system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: In the next couple of years Amazon will buy Valve, buy Steam from Valve, or make their own software to become the primary PC game distributor.

Amazon is rich as fuck and it won't be long until they're the largest retailer in the world. (They're currently 3rd behind Walmart and CVS.) Their purchase of whole foods shows they're interested in expanding into new markets.

They're also not ignorant to the world of gaming, having purchased Twitch in 2014. You can find lots of complaints online about operations/administration at Twitch but they have undoubtedly expanded its audience in the last 4 years, and I think the Amazon higher ups view it as a financial success.

I think they see that there's more money to be made in the industry, and being a game distributor fits right in with their existing business model. I think the game distributor business matches their style more than trying to make their own games. It certainly seems like a more...reliable way to make money. Making games is financially risky. (But it could also be super rewarding: see PUBG and Fortnite).

Nobody really knows, but googling shows that Valve is maybe worth about $5bil. That's not an unreasonable purchase price for Amazon, having previously spent ~$1bil for twitch, and ~$14bil for Whole Foods.

If they wanted to make their own software, they could easily sell every game at 50% discount for a year, just eating the cost while they corner the market. But at that point why not just buy Steam?

You can also find a few reports online from various ex-employees that describe Valve as kind of...stagnant. They say it's lost the innovation and motivation it used to have. Some even point to Gabe Newell specifically and say he's no longer motivated, and spends most of his days just playing dota. This implies that he could be receptive to buyout offers.
gpt
It's not Amazon that will buy Steam, it's Microsoft.

Microsoft, in pushing for cross platform play on their consoles and already controlling a ridiculous share of the PC operating system market, is working hard on improving their Windows store.

Everyone already has Windows and uses it to install and run Steam.  MS is looking to get total control of the gaming market, and by letting anyone who buys a game on their PC play it on their console as well, they're taking big strides towards that.

Their only real issue is that Steam is already so popular that people will refuse to switch to Windows store.  So they'll just buy Steam.