regardless of Gabe knowing what people want, the point about being privately owned stands. it really is the publicly traded companies that are the problem. at least private ones aren’t legally obligated to pursue profits over all else. they have the choice to be evil. they may still make that choice, but public companies can be sued by their investors for being “charitable to customers” instead of maximizing profits.
I’ve heard that there’s been a marked “financialization” of corporations in the last decade or so. More and more companies make more money from leveraging/leasing/whatever rather than actually making a product and selling it to people.
regardless of Gabe knowing what people want, the point about being privately owned stands. it really is the publicly traded companies that are the problem. at least private ones aren’t legally obligated to pursue profits over all else. they have the choice to be evil. they may still make that choice, but public companies can be sued by their investors for being “charitable to customers” instead of maximizing profits.
I’ve heard that there’s been a marked “financialization” of corporations in the last decade or so. More and more companies make more money from leveraging/leasing/whatever rather than actually making a product and selling it to people.
As a private company, Valve gets to avoid this.