{"id":776297,"date":"2025-11-30T14:04:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T14:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed"},"modified":"2025-11-30T14:04:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T14:04:54","slug":"epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/","title":{"rendered":"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney calls Valve “assholes” over Steam fees in dug up email thread"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\nEpic CEO Tim Sweeney called Valve “assholes” in an old email thread that’s been dug up as part of a lawsuit against the Steam owner.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe email thread, spotted by GameDiscoverCo<\/a>, was between Sweeney and Valve’s head Gabe Newell discussing the economics of the Steam platform. It began in 2017 with an email from Newell to Sweeney pointedly asking “Anything we doing to annoy you?” and referencing a post from Valve’s Sean Jenkins about restricting Steam keys given to developers. <\/p>\n

\nSweeney responded instead on “the economics of these 30 percent platform fees” which he described as “no longer justifiable”. In short, he said the marketing benefits of the Steam storefront is “far disproportionate to the fee” thanks to “the churn of new game releases”.\n<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney called Valve “assholes” in an old email thread that’s been dug up as part of a lawsuit against the Steam owner. The email thread, spotted by GameDiscoverCo, was between Sweeney and Valve’s head Gabe Newell discussing the economics of the Steam platform. It began in 2017 with an email from Newell to Sweeney pointedly asking “Anything we doing to annoy you?” and referencing a post from Valve’s Sean Jenkins about restricting Steam keys given to developers. Sweeney responded instead on “the economics of these 30 percent platform fees” which he described as “no longer justifiable”. In short, he said the marketing benefits of the Steam storefront is “far disproportionate to the fee” thanks to “the churn of new game releases”. Read…<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":776298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230],"tags":[1387,102,485],"class_list":["post-776297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eurogamer","tag-apple","tag-epic-games","tag-valve"],"yoast_head":"\nEpic CEO Tim Sweeney calls Valve "assholes" over Steam fees in dug up email thread | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney called Valve "assholes" in an old email thread that's been dug up as part of a lawsuit against the Steam owner. The email thread,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney calls Valve "assholes" over Steam fees in dug up email thread | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney called Valve "assholes" in an old email thread that's been dug up as part of a lawsuit against the Steam owner. The email thread,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-30T14:04:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"headline\":\"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney calls Valve “assholes” over Steam fees in dug up email thread\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-30T14:04:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":143,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Apple\",\"Epic Games\",\"valve\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Eurogamer\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\\\/\",\"name\":\"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney calls Valve \\\"assholes\\\" over Steam fees in dug up email thread | Arcader News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-30T14:04:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"description\":\"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney called Valve \\\"assholes\\\" in an old email thread that's been dug up as part of a lawsuit against the Steam owner. The email thread,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/03\\\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread.jpg\",\"width\":480,\"height\":270,\"caption\":\"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney calls Valve \u201cassholes\u201d over Steam fees in dug up email thread\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney calls Valve “assholes” over Steam fees in dug up email thread\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"description\":\"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Arcade News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cricketgames.tv\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/author\\\/arcade-news\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney calls Valve \"assholes\" over Steam fees in dug up email thread | Arcader News","description":"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney called Valve \"assholes\" in an old email thread that's been dug up as part of a lawsuit against the Steam owner. The email thread,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney calls Valve \"assholes\" over Steam fees in dug up email thread | Arcader News","og_description":"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney called Valve \"assholes\" in an old email thread that's been dug up as part of a lawsuit against the Steam owner. The email thread,","og_url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/","og_site_name":"Arcade News","article_published_time":"2025-11-30T14:04:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":270,"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Arcade News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Arcade News","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/"},"author":{"name":"Arcade News","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"headline":"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney calls Valve “assholes” over Steam fees in dug up email thread","datePublished":"2025-11-30T14:04:54+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/"},"wordCount":143,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread.jpg","keywords":["Apple","Epic Games","valve"],"articleSection":["Eurogamer"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/","name":"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney calls Valve \"assholes\" over Steam fees in dug up email thread | Arcader News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread.jpg","datePublished":"2025-11-30T14:04:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"description":"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney called Valve \"assholes\" in an old email thread that's been dug up as part of a lawsuit against the Steam owner. The email thread,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread.jpg","width":480,"height":270,"caption":"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney calls Valve \u201cassholes\u201d over Steam fees in dug up email thread"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/epic-ceo-tim-sweeney-calls-valve-assholes-over-steam-fees-in-dug-up-email-thread\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Epic CEO Tim Sweeney calls Valve “assholes” over Steam fees in dug up email thread"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/","name":"Arcade News","description":"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839","name":"Arcade News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Arcade News"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/cricketgames.tv"],"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/author\/arcade-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1409754,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776297\/revisions\/1409754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}