How about a social network from Valve? It turns out that Gabe Newell planned to launch something similar to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram back in the 1990s.
This was announced at Game Developer’s Conference 2025 (via PC Gamer), said Monica Harrington, one of the founders and the first Chief Marketing Officer of Valve, who once threatened Sierra over the rights to Half-Life.
«Gabe was thinking about expanding the social element at that time, but not in the context of games… It wouldn’t necessarily look like modern social networks, but he had interesting ideas that had nothing to do with games».
Eventually, Valve focused on gaming and creating Steam, which since 2003 has changed PC gaming forever by offering not only a digital store but also a place for players to communicate (so in a way, Newell’s idea has found life, albeit in a slightly different form).
«I’m trying to remember some of the conversations we had at the time, but he didn’t talk about the community that exists on Steam or anything like that,» Harrington clarified. «Gabe was aware, and I was aware, that the Internet could become a center of social interaction, even though people didn’t think of it in that way at the time. They were conducting some transactions, but they didn’t realize the psychology and social aspects».
In fact, Valve had a chance to be the first to open the door to the world of social networks, as the most well-known alternatives appeared only in the early 2000s: Myspace debuted in 2003, Facebook in 2004, and Twitter in 2006.
I wonder what Gabe’s program might have been called? Or perhaps Steam would be something completely different for us today.
Valve and Steam founder is a fan of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: «I’ll reach the fourth final tomorrow»
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