Gabe Newell on Steam rival Epic Games Store: "It keeps us honest… but it's ugly in the short term"

(Image credit: Steam)

In the latest issue of Edge magazine, Valve's CEO and co-founder Gabe Newell shares his thoughts on the Epic Games Store.

In issue 334, Newell sat down to talk to Edge magazine's Alex Spencer about Half-Life: Alyx, the future of VR, and Valve's approach to Steam. During the interview the topic of one of Steam's biggest and newest competitors Epic Games Store lead to Newell sharing his thoughts on whether the competitor affects Valve's approach to Steam and its relationship with developers:

"Competition in game stores is awesome for everybody. It keeps us honest, it keeps everybody else honest," Newell says, "But it's ugly in the short term. You're like, 'Argh, they're yelling, they're making us look bad' - but in the long term, everybody benefits from the discipline and the thoughtfulness it means you have to have about your business by having people come in and challenge you."

You can pre-order your copy of Edge Magazine's Valve special edition for delivery to your door. Hurry, while stocks last.

"We get a lot more freaked out not by competition, but by people trying to preclude competition," Newell continues, "If you ask us which is scarier, it's people falling in love with Apple's model of controlling everything and having faceless bureaucrats who get to keep your product from entering the market if they don't want it to, or designing a store in a way that minimises software's value-add to experience and stuff like that."

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Newell also talks about Valve's reboot of Artifact, and why Valve's Steam machines didn't work out in Edge's extensive interview with Gabe Newell. You can read all of this and more by picking up a copy at My Favourite Magazine.

Or, if you'd like to guarantee a copy on day of release, you can subscribe to Edge Magazine for 5 digital issues for £5 with this special offer, a saving of over 80%.

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Heather Wald is the Evergreen Editor, Games at GamesRadar+. Her writing career began on a student-led magazine at Bath Spa University, where she earned a BA (Hons) in English literature. Heather landed her first role writing about tech and games for Stuff Magazine shortly after graduating with an MA in magazine journalism at Cardiff University. Now with almost seven years of experience working with GamesRadar+ on the features team, Heather helps to develop, maintain, and expand the evergreen features that exist on the site for games, as well as spearhead the Indie Spotlight series. You'll also see her contribute op-eds, interview-led features, and more. In her spare time, you'll likely find Heather tucking into RPGs and indie games, reading romance novels, and drinking lots of tea.