Gabe Newell, founder of Valve, recently went on record to quash a rumour that Microsoft has expressed interest in acquiring his company and its digital distribution platform, Steam.

The rumour seems to have first cropped up several days ago on Polygon, with the article suggesting that Microsoft buying up Valve “might be unlikely, but not impossible.” Naturally, people who read this article might have been shaken up a bit. One worried fan actually wrote an email to the man himself, asking “Is Valve being bought by Microsoft? Please respond, the community is shaken.”

Newell responded with a simple, “not that I’m aware of.”

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, had talked about expanding the gaming business segment of his company nearing the end of last year, especially after the initial sales performance of the Xbox One X last year.

“We’re mobilising to pursue an expansive opportunity in the 100+ billion gaming market. This means broadening our approach to how we think about gaming end-to-end. About starting with games and how they’re created and distributed, and how they’re played and viewed.”

It’s easy to see how the rumour could catch on from the quote. The gaming industry is by far one of the most lucrative at the moment, with Valve at the very heart. Steam is easily the most used piece of digital distribution on the internet; drawing hundreds of millions of gamers to the platform on a daily basis. It wouldn’t be too difficult to imagine that Microsoft wants a piece of that pie.

(Sources: Hot Hardware, Game Debate, Polygon)