Valve is a notoriously secretive firm that has an enormous affect on the gaming trade, particularly as a result of it operates the huge PC recreation retailer Steam. However regardless of this affect, Valve is not a big group on par with the 1000’s of workers at EA or Riot Video games: as of 2021, Valve employs simply 336 individuals, in keeping with leaked knowledge we have seen.
The information is a part of a closely redacted doc from Wolffire’s antitrust lawsuit in opposition to Valve. As SteamDB creator Pavel Djundik found, regardless of the black cryptic textual content field, some knowledge within the doc remains to be seen, together with the variety of workers and complete compensation of Valve’s varied departments within the firm over the previous 18 years, and even some gross data that we can’t know. Rate of interest knowledge may be fully revealed.
The worker profiles begin in 2003, a number of years after Valve was based in 1996, the identical 12 months Valve launched Steam, and proceed by way of 2021. Steam”, and from 2011 “{Hardware}”.
If you wish to sift by way of the numbers your self, I’ve included a full desk of knowledge, sorted by 12 months and class, on the finish of this text. Within the file, the headers of the third and fourth columns are absolutely redacted, however the desk is titled “Worker Rely and Payroll Knowledge 2003-2021” so I am assuming the information in these columns symbolize payroll and headcount knowledge , respectively.
I discovered an attention-grabbing knowledge level: Valve’s “recreation” payroll spending peaked at $221 million in 2017 (the corporate did not launch any new video games that 12 months, however that spending might have been used to help video games like this) Dota 2 and develop new video games, e.g. Man-made manufacturing); by 2021, this quantity will drop to $192 million. Additionally: As of 2021, Valve solely employs 79 individuals for Steam, probably the most influential recreation storefronts on the earth.
To my shock, “{hardware}” makes up a comparatively small portion of the corporate, with solely 41 workers making greater than $17 million in complete compensation in 2021. {Hardware}-focused employees steam deck. Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais mentioned in November 2023 edge He believes that “we are actually firmly a mature {hardware} firm.”
Wolfire claimed that Valve “…dedicates a small portion of its income to sustaining and bettering the Steam retailer.”
The smaller general headcount appears to elucidate why Valve’s product checklist is so restricted, though its enterprise is basically a de facto PC gaming platform. It has to get assist with {hardware} and software program, and work with different corporations to make Steam bins and controllers. (The corporate’s flat construction might also have one thing to do with it.)
Valve’s small headcount can be a sticking level for Wolffire. When Wolffire filed the lawsuit in 2021, it claimed that Valve “…dedicates a small portion of its income to sustaining and bettering the Steam retailer.” As a personal firm, Valve would not must share its headcount or monetary standing, however Wolffire estimates Valve has about 360 workers (a quantity probably derived from Valve’s personal 2016 figures), with annual earnings per worker of roughly $15 million.
Even when the $15 million determine is not fairly proper, Valve says in its public worker handbook, “We’re extra worthwhile per worker than Google, Amazon, or Microsoft.” A doc from Wolfire’s lawsuit reveals that Valve workers are debating whether or not to How a lot larger – though the precise variety of Valve workers has been redacted.
Whereas we’ve not seen any leaked revenue figures from this new headcount and wage knowledge, the numbers paint a extra detailed image of how a lot Valve spends on workers – which is probably going nonetheless only a small quantity given the widespread reputation of Steam. Small portion.
Valve didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. After being contacted, the court docket withdrew the doc from docket.
Sean Hollister contributed reporting.
Up to date July 13: Clarified why two desk titles comprise “in all probability”.
