A look at why Valve quietly out-earns the entire gaming industry while everyone else cuts jobs — good for Valve, bad for the big public studios.

• The gaming industry is bleeding, with 11,000 jobs cut and dozens of studios closed, while Valve stays steady at about 360 people.
• Valve makes far more money per worker than Microsoft, partly because Steam takes a cut of every game and every in-game item traded.
• Big-budget flops like Sony's Concord (which lost hundreds of millions) show that huge marketing spend often backfires, while word-of-mouth hits like Helldivers 2 thrive.
• Being private and founder-controlled lets Valve take 10-year bets, like the Steam Deck, without answering to shareholders.
• Smaller studios like Larian (Baldur's Gate 3) and the maker of Balatro are copying the stay-small, stay-independent playbook.

Outlook: More gaming layoffs and bloated budgets are likely coming, while small, independent studios keep proving that bigger isn't better.