Video Game Quote of the Day

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Gabe Newell was recently quoted by the NY Times as saying his company is more likely to "disintegrate" before it was ever sold.

Mr. Newell said that there was a better chance that Valve would “disintegrate,” its independent-minded workers scattering, than that it would ever be sold. “It’s way more likely we would head in that direction than say, ‘Let’s find some giant company that wants to cash us out and wait two or three years to have our employment agreements terminate,’ ” he says.
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I don't think they would, and in any case most of the company would likely leave and go start up somewhere else.
 
NickJames said:
I don't think they would, and in any case most of the company would likely leave and go start up somewhere else.
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I am inclined to agree with Newell on this. If you know how Valve's company employee structure is set up you could see why. There is no employee caste system at Valve. It's a flat hierarchy there, so to have a buyout of Valve, that company would either have to keep that structure in place and leave them alone or that other company would have to, over time, adopt that flat hierarchy which would be highly unlikely.
 
While the people might scatter I'm sure he'd sing a different tune if EA offered him $5billion for the company
 
sfsuphysics said:
While the people might scatter I'm sure he'd sing a different tune if EA offered him $5billion for the company
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I don't think so, his exact wealth isn't known but its expected to be at least half of that.. While I don't think he is a Larry Ellison I am sure he is quite content with where he is at.. He has a pretty damn successful software company with a culture that is 180* from the norm, a lot of the time Pride in ones work doesn't have a dollar sign on it.

I see some of the same characteristics in Jensen Huang of NVIDIA.
 
sfsuphysics said:
While the people might scatter I'm sure he'd sing a different tune if EA offered him $5billion for the company
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What would he do with it? He probably already has as much money as he'll ever need. He's a smart guy with a long-term view. So he knows that sure, you can make a lot of money right now, but what about the projects he's working on? What about the things he wants to do in the future? You can't spend your way to success or personal happiness, at least not after you've reached a certain point of financial stability. Gabe is doing what he wants, and, I think, enjoying himself and his life. I expect the same is true for most Valve employees.

They won't sell themselves to some big corporation.
 
sfsuphysics said:
While the people might scatter I'm sure he'd sing a different tune if EA offered him $5billion for the company
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Maybe, but why bother? Valve continues to see growth every day and Gabe + employees have full control over everything. I'd keep it, myself.
 
The moment Valve sells the company would begin a cat and mouse game. Anyone who buys a game company, does so to increase its value and then sell it for higher profit. This means abusively making game titles that are popular. If zombie, solder, MMO's become popular, then that's what everyone will make. Drive up sales for the company for 1 year, gets sold to whoever wins the highest bid, and continues to do this until money comes out of the CEO's ass when he shits.

That is why we have so many shitty games, and why Valve gets me support, and more importantly my money.
 
sfsuphysics said:
While the people might scatter I'm sure he'd sing a different tune if EA offered him $5billion for the company
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1. I dont think he would sell Valve - he has plenty of money already.

2. Whole EA is worth (market capitalization) "only" 4.42 billion, so how would they pay for it?

3. IMO Valve is worth more than 5 billion

 
Methadras said:
I am inclined to agree with Newell on this. If you know how Valve's company employee structure is set up you could see why. There is no employee caste system at Valve. It's a flat hierarchy there, so to have a buyout of Valve, that company would either have to keep that structure in place and leave them alone or that other company would have to, over time, adopt that flat hierarchy which would be highly unlikely.
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I was quoting the post above me but of course it didn't feel like quoting today.
 
No time to read the article but have to say: "So, no HL/EP3?" lol, back to work. :D
 
A company valued at 2.5 billion privately.

Right now, HL3, would wreck every record every set aside for games.

Period.

Stop bitching, stop talking from the throne. Make it, or STFU, cause I'm
tired of waiting :)
 
Goddamn, every time I read stuff about Valve I *weep* at my current (software) company that does everything the exact opposite they do.
 
sfsuphysics said:
While the people might scatter I'm sure he'd sing a different tune if EA offered him $5billion for the company
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Valve would quickly disintegrate anyway if they were bought over by EA. Just ask all the past companies bought out by them. EA would take all their IP and develop it under "Bioware" that isn't the original Bioware either.

Might as well keep the company and see where he can take it (which is sure as hell much further than EA can) and if successful, make more money than EA can offer.
 
Gabe for 2012!

Screw the economy, I want to know that Steam will never go away from what it is!
 
Mofo's hands be in the til ( aka the cash register for you Americans ) before the Ka-ching sound had ended if their was a huge buyout offer on the table. Thats what I would bet on, regardless of his "disintergration" BS.
 
Gabe Newell is the MAN!!

He is one smart dude and knows exactly what he wants, and that's why Valve is so successful.
 
stiltner said:
Right now, HL3, would wreck every record every set aside for games.

Period.
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Not sure about this but no doubt it would do very well which makes me wonder why Valve is being so slow about it. There will be a point where people will stop caring and I think we're not far from that.
 
Good for Gabe! Best dang gaming company period, when you think of the quality of games and services, plus the way they treat their employees. After reading the crap other devs have written over at glass ceiling and then reading something from a departing valve employee, I can see that Gabe and Co. know WTF they're doing and I hope they keep it up! Maybe the EA's and Activisons of the world will finally implode and we'll get back to companies like this to bring us quality games. I'd rather only get a couple of games a year that kick ass and are high quality then dozens of the same old weak boring sequels we get now...
 
heatlesssun said:
Not sure about this but no doubt it would do very well which makes me wonder why Valve is being so slow about it. There will be a point where people will stop caring and I think we're not far from that.
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This seems absurd.

It'll come out and it will be a massive deal even if it's 3+ years off. They have such a reputation from Portal and TF2 alone now that anything they put out is a big deal.

Also they own Steam - tons of advertising opportunities. Maybe you won't care, but it will sell with or without you.
 
InternationalHat said:
This seems absurd.

It'll come out and it will be a massive deal even if it's 3+ years off. They have such a reputation from Portal and TF2 alone now that anything they put out is a big deal.

Also they own Steam - tons of advertising opportunities. Maybe you won't care, but it will sell with or without you.
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All I am saying is that if you look at the history of long releases like this interest declines while expectations rise. I'm sure if it ever does come out EP3 will be a big hit but probably not the biggest release ever.

My guess is that Valve is going to use EP3 as launch title for whatever console thing they have in mind.
 
Holy crap! Gabe is going to sell Valve? Judging on the amount of time it take him to normally flip on one of his emphatic statements we have about 2 or 3 years before he sells the company.
 
sfsuphysics said:
While the people might scatter I'm sure he'd sing a different tune if EA offered him $5billion for the company
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Not really. Steam, right now, is a printing press. Valve is more profitable per employee than Apple or Google. He has no reason to sell, especially since it appears to be his business decisions driving that growth.
 
It seems that with EA trying to screw Valve that they aren't doing it as well as they hoped. Maybe in a few years Valve can buy EA and rip a whole in time and space as they try and right a bunch of wrongs. :p
 
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