Steam is sometimes criticised for having a monopoly-like situation on PCs, with insufficient competition. In addition, it charges a fee equivalent to 30% per game sold, which can be compared to Epic Games Store, which charges 12%. When you buy a game there, more money goes to the developers rather than the platform owner.
Given Steam's popularity, you can imagine that it's literally raining money on Valve and its founder Gabe Newell, and now the latter has splurged some of it. Boat International (thanks PC Gamer) - a source that we, to my knowledge, have never referred to in my 21 years at Gamereactor - reports that Newell has bought a new boat called Leviathan.
This boat cost $500 million, something that may have been made easier by the fact that he actually owns the manufacturer Oceanco, and for that money he got a floating palace with, among other things, a submarine garage (and space for more boats), a hospital with a nurse on site, two gyms (a boat with only one gym certainly seems a bit pointless), every conceivable luxury, and a gaming room with 15 top-of-the-line computers. Leviathan is the 50th largest yacht in the world and now joins Newell's other two previous yachts. He himself comments:
"Working with the team at Oceanco is incredibly enjoyable and a lot of fun; everybody is professional, creative, and dynamic. We knew we were asking for unusual things, and Oceanco embraced it with open arms. Not only have we designed a very unusual yacht that leans into Oceanco's strengths of innovation and design, but the team has also been willing to collaborate with us on evolving the process."
Reactions have of course been swift, with some saying that he could have spent the money on something better, not least to benefit the oceans given his interest in diving, while others see it as a fun thing to do. What is your view on this?
<bild></bild>