Steam Owns Your Games & Skins, Not You

Video Description

You spent years (and a lot of money) building your Steam library and rare skins — but legally, you don’t own any of it. This documentary breaks down how Valve built Steam, the skin economy, and a platform that can take everything away with a single ban. This is the story of Valve — a multibillion-dollar company with one shareholder and no CEO. Valve didn’t just build Steam. It built the rails: distribution, updates, identity, economies, and the rules that decide which games survive. 00:00 — You Think You Own Your Games 00:46 — A Company With No CEO 01:07 — How Valve Actually Works 03:58 — Why Infrastructure Matters More Than Games 04:11 — The Dota Case Blizzard Lost 08:51 — The Legal Battle in Korea 11:25 — The Skin Economy Nobody Planned 15:26 — The Regulatory Disaster 19:36 — Sticker Monetization 23:11 — Esports and the Illusion of Stability 28:09 — Valve Hardware: Steam Deck and Steam Frame 30:00 — Steam in China 32:04 — Valve as a Digital State In this documentary: — how Valve’s “flat” culture actually works — how Steam became infrastructure, not a store — why Blizzard lost the commercial Dota name — how the CS skin economy turned into a financial ecosystem — and why regulators may be the biggest threat Valve faces next This is not just gaming history. It’s a case study in how platforms quietly become sovereign.