[ftlio]

People forget how hard-fought the battle for Steam really was. Half-Life 2's release on Steam nearly broke them. One word for it could be "coasting", but another might be "reaping" the rewards of choosing to fight that battle long before anyone else believed it was winnable.

And they're not really coasting. They're at the forefront of broadcast gaming, competitive gaming, whatever you want to call it. I've watched Riot grow, and Blizzard falter in that industry, but I'm damn near positive that Valve has the better framework for the long-term.

Edit: I also think that Valve's primary product is "not having to deal with industry standard financing and deadline problems so we can make games that are actually good without burning out like everyone else does."