In the event Valve went bankrupt

[OMON hunter]

I heard that the average age of a corporation is 20 years so I'm wondering: what would happen to everyone's games libraries if Valve went bankrupt? What, if anything, can we do to prepare for such an eventuality?

[Radene]

They'd get bought out by someone else. Too big to simply disappear.

[OMON hunter]

Originally posted by Radene:

They'd get bought out by someone else. Too big to simply disappear.

You're saying you don't believe they could ever become bankrupt. That's very loyal of you but that doesn't answer my question.

I'm asking what the consequences would be if they ever did become bankrupt (i.e. in the case that you're wrong) and what we might do to prepare for that?

[Winged One]

given Valve's size, as well as Steams market share and projected profits, they wouldn't just go "poof"


in the highly unlikely situation something like that were to happen, another company would buy them out.. possibly EA who I could see merging the platform with Origin..



keep in mind, large corporations don't just wake up one day and declare bankruptcy.. it takes years of bad decisions and yearly deficit's, with a fair number of signs before hand

[OMON hunter]

Originally posted by theseraph1:

they wouldn't just go "poof"

Assuming for a moment that they did just go "poof", tomorrow, what would happen to everyone's game libraries?

[Winged One]

Originally posted by somegeezer:

Originally posted by theseraph1:

they wouldn't just go "poof"

Assuming for a moment that they did just go "poof", tomorrow, what would happen to everyone's game libraries?

first of all, it won't happen.. thats not how corporate finances work, it takes years (heck, in most cases more than a decade) of poor business decisions to reach that point.. have to remember, large corporations have millions upon millions of dollars in assets to fall back on, those don't disappear in a single night, it takes years and is visable to those who pay attention..

if Valve was going to declare bankruptcy, we would know far in advance from warning signs.



to humor you however, valve did say in an interview that they will just unpatch the games requirements to the Steam client, at which point as long as the game doesn't require a stable access to Steamworks (like many multiplayer games) you could back em up manually after

[wuddih]

Originally posted by somegeezer:

Originally posted by theseraph1:

they wouldn't just go "poof"

Assuming for a moment that they did just go "poof", tomorrow, what would happen to everyone's game libraries?

Steams DRM is quite easy to remove ... it is just the thing that when Steam goes poof, the internet is probably also poof, so there will be no way for you to google it, if for the miracle your PC also survived that poof and the power station also survived that poof.

it will be poof everywhere.

it will not simply disappear.
the indie game release platform Desura filed for bankruptcy and stayed online for more then a year

[Gekkibi]

There's this screenshot roaming around: https://imgur.com/4sa1Ln6
Cannot verify its validity tho.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

This thread again?

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/1471967615879053422/

[Gekkibi]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

This thread again?

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/1471967615879053422/

:qr:

Hey, at least it's refreshing too see something else than just threads about privacy settings.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Gekkibi:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

This thread again?

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/1471967615879053422/

Hey, at least it's refreshing too see something else than just threads about privacy settings.

Yes it is! I was just wondering when this topic was going to come up again.

[Start_Running]

STatistics can oft be misleading. YOu're estimate is right but that's because mostcorps fail within the first 3-5 years.. It's also a sthing that mergers remove at least one corp from the list even though they technically have all their assets and such in play.

[airmikee99]

Originally posted by somegeezer:

Originally posted by Radene:

They'd get bought out by someone else. Too big to simply disappear.

You're saying you don't believe they could ever become bankrupt. That's very loyal of you but that doesn't answer my question.

I'm asking what the consequences would be if they ever did become bankrupt (i.e. in the case that you're wrong) and what we might do to prepare for that?

Nowhere does that comment say that Valve will never go bankrupt.

If Valve goes bankrupt another company will purchase their assets, their game IP's and Steam itself because Steam is a valuable source of revenue, and because of that, if Steam becomes worthless it's because people no longer play video games.

[Seventh]

Heres a hint at what I'd do. I wouldnt rebuy any games I already paid for.

[airmikee99]

Originally posted by ~Ren~:

Originally posted by theseraph1:

if Valve was going to declare bankruptcy, we would know far in advance from warning signs.

You sure about that? Considering the latest update they let everyone find out for themselves or maybe the fortunate few that happen to read blogs or check the forums

Yes. Financial disasters are not the same thing as privacy setting changes made to comply with the law.

[airmikee99]

Originally posted by ~Ren~:

Originally posted by airmikee99:

Yes. Financial disasters are not the same thing as privacy setting changes made to comply with the law.

Better communication with your customers that affects every customer helps a lot, it avoids the multiple posts we're now seeing all over the forums asking what is going on.

They're not asking what is going on, they're complaining. Stalkers that can't stalk anymore, devs that only make garbage games based on what's popular instead of being passionate about making a particular game, cheap people needing info about future sales so they can save money. Maybe complaints about not seeing stats could be legit, but that's such a tiny minority that can be satisfied with seeing those stats in game or made available another way.

But most importantly, this change is being made to comply with a powerful EU privacy law that's about to take effect.

And Steam has never had great communication, yet somehow they're the biggest name in online video game sales. Doesn't seem to have hurt them too bad.