Always a staunch supporter of innovation, Valve founder Gabe Newell has raised concern that the industry is moving away from open platforms. He took aim at the current crop of platform providers, calling them gatekeepers that “are essentially driving their partner margins to zero.”

“They build a shiny sparkling thing that attracts users and then they control people’s access to those things,” Newell told Seattle Times.

While Newell isn’t particularly fond of Apple’s App Store approach — deeming it “very closed,” he expects the company to make a bid for the living room with a product that “redefines people’s expectations really strongly,” possibly threatening the existence of traditional console platforms.

Further, Newell feels those creating value on the Internet with open services face an uphill battle to success, pointing to “very large structural investments and structural changes” that loom on the horizon — likely alluding to social platforms such as Facebook that have created massive walled-gardens.

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