http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0228/technology-gabe-newell-videogames-valve-online-mayhem.html
This Forbes interview is a fascinating look into one of the biggest companies today and the man who runs it. It's also a rags-to-riches story for some of the developers working there, because the current lead on the Half-Life series is a former Waffle House manager. Also, publishers should really focus on their PC versions now more than ever, because they have an increased profit of at least 40% when selling on Steam instead of brick-and-mortar stores.There's even some information about how OnLive is coming along; apparently their venture is profitable, costs are around 3 cents per GB, and they're slated to be on ten million TVs by the end of the year.

It's profit-per-employee. Apple or Google obviously have more raw profit than Valve, but the latter is waaay leaner with only 250 employees or so.

Oh, OK. Sorry about that. Didn't think that through.

I'd be interested to see the profit per employee rates for the other DD services so as to compare.

Didn't GG have like 8 employees? If so, their profit per employee should be bigger.

Yes they do. But that doesn't necessarily mean they have the bigger ratio.

You'd first have to separate the figures for Valve the game developer and self publisher and Steam itself, and the ratio between the two is anyone's guess. I suppose the latter is more profitable, but Valve would presumably be rolling in money even without its DD branch. Even Steam haters will agree Valve makes amazing games.

I'm going to go back in time and agree with Randy Pitchford that Steam and Valve should really separate.

That's pretty much the only thing they do well. They really should have done what Paradox did. Spin off their store in to it's own company and let people who know what they are doing take over.

I agree with this as well. The two really need to become separate entities, forcing each one to work and innovate to truly thrive instead of feeding off each other. Paradox did this and both parties are doing very well, no reason Valve cannot do the same.