If 
you ever find yourself sitting across from Gabe Newell at a poker table, do yourself a favor. Walk away.
Forbes magazine recently added Newell, co-founder and managing director of the video-game superpower Valve Software, to its list of the world’s billionaires, estimating his net worth at $1.5 billion. That figure will likely only grow thanks to his latest gamble, called Steam, which is rapidly becoming for gaming what ITunes is to music.
When Sony 
announced that customer data from its PlayStation Network was accessed by hackers, gamers and the media were furious. So why did Valve seem to get a pass under similar circumstances?
Like a lot of people in the gaming world, I got an interesting email from Gabe Newell last week.
The Steam hacking incident of last November, he said, was worse than they initially thought it was. And while there still was no direct evidence that credit card information had been accessed, a backup file containing that information (albeit encrypted) was obtained by the person or persons who had broken into the system.
Steve Jobs never 
had a lot of interest in the video game world, but that didn’t stop Apple from accidentally becoming one of the most influential companies in the industry.
Now, the founder of Valve Software, makers of the acclaimed “Half-Life” series and Steam digital distribution system, says he believes Apple could make Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo’s consoles irrelevant at some point in the future.
When it comes to digital game sales, GameStop 
is still an also ran – but the company is making a series of moves that are starting to raise eyebrows among industry observers, who say it seems on track to become a powerful force.
Valve’s Steam service is still far and away the category leader, but GameStop (in a meeting with analysts) said it expects to see digital sales jump from $500 million this year to $1.5 billion by 2014.
Plenty of publishers have done a lot of saber 
rattling when it comes to selling direct to consumers, but that’s generally as far as it goes. So when EA began touting its Origin service a few weeks ago, no one was quite sure how serious the company planned to compete.
These days, though, it’s looking like EA intends to put its full efforts into the fight.
EA is digging deeper into
the digital distribution space.
The company has completely revamped its online store, expanding its focus and renaming it ‘Origin’ in the process. The move will put EA in direct competition with Valve Software’s dominant Steam service — and, in some ways, Apple’s GameCenter.
Valve Software’s Steam has been the big dog 
in the PC digital distribution space for a while now, but one of the industry’s biggest publishers is ready to take it on.
Electronic Arts has announced Origin, an updated “direct-to-consumer gaming platform” that will let people buy titles directly from the company, rather than via retail or another service. Given how heavily EA is betting on PC games in the year to come, it’s not an altogether shocking move.
As digital distribution continues to grow in the 
entertainment field, insiders and investors alike are trying to find new methods to get some clarity about the dollars behind it.
At Valve Software, which owns Steam, the leader in PC digital distributor, however, there are no plans to help those parties out. The company says it has no plans to open up its digital sales data vault, noting “it’s not important” information for the industry or public.
Stardock’s recent sale of its Impulse digital 
distribution service to GameStop is in the history books now, but the retailer was hardly the only bidder for the service.
Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock, says there were conversations with dozens of companies – with roughly a half-dozen of those presenting term sheets – before Stardock made its final decision. And even then, it took a lot of convincing on GameStop’s part.
GameStop might be the retail sales leader when it 
comes to video games, but the company’s lack of a strong digital arm has always worried analysts.
The announcement, then, that the company has purchased Impulse, a digital distribution service, as well as game streaming service Spawn Labs, is being met with cheers. And GameStop’s prediction that it will see digital revenues hit $1.5 billion by 2014 is receiving an even warmer reception.
Chris Morris: Journalist 