At Valve, it has apparently been a tradition for years to send successful developers chocolate for Christmas.
We did it! The holidays and the associated festivities are behind us, the Pile of Shame has grown due to possible sales, and the chocolate supplies have been replenished. Now we can start the new year with a clear conscience.
But it’s not just us players who have to deal with the spoils of the holidays. Apparently Valve has been giving chocolate packages to development teams for years at Christmas.
Developers are happy about gifts from Steam
On Reddit, one of the developers of the indie game Hydroneer proudly posted this year’s haul of chocolates that the small studio received from Valve.
4+ years since our game launch, Valve still sends uschocolates for Christmas!
byu/grandmaMax inSteam
☻
According to this, the team has been receiving such a package every Christmas for more than four years. In the comments, users express their surprise and positive impression of Valve’s loving gesture. Some even joke about wanting to develop a game just for this chocolate.
However, it seems that not every developer gets to enjoy this little treat.U/LimeBlossom_TTVwrites, for example: “I didn’t get any. There’s probably a minimum requirement for the game’s success. But it also makes sense, since there are tens of thousands of studios.”
Every year, thousands of games are released on Steam. In 2024 alone, the global Steam library grew by almost 19,000 games. According to SteamDB, 75 titles have already been released on the platform in 2025 – in just three days at the time of this writing. So it’s no wonder that not all developers can be considered by Steam.
Nevertheless, it is amazing that indie studios like Foulball Hangover, the developers of Hydroneer, are also getting this nice attention. As mentioned in the post, this is not a new practice. In fact, seven years ago, a developer of Clicker Heroes reported on Reddit that all members of the team received chocolate from Valve:
Valve is the best. They sent us this massive box of chocolates for Clicker Heroes
byu/Fragsworth inClickerHeroes
☻
Many users also write that they are pleased with how Valve uses its 30 percent share. Games sold on Steam generate a portion of their revenue as profit sharing for the company – 30 percent.
So if a game makes one euro, 30 cents go to Steam and 70 cents to the developers. In return, developers have access to various tools and services and, of course, reach to promote their game. On top of that, there’s a bit of chocolate.
