Gabe Newell opens up about lack of updates regarding next Half Life...

zamardii

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Idk if this has been posted ( I went back a couple pages and saw no reference to this) already but just thought i'd post anyway since it was a interesting read to see Newell actually utter the word Half Life. lol.


http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...ts-its-games-more-baked-before-revealing-them

As the wait for news on the next Half-Life game goes on, Valve boss Gabe Newell has explained the famed developer's current strategy on revealing new titles.

Valve's experience with Half-Life and Half-Life 2 caused a rethink, leading the company to back off from talking about future games until they're good and ready, Newell told Penny Arcade.

"Part of the reason that we backed off talking so much about what was happening in the future is that when we've done that in the past, you know, with Half-Life 1 it was a year after we originally said it would be, Half-Life 2 basically if you go and read the forum posts apparently took us 50 or 60 years to get done, so we're trying to be careful not to get people too excited and then have to go and disappoint them.

"So we're sort of reacting in the other direction and saying, 'okay, well let's have things a little more baked before we start getting people all excited about it.'"

Valve's continued silence over the next Half-Life, be it Half-Life 2: Episode 3 or Half-Life 3, has frustrated many of its fans.

Earlier this month 10,000 Valve fans logged on to play Half-Life 2 en-masse in an attempt to make their campaign for more Half-Life information heard. It was the result of a Steam Group, called A Call for Communication (Half-Life), that is lobbying Valve to release more information on the future of the much-loved series.

"The lack of communication between Valve and the Half-Life community has been a frustrating experience. While continued support for current and future products is greatly appreciated, fans of the Half-Life series have waited years for a word on when the franchise will return," the group's description reads.

"We're acutely aware of how much we annoy our fans and it's pretty frustrating to us when we put them into that situation," Newell told Penny Arcade, while agreeing with the suggestion that there is tension between all the various projects the company is interested in doing.

"We try to go as fast as we can and we try to pick the things that we think are going to be most valuable to our customers and if there's some magic way we can get more work done in a day then we'd love to hear about it.

"But we recognize that it's been a long time whereas we have so many games that people really love - Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Portal, Left 4 Dead, not a whole lot of Ricochet enthusiasts out there, and at the same time we want to be making sure that those games and those stories and those characters are moving forward while also making sure that we don't just get into terminal sequelitis."

In June 2009 Newell said he had "very good reasons" for not discussing Half-Life 2: Episode 3, but refused to be drawn on them or when the developer would be able to open up about the concluding chapter in the FPS saga.

"I get a ton of email every day 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," Newell said at the time.

And last year, Newell told Eurogamer he wouldn't trade the "enthusiasm and straightforwardness of our fans for a quieter inbox".
 
If Valve picked things that were most valuable to their customers then HL3 or whatever they will call it would have been the first project completed. Gabe is talking out of both sides of his mouth. First comes making money not what customers want, which makes no difference to me but don't bullshit us. Typical nothing really said as usual.
 
It's been so long I don't think I really care anymore about HL3. It better be epic for me to buy.
 
I'm sure they make a bunch of money as it is from Steam. Plus, wouldn't HL3 be a huge money-maker?

Personally, I think the whole lot of them are goof balls.
 
Theres a pretty good article on Penny-arcade. Talks about the Steam Business. About how they try to show customer data about DRM and no one listens.

I don't want them to work on HL3 if they don't want to. No matter how hard someone works on a creative product it's gonna be subpar if they aren't enthusiastic about it. FYI WALL-E took nearly 17 years to make and thats just a movie and you know what? WALL-E was incredible. I can wait on a "good" HL3.
 
I just want them to finish the story from the HL2 episodes. After that they dick around all they want. Their other games haven't been very interesting as I'm not much into playing co-op and spend most of my time in SP games unless I playing through WoW or TOR.
 
He's too busy eating pizza and donuts off the sweat and toil of other developers (Steam) to make anything innovative. So leave him alone.
 
I like this attitude:
we want to be making sure that those games and those stories and those characters are moving forward while also making sure that we don't just get into terminal sequelitis.
 
Meh. Gabe comments on lack of update by saying, "Well there aren't any updates that I can tell you about now...but I may or may not have more to say later."

Helpful, Gabe. Very. Helpful.
 
This bugs me not at all, if anything I wish more companies would stay silent until they are closer to a release date. I'm tired of a game being announced and having to wait five years to play it.
 
This bugs me not at all, if anything I wish more companies would stay silent until they are closer to a release date. I'm tired of a game being announced and having to wait five years to play it.

In fairness, Valve releases games when they're cooked well...not undercooked and rushed/buggy like most of 2011's AAA gaming titles.
 
All I can see in that is "bla, bla...BS...bla, bla...some more BS..."
 
I understand what he's saying about sequelitis, but there are plenty of companies that are able to put out solid products regularly without going bonkers and releasing a new sequel every year.

I'm starting to wonder if some of these old school devs can get away with these massive development times and stay relevant. Gabe has other sources of revenue (as do guys like Carmack and Lord British) but they don't have the same industry pull and impact that they once did.
 
I'm a fan of the whole "it's done when its done" method of releasing games, the only real problem I have with it, is when you look at a game like Starcraft 2, which was a pretty mediocre update of Starcraft, it was just a reskinned version of the same game with slightly more modern graphics.

I'm not expecting a quantum leap forward, but yeah, I need something a little more than mere incrementalism.

To be fair, Blizzard and Valve's versions of incrementalism is better than other companies/devs can pull off.
 
Complacency. He's rich and unmotivated. Someone sue the crap out of him for sexual harassment!
 
duuuude....
what a prick.

all those words and..... nothing.

i dont know why i still care.
i really dont....
 
I'm a fan of the whole "it's done when its done" method of releasing games / SNIP

I always used to be, but one of the big problems these days is that if you do that, you have to have something that beats the pants off of everything else that comes along between your announcement and when your came hits the streets.
Gabe being tight lipped about what Vale is working on gives them the freedom to work on things without someone one upping them. The last thing he wants is a situation like Carmack had with Borderlands beating the crap out of Rage.
IMO, the "when it's done" approach can really only work for studios that are atop the industry and can afford to take chances. Kind of like the self-publishing bands like Radiohead and NIN being able to do things the way they want....because they're established enough to do so.
The mistake he keeps making is that he's more or less confirming that they are working on another Half-Life, he just won't give any details. We all know it's out there. Someone can still sneak out a Matrix to kill his Phantom Menace if it's not amazing.
 
When HL3 comes out, it will revolutionize gaming, possibly even the way we function as a society. The Higgs Boson particle was found in the source engine. Headcrabs that defy the laws of thermodynamics? That's just the beginning.
 
Well, why don't we give them the benefit of the doubt? The only games they have let us down with are the L4D series of games with not much in the way of DLC released for either, but TF2 has got a shit ton of updates over the years and is now free to play.
 
All of these negative responses are comical. "WTF, dude. Gabe you're an asshole."
Basically he is in a catch 22. He releases information and get's bitched at because it's taking to long, or he bides his time to the same result. We really do have it that good in America if this is the stuff we complain about.
 
I dont get it why they keep it so secret wtf is the logic in that? Still no info and usual BS and why cant they just admit they havent done a good job informing us and do it proper then not lame excuses year after year is it this how they treat us then thank you.
 
I dont get it why they keep it so secret wtf is the logic in that? Still no info and usual BS and why cant they just admit they havent done a good job informing us and do it proper then not lame excuses year after year is it this how they treat us then thank you.

Stop crying, Valve isn't Burger King -- You can't have it your way.
 
Am I the only person here who appreciate's Valve's methodology? I mean shit. Please Gabe, keep doing what you do. I'll wait.
 
"We try to go as fast as we can and we try to pick the things that we think are going to be most valuable to our customers and if there's some magic way we can get more work done in a day then we'd love to hear about it."

I know of a magical way to get more work done in a day: Hire more employees.
 
I'd rather not hear a word about it than go through what the Duke Nukem fans did.

I wish I hadn't heard anything about Counter Strike: Global Offensive. I'm gettin' antsy... Supposedly I have good chance at getting a beta key though since I filled out the survey. :p
 
Am I the only person here who appreciate's Valve's methodology? I mean shit. Please Gabe, keep doing what you do. I'll wait.

I appreciate it too. Unlike most of the crybaby kids here, I actually have MANY other games to play in the meantime.
 
I'd bet they are just working on a huge update to the source engine, perhaps even a Source Engine 2, and what a better launch title than EP3 or maybe a full blown HL3.

It's best for them to take their time, they have a pretty big shoes to fill when it comes to the Half Life franchise.
 
I always used to be, but one of the big problems these days is that if you do that, you have to have something that beats the pants off of everything else that comes along between your announcement and when your came hits the streets.
Gabe being tight lipped about what Vale is working on gives them the freedom to work on things without someone one upping them. The last thing he wants is a situation like Carmack had with Borderlands beating the crap out of Rage.
IMO, the "when it's done" approach can really only work for studios that are atop the industry and can afford to take chances. Kind of like the self-publishing bands like Radiohead and NIN being able to do things the way they want....because they're established enough to do so.
The mistake he keeps making is that he's more or less confirming that they are working on another Half-Life, he just won't give any details. We all know it's out there. Someone can still sneak out a Matrix to kill his Phantom Menace if it's not amazing.

In normal terms sure but I'm trying to think of the last game Valve game out with that wasn't better than Twinkies stuffed with cheesecake. DAMMIT I BET THEY HAVE THOSE AT VALVE :'(
 
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