Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney Blames Steam For Holding Back Gaming

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney claims Valve has held gaming back for years by locking PC developers inside the Steamworks walled garden. A former Epic programmer kicked off the debate by pointing out that Steam takes a thirty percent cut on game sales. He argued that anyone could build a better distribution platform in a week. Sweeney jumped into the conversation to slam the system for blocking cross-platform social features between PC and consoles. A community note pointed out that many games only use Steamworks for basic authentication and crossplay. Sweeney dismissed that defense as fake while arguing that Steam's social setup traps developers who want players to talk across different stores. Epic offers its own free matchmaking framework, but developers still flock to Steam because it dominates the PC market.