I think its a side effect of not being publicly traded, so there's no influence from shareholders demanding things release right now to make the line go arbitrarily go up. Instead they have that infinite money glitch, meaning leadership pursues whatever is important to them at that point in time.
kinda? thing is if a bunch of talented creatives that Valve clearly still has actually did have unfettered access to infinite resources and no obligation to dipshit shareholders, I would've thought you see more wild stuff? but their output over time has become *more* cautious, not less.
That's my instinct as well, but after reading how Team Cherry and Silksong. They didn't have to worry about the money, so they just worked on the one thing for 7 years. Maybe Valve's leadership is also that kind of creative? They're more inclined to hyper focus on one thing for years too?
Exactly. Separation of product and value is the root of most evil in the world, and all enshittification. Valve is one of the few major companies that doesn't have people at the top saying "make number go up" with no idea what they've actually invested in