9. Open Source
Some would think of Valve as an ordinary game company, but Valve is well known for thinking outside of the box. There is plenty of evidence to support this argument, but the smoking gun points to the fact that the company's main focus is on "open source." Take their digital distribution service Steam for example; it may have started on the Windows OS, but Valve decided to build another version for its competitor Linux several years later due to the fact that the approaching Windows 8 OS would feature a controversial closed distribution policy for its built-in Windows store. Unlike its competitor, Linux is completely open source for content creators to thrive on. In fact, Valve is so confident in Linux that they have even designed Steam OS around it, allowing for developers and consumers to join forces in an effort to build and tweak content on it. Besides software, Valve is also taking the open source approach with its upcoming Steam machines; the Steam Box prototypes will be customizable out of the box for users to experiment with. Although Microsoft is doing something similar with the Xbox One (The console will be launched as a dev kit that allows consumers to develop their own games), its marred by its own OS which suspiciously resembles Windows 8. In the end, the Steam Box will win over developers thanks to the its "open sourceness."