Jerykk wrote on Dec 29, 2011, 20:03:

They are essentially a developer thats become a publisher without most of the associated costs. They have no physical packaging costs, no localization/translation costs for games they sell (the devs have to do that), little to no game support costs (again the devs have to do that).

You're mistaking publishers for distributors. Steam is a means of distribution, not publishing. Developers still need publishers to handle localization, customer service and funding in general. The only thing Valve provides is another way for publishers and developers to sell their games. They don't finance the development of said games.

wtf_man wrote on Dec 29, 2011, 20:09:
Sorry, I don't think Valve is all that great. 2 games of Portal and 2 games of Left4Dead, and still no HL-EP-3 nor HL-3.