Epic Games chief Tim Sweeney claims 'Valve has held gaming back for years'

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney dropped another hot take about Steam earlier this week, saying that Valve's online storefront "has held gaming back for years" by locking developers into Steamworks. Sweeney's comment came amidst a conversation started by Kiaran Ritchie, a former principal animation programmer at Epic, who decried the 30% cut Valve takes from game sales on Steam. "You could vibe code a Steam alternative in a week," Ritchie wrote on X . "Cloudflare egress is basically free. The industry is in desperate need of a distribution platform that allows developers to keep their revenue.