LogInCome on, you can't believe everything blue checkmarks on Twitter tell you.
Over the past 24 hours, the weirdest rumor imaginable spread across the internet like wildfire, alleging that Microsoft is preparing to purchase gaming giant Valve for a relatively modest sum of $16 billion in cash.
Kicked off by Twitter user xDiorCS, the rumor was quickly picked up and amplified by a slew of YouTubers and media outlets, who rode the wave of panic over the possibility of Valve getting bought and begged Gabe Newell not to sell the company, bringing up Microsoft's latest Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin kerfuffle.
Despite the $16 billion figure being objectively too low, considering Valve's annual profits, and with no evidence whatsoever provided by xDiorCS, many still took the gossip seriously, dreading the prospect of Microsoft one day owning Valve, and more importantly, Steam. Some even speculated that Newell's purported consideration to sell the company stemmed from numerous Deadlock leaks that emerged over the past week. At the same time, a huge number of people ridiculed the "news", stating that the alleged deal was simply impossible given the circumstances.
To set the record straight, Tom Warren, an industry insider and Senior Editor at The Verge, has taken to Twitter to dispel the rumors and confirm that there is no such deal in the works, nor does Microsoft have any plans to acquire Valve in the near future. "Giving blue ticks to everyone was bad idea," Tom remarked in his Twitter post, poking fun at xDiorCS, who does indeed have a blue checkmark and whose alarmist claims might not have gained as much traction without it.
To add insult to injury, the original post by xDiorCS received a community note reaffirming that there's no evidence supporting the supposed deal's existence and claiming that the rumor itself originated from documents leaked during the FTC vs. Microsoft trial last year, which indicated that Microsoft internally considered buying Nintendo or Valve all the way back in 2020, an idea that never progressed beyond internal discussions and has never been formally proposed to Nintendo or Valve themselves.
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