Interviews
Interviews – mostly about Steam but could be about other distribution platforms.
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Gearbox: Valve is childish and narrow minded
Valve’s dislike of the PS3 isn’t exactly a secret and because of that Randy Pitchford, the President of Gearbox (the developers of Borderlands), felt the need to speak up in Sony’s defense. In a recent interview with the U.K.’s Official PlayStation Magazine, Pitchford said:
I noticed something on the net not too long ago. Doug Lombardi (Valve’s VP Marketing) had to take a swipe at the PS3 again, and I thought it was foolish. I read it the same way I read fanboys. Like there’s a guy who bought the Sony platform and he’s a Sony guy, so he decides he’s going to spend a certain percentage of his time bashing Microsoft. And there’s a guy on Microsoft doing the same thing. Those guys are childish and narrow minded, it’s the same kind of thing.
Pitchford went on to suggest that Valve is a selfish developer:
Valve think their own stuff is the only stuff that matters, to the point where they have their own distribution platform. It’s like, I don’t care about retail, about Marketplace, or PSN, I’m going to have Steam. It’s cool, it’s good, and they’re doing a good job but at the same time they’re reliant on the rest of the world. They had to do that [Left 4 Dead] deal with EA. When I see the L4D ad on the television I don’t see a Valve logo, I see an EA logo, and when I bought it, I bought it at a store.
This guy raises some good points. What do you think? Is Pitchford on the money, or does Valve have every right to decide what platforms to develop for?
Source: gameinformer.com
Exclusive interview on GameTrailers.com
Valve delivers fresh infusions to its biggest franchises: Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2 and Team Fortress.
Gabe Newell mentions the Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott group. You can find out a lot about Left 4 Dead 2 and see the new campaign for Left 4 Dead – Crash Course.
Gabe also answers a lot of questions asked on Twitter. Too bad we didn’t know about that…we could have asked about the prices…oh wait, we just did.
Valve: Let The Community Fund Games Development
The Bill Gates of PC gaming came up with a very weird idea lately. You see most of games are very risky investments – if some publisher likes the idea of your game (for some really odd reason) then publisher will eventually give you money for it. But as we all know most of the modern, big games don’t even come out (like for example Duke Nukem Forever etc) or are a total disasters and the whole project with millions of dollars invested in it are gone.
Now what Gabe think is funny is the idea of…the gamers (yes you!) paying for the game way before it’s even made. Here’s the exact quote:
One of the areas that I am super interested in right now is how we can do financing from the community. So right now, what typically happens is you have this budget – it needs to be huge, it has to be $10m – $30m, and it has to be all available at the beginning of the project. There’s a huge amount of risk associated with those dollars and decisions have to be incredibly conservative.
What I think would be much better would be if the community could finance the games. In other words, ‘Hey, I really like this idea you have. I’ll be an early investor in that and, as a result, at a later point I may make a return on that product, but I’ll also get a copy of that game.
So move financing from something that occurs between a publisher and a developer… Instead have it be something where funding is coming out of community for games and game concepts they really like.
Why put us, your customers at risk then? I know that there are millions of fan boys out there but I wonder what would happen if Valve took all their money and the project would turn out a disaster or wouldn’t even come out…
Anyway this idea is really weird (to say it nice) although it could be a good idea when you look at it from different perspective like smaller indie games or some other projects.
By the way it’s taken from the interview we posted earlier.
Source: Kotaku
Good Game Interview with Gabe Newell
Pricing is one of the least important aspects?
Yeah FOR YOU it is but we actually pay double in many cases Mr. Newell.
Left 4 Dead 2 – preview
…While there are plenty of subtle changes that fans will notice, the meat of the game is exactly the same as before. You play in a team of four through various movie-inspired levels, taking on the zombie horde that stand between you and your extraction. The concept is simple: If you stick together, it’s easier to stay alive, but if you play as a lone gunman, you’ll die faster while sabotaging your team.The level we played was called The Parish and followed on from the same mission that we saw at E3 exactly one month ago. Like the original Left 4 Dead, each level is presented with a movie poster, and this level’s tagline was “This time it all goes South.” It’s a reference to the level’s location in New Orleans, where you fight it out in a suburban setting before crossing a bridge to make it to an escape helicopter…
More at Gamespot.com!
…While there are plenty of subtle changes that fans will notice, the meat of the game is exactly the same as before. You play in a team of four through various movie-inspired levels, taking on the zombie horde that stand between you and your extraction. The concept is simple: If you stick together, it’s easier to stay alive, but if you play as a lone gunman, you’ll die faster while sabotaging your team.
The level we played was called The Parish and followed on from the same mission that we saw at E3 exactly one month ago. Like the original Left 4 Dead, each level is presented with a movie poster, and this level’s tagline was “This time it all goes South.” It’s a reference to the level’s location in New Orleans, where you fight it out in a suburban setting before crossing a bridge to make it to an escape helicopter…
More at Gamespot.com!
Opening The Valve: The Gabe Newell Interview
Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2, Portal 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 3 talk.
Read the article here:
http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/696431/Opening-The-Valve-The-Gabe-Newell-Interview.html
It’s funny how they talk about community and fans but none of them ever responded to even one e-mail about the 1€ ≠ 1$ case.
Newell: I want to make sure that I don’t sound like I’m dismissing user’s issues, right? I get a ton of email everyday saying why aren’t you talking about Episode 3? And there are very good reasons why we’re not talking about Episode 3, which I can’t talk about yet, but I will.
I guess Gabe reads Half-Life related e-mails only.
L4D2 Interview
And something extra:
Doug Lombardi – you save that money
Doug Lombardi is a VP of Marketing for Valve (from valvesoftware.com):
After years in the music industry, Doug decided to get a real job. Then he came to his senses and made the decision to get into the gaming industry instead. During his time in gaming, he has worked on the launch of websites, magazines, and games. As VP of Marketing at Valve, he helps manage and coordinate third-party relations, marketing and press activities.
Here is what he said few months back:
I think that’s what gets in the way of [retail publishing], and with Steam there’s no disc to burn, so you save that money. There’s no box to make, so you save that money, and your shipping is done over the wire which is a lot cheaper than putting stuff on trucks.
Found in here.
You can e-mail mister Lombardi at lombardi@valvesoftware.com
Latest on Tue, 06:43 pm
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: yep, another protest today in Warsaw, and next one during National Stadium opening on Sunday
: So PL actually did sign ACTA? :( Is it right that those guy said sth like "i'll not be extorted by those inhabitants"? o.O
: the next indie royale bundle is live (serious sam indie bundle)
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