Why doesn’t Valve have a stock?

[󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡]

I mean, I get that they’re 100% okay as a private company, but the public adore Valve. They adore Steam, TF2, all Valve games really.

So imagine how much their stocks would be invested in.


But even beyond stocks, there should at least be a way the public and people can show their trust and love of Valve for them.


Valve has changed the world with their worlds they made online. But the community is in a stand still because we can’t do anything our own in their benefit.

[On Vacation]

Director's aren't obligated in a legal sense to maximize shareholder value, but rather to operate in the best interest of their company. The reason they do prioritize shareholders though could stem from a variety of reasons, like activist shareholders or they believe in shareholder primacy from an economic standpoint i.e. this is a mangerial choice rather than forced by corporate law. The latter is quite common in the US thanks to people like Milton Friedman.

CD Projekt is often touted as an example of a studio that 'does games right' or things to that extent. This is also a publicly traded company. It is possible to be publicly traded and still maintain the vision for your company, but you nee to structure your company in a way that allows you to do this and obviously have people within your company that share that vision.

With all that said though, there's no real reason for Valve to transition from a private corporation to a public one. Doing so would cost a significant amount and you'd then have to be subject to the SEC and for what benefit? They are not in the business of acquisitions (like EA), and I find it highly unlikely they need any injection of capital. Not to mention how they function internally (from their descriptions) isn't really conducive to investing.