Valve VP of Marketing Doug Lombardi Leaves Company After 22 Years

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
Doug Lombardi, Valve’s longtime VP of Marketing, departed the company in February 2022 after a 22-year tenure.
02
Kaci Aitchison, who joined Valve full-time in 2019 after hosting various Dota 2 events, has succeeded Lombardi as the primary press contact.
03
Valve is transitioning the Steam 'Discounts and Events' section from a manually curated calendar to an algorithmic, personalized feed, with a full rollout planned for early 2027.
04
Internal testing of the personalized discount algorithm resulted in users seeing ten times more discounted games than under the previous manual system.
05
The shift to algorithmic personalization led to a 'significant' increase in user wishlists and sales for the games featured in the test groups.
06
Lombardi’s career at Valve began in 2000, following his previous role as a brand manager for the original Half-Life at Sierra On-Line.

Summary

Doug Lombardi, the long-standing vice president of marketing at Valve, departed the company in February 2022 after a 22-year tenure. Lombardi joined Valve in 2000, following his initial work on the original Half-Life at Sierra On-Line. Throughout his career at the studio, he was responsible for managing marketing, press activities, and third-party relations for the company’s entire game portfolio and the Steam platform. He is also recognized as the individual featured in the iconic "valve in the eye" company logo. Kaci Aitchison, a former Dota 2 event host who joined the company in 2019, has succeeded him as the primary press contact.

In a separate development regarding Valve’s operations, the company is transitioning its Steam "Discounts and Events" section from a manually curated model to an algorithmic, personalized system. This shift aims to better align promotional content with individual user preferences, moving away from the limitations of a fixed, manually managed calendar.

Valve’s decision follows successful internal testing, where personalized discount collections resulted in a significant increase in both sales and user wishlists. By exposing customers to a broader range of relevant deals, the company observed that users engaged with ten times more discounted titles than under the previous curation method. This update is scheduled for a full rollout in early 2027, reflecting a broader industry trend toward data-driven personalization to enhance the user experience and improve discoverability for developers.