I et interview med Geekwire udtrykker Valves Gabe Newell sin mening om piratsoftware, et emne han tydeligvis har et markant andet syn på end så mange andre i spilbranchen. I stedet for blot at være et spørgsmål om penge mener Newell nemlig at det i højere grad handler om den service man yder.
"The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates.", siger Newell.
Valve-lederen fortsætter og bruger Rusland som et eksempel på hvordan man med succes kan tilgå et marked, og fortæller yderligere at landet er blevet firmaets andet største marked i Europa:
"For example, Russia. You say, oh, we're going to enter Russia, people say, you're doomed, they'll pirate everything in Russia."
"The people who are telling you that Russians pirate everything are the people who wait six months to localize their product into Russia. So that as far as we're concerned is asked and answered. It doesn't take much in terms of providing a better service to make pirates a non-issue.", afslutter Newell.