Yeah, this is probably the start of dark steam. From like 2007 to 2014 they were printing money like it’d never end but they realized there was an end in sight and started heavily investing in hardware. 2018 they realize that hardware is hard and get to work on their first real game in a decade. Alyx. Which didn’t move as much hardware as they wanted when it was released in 2020. Now in 2023, you can see the panic set in. They are releasing things that feel like they should be game modes or mods to CSGO, making terrible choices. The exodus of employees from 2014 to now has left the studio with more experienced folks than typically desired. They’ve wholely acquired a studio with the promise they’d still work on their in-development title just to almost immediately drop them on to Alyx and their GaaS games. Don’t get me started on the artifact attempt which was a strong attempt, I really admire it. Lots of good folks worked on it but something clearly didn’t work out in the end. A game they spent probably a couple of million dollars in resources and time and it worse than flopped. Their 20th-anniversary picture for 2018 says it all: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam20#SaleSection_64937 “Oh god, we messed up.”

Overall a lot of people see Steam as this bastion of PC gaming. Linux providers and wonderous never do wrong gods but when you really look at their track record, they are kind of at the start of the end unless they really start turning things around. If CS2 doesn’t go well, if it tanks CSGO, you can see Valve really starting to question if they even should make games anymore. The answer to that might be no. They might be better off being a platform/hardware company only.