.
During an interview with Maximum PC, Pitchford acknowledged the benefits of digital download game services, including the ability to log-in to any computer to download purchased content. However, when discussing Steam in particular, Pitchford said "I just don"t trust Valve".
Pitchford noted that most of his concerns with Valve comes from the "conflict of interest" of the company competing in the first-person shooter arena, much like Gearbox, while also holding complete control over the Steam service. Pitchford continued, "...I, personally, trust Valve. But I"m saying, honestly, I think a lot of the industry doesn"t...It"s actually really dangerous for the rest of the industry to allow Valve to win".
Later in the interview, Pitchford stated, "I love Valve games, and I do business with the company. But I am just saying, Steam isn"t the answer".
Should Valve choose to spin-off Steam into a new business entity, Pitchford acknowledges that his concerns would be quashed, and the potential conflict of interest could be eliminated. At present, however, Pitchford believes that, "Steam helps us as customers, but it"s also a money grab, and Valve is exploiting a lot of people in a way that"s not totally fair. Valve is taking a larger share than it should...It"s exploiting a lot of small guys..."
Gearbox has a history with Valve, working together with the software company to create addons for the successful Half-Life series of games.
Valve are reportedly not responding to requests for a response to Pitchford"s statement at this time.