Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games, entered the Bloomberg billionaires index, according to Bloomberg. The head of the studio that produced the ultra-popular "Fortnite" is worth $7.16 billion, placing him at spot 195 on the list of billionaires. This puts him ahead of Valve's head, Gabe Newell, who is at spot 368. Valve is the corporation behind Steam, the currently leading digital game distribution platform. "Fortnite" is the phenomenon making Sweeney his fortune. Its free to play mode, "Fortnite Battle...
Valve
Gabe
Newell
Co-Founder / President
Launched in 2022, Valve’s Steam Deck was updated with two OLED models in November, granting gamers more options for the high-end handheld system designed to support their PC libraries. Valve keeps sales numbers close to its chest, but Newell claims “multiple millions” of Steam Decks have been sold. The Steam storefront continues to hit new peaks for concurrent users, clocking a high of 33 million in January 2023 after hitting 30 million the previous October. Steam has little competition beyond the Epic Games Store, which has failed to achieve profitability since its launch in 2018. And while 2023 has seen leading companies such as Epic Games make substantial cuts, reports have yet to cite Valve cutting staff this year. A new VR headset is still planned, per recent interviews with tech leads, and in November Valve put out a 25th-anniversary update for 1998’s “Half Life,” which received the VR sequel “Alyx” in 2020.
