Gabe Newell Explains Why PC Games Still Matter

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
While everyone seems to be catering to the console crowd lately, it is nice to know that developers like Valve still appreciate us PC gamers. :)

Speaking in the latest issue of PC Gamer UK, the Valve boss said gaming PCs are "great value for money" and allow gamers to "have the one they like". He told PCG: "People like their PCs. There are huge numbers of them and each person gets to have the one that they like rather than the one that someone else has defined for them.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, i dont think anyone else thinks this. Its sad. I grew up on PC. There wasnt cross platform games when I was a kind. Everyone I knew was playing mario brothers and mega man while I was playing Monkey Island and Quest for Glory. Nothing was crossed. Hopefully some PC developers come out with games that make my brain happy again.
 
We really know why he said these comments. He just couldn't refuse the dozen donuts sitting there so he said what they wanted to hear to taste those delicious pastries!
 
I'm hoping he stays focused on it and John Carmack gets back on board!:cool:
 
relapse808 said:
Yeah, i dont think anyone else thinks this. Its sad. I grew up on PC. There wasnt cross platform games when I was a kind. Everyone I knew was playing mario brothers and mega man while I was playing Monkey Island and Quest for Glory. Nothing was crossed. Hopefully some PC developers come out with games that make my brain happy again.
Click to expand...

Actually Megaman 2 came out on Nintendo and PC. It's cross platform.
 
relapse808 said:
There wasnt cross platform games when I was a kid. Everyone I knew was playing mario brothers and mega man while I was playing Monkey Island and Quest for Glory. Nothing was crossed.
Click to expand...

That all stopped with Doom and Duke Nukem 3D :D

MMO's are probably the biggest pillar for computer games at this point. The subscription model is becoming more and more popular from the business perspective, especially if first person shooters are starting to look into it.
 
Are they going to make DX11 titles then? Or make something PC exclusive like...no valve game has been?
 
ShuttleLuv said:
I'm hoping he stays focused on it and John Carmack gets back on board!:cool:
Click to expand...

They just released rage.. I'm pretty sure they still support PC. even tho rage wasn't a PC title to begin with it still made it to PC.
 
Dion said:
They just released rage.. I'm pretty sure they still support PC. even tho rage wasn't a PC title to begin with it still made it to PC.
Click to expand...
Just barely. If you read the reviews and comments it's hardly worth playing, and certainly not worth $60
 
relapse808 said:
Yeah, i dont think anyone else thinks this. Its sad. I grew up on PC. There wasnt cross platform games when I was a kind. Everyone I knew was playing mario brothers and mega man while I was playing Monkey Island and Quest for Glory. Nothing was crossed. Hopefully some PC developers come out with games that make my brain happy again.
Click to expand...

Regular Mario Brothers was indeed cross platform, I had a copy on my Commodore 64. When I was a kid, which was in the late 70s through early 80s, multiplatform games were the norm rather than the exception. Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Defender, and many other games were made for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Colecovision, IBM (PC), Commodore 64, Atari 800, and various other consoles and computers. Maybe when Nintendo's NES hit the scene and had exclusive claim on certain franchises did the multiplatform phenomenon get suppressed a bit, but even then you still had games like the Ultima series appearing on the NES, the PC, the Commodore 64, and the Commodore Amiga, and even SSI's Pool of Radiance, which I think was the first AD&D licensed computer role playing game, was eventually ported to the NES.
 
Here's how I see it:

Things will not change, not unless it becomes mainstream enough for a computer to compete against the console practicality wise....

For example, when I see cats from west Baltimore and Compton torrenting computer games, then i'll know the computer is viable enough to co-exist with a console. And if you don't know where I'm going with this, then I don't expect you to understand why things are the way they are today...
 
People still religiously play the original counterstrike. Quake 3 is just as strong now as it was when it was just released. Free to play MOBA games dominate the market. Valve makes spectacular pc games. The indie game market is pouring with original fun titles you can get for nearly free, and lets not forget the MMO market.

PC gaming isn't dead, it's on par with console games. Just because we don't have a title that sells 4 million titles overnight doesn't mean we don't have anything to play.
 
At least someone still cares about the people that supported them in their early days.
 
Thank god for Valve. They still stand by PC gamers and they really get it. Not to mention giving games away for free. Gabe good job dude.
 
We need PC-centric games that focus on getting the most out of our platform while giving PC gamers a true sense of what the PC experience is all about instead of watered down console ports with a few extra bells and whistles (if we even get that) launching with a $60 price tag and $5-15 DLC packs for content that's already on the disc or in the game's files from the original DD download.
 
Consoles have destroyed the quality of games produced. Might be awhile before we see a developer make a game that will last through the ages like Counter Strike 1.6, Quake 3, BF1942, AOE2, HL2, HL1, and even Unreal Tournament 99. Use to get mod kits, map creators, and all rest. We don't even get dedicated servers anymore. Went to p2p now which was influenced by consoles. The golden age has ended for us. It might be awhile before we get another majorly focused AAA pc title again. Just hope the next consoles are so slow so that developers would come back and really put some effort back into the pc.
 
You can have your new fancy games in 4 years when the next wave of temporarily decent consoles come out.
 
Can you guys imagine a true DX11 HL3 game? With the awesome storyline and stellar graphics...
 
gigatexal said:
Can you guys imagine a true DX11 HL3 game? With the awesome storyline and stellar graphics...
Click to expand...

That level of graphics would go against Valve's style of design. Valve's makes games that a wide variety of people can play at good settings.
 
Valve basically makes console game lol oh but for the pc....
 
Derangel said:
That level of graphics would go against Valve's style of design. Valve's makes games that a wide variety of people can play at good settings.
Click to expand...

True but the Souce engine is bound to get looking in it's needed upgrade, but even if HL3 was based on source i'd pay 60 bucks to play it.
 
The PC is going through a phase right now, and it's fueled by greed and a lack of imagination. PC gaming has always been the driving force for having a powerful machine. We've never needed a 1Ghz CPU to do Facebook or word processing, and certainly don't need dual or quad core CPU's running 3Ghz+.

Because Xbox 360 and PS3 resemble PC graphics so closely, developers saw little reason to develop games specifically for PC. Thus the decline in PC games that push PC graphics, and eventually the decline of the need for powerful PCs.

I believe you're looking at the last of the game consoles. Microsoft and Sony know this, and that's why the 360 and PS3 are as old as they are. Even Nintendo expects the Wii U to do poorly in sales for a while. A brand new game console would be too expensive for people to go buy.

The PC makes economic sense. In Europe PC gaming is more popular then console gaming, cause it's cheaper. It makes more sense to sink money into a PC then a console. Developers are very aware of this as well, and that's why they keep one foot in the door, just in case.

So long as developers see people buying games for PC, they'll continue to make them. The more people that buy PC games instead of console games, then the more developers will shift their development platform to PC. I personally believe that you'll see this eventually happening. All it takes is that one big game that everyone is going to go crazy for, that's only on PC.
 
We need to make it so that even the most budget desktops and laptops with crappy intel integrated graphics can play modern games, even if at low settings. This would attract many more gamers to the PC, especially young adults such as college students. My best friend would love to play games on his PC, and ditch his 360. He especially likes the fact that he can play on the go, if only his laptop wasn't saddled with soldered intel integrated graphics that can't play anything. :(
 
nerdydesi said:
We need to make it so that even the most budget desktops and laptops with crappy intel integrated graphics can play modern games, even if at low settings. This would attract many more gamers to the PC, especially young adults such as college students. My best friend would love to play games on his PC, and ditch his 360. He especially likes the fact that he can play on the go, if only his laptop wasn't saddled with soldered intel integrated graphics that can't play anything. :(
Click to expand...

Intel onboard graphics can't even match up to consoles. The only hope for them would be to make games the look like they're from the early 2000s.
 
Derangel said:
That level of graphics would go against Valve's style of design. Valve's makes games that a wide variety of people can play at good settings.
Click to expand...

uh, no. Source, while optimized for lower as well as high end machines, it still required a very beefy card to max when in launched, at least a 9800pro by my recollection. It was also one of the best looking games when it came out, and certainly when in debuted at E303. So no, valve's choice to cut back on graphics has a lot to do with making a console counterpart at the same time. When new consoles come out, just watch, they'll suddenly start banging out amazing graphics again.

Also, I will NEVER understand why people complain about a company pushing graphics by saying things like "They should make a game that works well on low end machines"
Newsflash: You can turn settings down and guess what, it will be the same game that would have been released if they had targeted low end machines. The only difference now is that you don't get to brag that you can max it out.

Why in the hell would you EVER not support a gaming dev to push graphics above and beyond what we currently have, especially in the market we're in now. Is it because it would take a shot at you ego by not being able to max it out? Fuck off with that shit.
 
Derangel said:
That level of graphics would go against Valve's style of design. Valve's makes games that a wide variety of people can play at good settings.
Click to expand...

Yes, their scalability is very good across hardware generations.
It's nice to see games which will not only run well on modern hardware, but can also be toned down to run on systems over 5+ years old.
 
polonyc2 said:
all of Valve's titles were PC exclusive up until recently...when they were first released they were PC-only
Click to expand...

Half life PC 1998 PS2 2001
Counterstrike 2000 xbox 2004
CS Condition Zero PC 2004 Xbox 2004
Half life 2 2004 xbox 2005 PS3/360 2007
Half life 2 ep 1 2006 PS3/360 2006
Half life 2 ep 2 2007 PS3/360 2007
Portal 2007 PS3/360 2007
TF2 2007 PS3/360 2007
L4D 2008 360 2008
L4D2 2009 360 2009
Portal 2 2011 PS3/360 2011

Other than mods, ricochet is the only valve game without a console port.
 
DeathPrincess said:
Half life PC 1998 PS2 2001
Counterstrike 2000 xbox 2004
CS Condition Zero PC 2004 Xbox 2004
Half life 2 2004 xbox 2005 PS3/360 2007
Half life 2 ep 1 2006 PS3/360 2006
Half life 2 ep 2 2007 PS3/360 2007
Portal 2007 PS3/360 2007
TF2 2007 PS3/360 2007
L4D 2008 360 2008
L4D2 2009 360 2009
Portal 2 2011 PS3/360 2011

Other than mods, ricochet is the only valve game without a console port.
Click to expand...

that's some pretty awesome research :p
 
IronChef75 said:
Tell that to Steve Jobs. Oh, wait...
Click to expand...
too soon man. too soon...
Ski said:
Here's how I see it:

Things will not change, not unless it becomes mainstream enough for a computer to compete against the console practicality wise....

For example, when I see cats from west Baltimore and Compton torrenting computer games, then i'll know the computer is viable enough to co-exist with a console. And if you don't know where I'm going with this, then I don't expect you to understand why things are the way they are today...
Click to expand...

I see where you are going with this. But there is one fundamental reason why cross-platform wont go anywhere with most games... not all but most. Because the mouse+keyboard is too superior of a control scheme vs controllers. It's one of the reasons MS scaled back on cross-platform.
 
Nice words, Gabe... now do us a favor and make HL3 or Episode 3 instead of trying to sell virtual hats to everyone.
 
Derangel said:
That level of graphics would go against Valve's style of design. Valve's makes games that a wide variety of people can play at good settings.
Click to expand...

What's stopping Valve from following what Codemasters is doing? Money? lol
 
Really? Because I heard that Counterstrike Global Offensive is made specifically for consoles, and the PC version is just a "bonus", whatever that means. And please make a new engine that supports DX11, the Source engine is really showing its age and I'm sick of DX9 titles, its 2011, not 2002.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top