Indie developers proudly post their latest success. Valve sends them chocolate as a Christmas gift. The box with over 100 different pieces is huge, and the community is ecstatic.
What was gifted? Aggro Crab, the developer of Another Crabs Treasure and PEAK, reports in his X post from December 16, 2025, that he received a Christmas gift from Valve. He refers to the X post by Pocketpair, the team behind Palworld, which presented its Christmas gift from Steam on December 15, 2025.
In the package from Aggro Crab, there are chocolates and a thank you letter. The chocolate is according to Reddit a La Maison du Chocolat box. Depending on the size, the chocolate boxes in Germany cost between 93 – 172 euros excluding shipping (via lamaisonduchocholat.com).
The indie studio censors two words in the photo of the chocolate box, and the name of the company is misspelled. The card says “Aggro Crob” instead of Aggro Crab; whether this is an inside joke by the studio or Valve is unclear.
Successful indie games should be rewarded
Why is Steam giving away chocolate? There is no official answer from Valve, but some users claim to know what the gesture is about.
The Redditor NotMilo22 explains that Steam sends a box of chocolate as a Christmas gift to individuals each year, provided they have earned more than $600,000, around €510,000 (as of December 16, 2025) from Steam sales within a year. It is said to be known as the “Chocolate tier” in the gaming industry, and most publishers aim to receive one of these boxes someday (via Reddit).
The official Reddit account of Wallpaper Engine also chimed in and confirmed: “We always get the biggest box, and I assume it won’t get bigger than this” (via Reddit).
Other game designers have also shared their thoughts on Reddit in the past, including the creator of Schedule 1. He asked before the release of his work whether its name was silly. We now know the answer to his question.
Community shares experiences and wishes
What does the community say about it? The gesture is well-received in a Reddit post, and some people seem to have received similar gifts or wish for them:
- TwinTailDigital writes: “No, none for me. Apparently, it’s only given to successful games.
- satellite51 says: “That looks like maison du chocolat, if so, then it’s excellent chocolate.”
- nani_variable jokes: “When we give gifts to Gabe for Christmas, he gives us Half-Life 3.”
While there is still no exact answer on how Steam distributes these, the community is collectively happy about the Christmas gesture and praises Valve for choosing expensive chocolate. Not all developers can receive a gift from Steam, as more products are released on Steam each year: In 2025, over 19,000 games were published on Steam, but almost half of them did not even receive 10 reviews
