Tim Sweeney Invites Valve to Team Open and Says Steam Is Missing Major Games

Epic Games Chief Executive Officer Tim Sweeney says Valve would be welcome inside the open and interconnected gaming ecosystem Epic is attempting to build around Unreal Engine 6, Fortnite, Epic Online Services, and third party platforms.

Speaking with PC Gamer following Unreal Fest Chicago 2026, Sweeney described an industry where social systems, accounts, digital economies, content, and development tools could operate across games and platforms rather than remaining isolated inside individual corporate ecosystems. Epic has referred to the companies supporting this direction as Team Open.

Sweeney said Epic would be willing to cooperate directly with Valve despite the long running competition between Steam and the Epic Games Store.

“We want nothing more than to interoperate with every company willing and to connect all the gamers.”
— Tim Sweeney

When asked why Valve would participate from its current position of strength, Sweeney argued that Steam still does not reach several major gaming audiences. He pointed toward Fortnite, Riot Games titles, Genshin Impact, and other large games that remain outside Valve’s PC storefront. His position is that Steam could create additional opportunities by supporting a broader selection of games and expanding its platform strategy beyond conventional PC distribution.

Sweeney also suggested that Steam could become more influential if Valve expanded it into a full gaming platform on iPhone and Android. Steam already offers mobile applications that allow users to browse the PC store, manage accounts, communicate with friends, and remotely stream games through Steam Link. However, it does not currently operate as a native third party mobile game marketplace comparable with Epic’s developing mobile store strategy.

The proposal forms part of Epic’s wider vision for Unreal Engine 6. During the official State of Unreal presentation, Epic described a future where code, content, accounts, social features, and digital economies become more portable across games, ecosystems, and engines. Sweeney believes shared infrastructure could reduce the friction players experience when moving between publishers, platforms, friend networks, and multiplayer communities.

Epic has already begun building partnerships around this strategy. In November 2025, Epic and Unity announced plans to let Unity developers publish games within Fortnite and participate in its creator economy. Unity also agreed to add Unreal Engine support to its cross platform commerce platform, giving developers additional options for managing payments, catalogs, promotions, and digital storefronts.

Sweeney also connected platform openness with more competitive store economics. He highlighted the Microsoft Store’s 12% commission for PC games as an example of what he considers a favorable arrangement for developers. Microsoft’s official publishing documentation continues to list a 12% fee for games using Microsoft’s commerce system.

Epic currently allows developers to retain 100% of the first $1 million in annual net revenue generated by each product through Epic processed payments. Revenue above that threshold returns to Epic’s standard 88% and 12% division. This model gives Epic a clear commercial reason to encourage wider storefront access and stronger competition across PC and mobile platforms.

However, Valve has shown little public indication that it intends to align Steam with Epic’s ecosystem. Steam remains deeply integrated with its own account system, community infrastructure, marketplace, Workshop, cloud storage, achievements, social features, and software distribution services. These systems are among the reasons Steam remains the default PC platform for many players and developers.

Sweeney acknowledged some of those advantages during the interview. He praised Steam’s social experience, particularly its ability to maintain conversations and voice communication while players move between the client and individual games. He also admitted that the Epic Games Store remains too slow and confirmed that Epic is developing a substantial client redesign intended to improve responsiveness and social functionality.

The relationship between Epic and Valve also remains complicated by fundamental policy disagreements. Sweeney recently criticized Steam’s requirement for developers to disclose certain uses of generative artificial intelligence, calling the policy irresponsible and arguing that it can create negative assumptions around games using AI assisted production tools.

Valve’s official Steamworks documentation states that its disclosure process is focused on generative AI used to create content that ships with a game and is consumed by players, including artwork, audio, narrative, and localization. It specifically distinguishes this from general efficiency tools built into modern development environments.

Sweeney’s criticism of Steam’s AI disclosures examined how the disagreement reflects the different directions being taken by Epic and Valve. Epic is preparing Unreal Engine 6 for deeper integration with artificial intelligence tools, while Valve continues prioritizing customer visibility around generated content. Sweeney has also acknowledged that easier AI production will contribute to more low quality releases, while maintaining that professional teams can use the same technology to reduce repetitive work.

Sweeney is correct that Steam does not contain every major PC game, but missing Fortnite, League of Legends, Valorant, or Genshin Impact does not automatically mean Valve is failing to reach those players. Many PC users maintain multiple launchers, and a substantial portion of those audiences may already use Steam for other games.

The more significant part of Sweeney’s proposal is not whether Fortnite eventually appears on Steam. It is whether competing companies would agree to share social connections, accounts, commerce systems, and digital items without surrendering control over their customers.

Epic has a strong incentive to promote that model. A more interoperable market would reduce Steam’s platform advantage and make Epic’s own services more valuable across games that are not distributed through the Epic Games Store. Valve, by comparison, benefits from keeping its strongest features closely integrated with Steam.

Team Open is therefore both a technical vision and a competitive strategy. Players could benefit from fewer account barriers and stronger cross platform connections, but every company involved would still need to agree on revenue, moderation, security, privacy, ownership, and control. Those business questions may prove more difficult than the technology itself.

Would you like to see Fortnite, Riot Games titles, and Genshin Impact arrive on Steam, or are separate launchers no longer a major issue for PC gaming?