Gabe Newell On What Makes Valve Tick

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The Washington Post has posted an interview with Gabe Newell that, if you are a fan of the man, is certainly worth reading. :cool:

What makes Valve so successful? In November, I sat down with Valve CEO and co-founder Gabe Newell in the gaming company's Bellevue office for a feature story. Newell argues that attracting and retaining talented programmers and designers is key to the firm's success, and explained the company's strategy for doing that. This interview, the first of a two-part series, has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
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I always found Valve's success interesting. They basically made 2 games - HL and HL2 and everything else is a mod of various complexity of these two games.

Then, there is, of course, Steam - an online shop, which we all love so much.

What a weird studio, lol
 
M'ichal said:
I always found Valve's success interesting. They basically made 2 games - HL and HL2 and everything else is a mod of various complexity of these two games.

Then, there is, of course, Steam - an online shop, which we all love so much.

What a weird studio, lol
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Steam sales + cosmetic items (TF2/DOTA2) make the company tick. Aside from that, they really aren't bringing a lot to the market. Some people act like they are a paragon of creativity and development practices, however they don't put out much actual content.
 
ocellaris said:
Steam sales + cosmetic items (TF2/DOTA2) make the company tick. Aside from that, they really aren't bringing a lot to the market. Some people act like they are a paragon of creativity and development practices, however they don't put out much actual content.
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Left 4 Dead / Portal / Dota 2 / Team Fortress 2 all in the last 5 years. Give me a more productive studio.
 
ocellaris said:
Steam sales + cosmetic items (TF2/DOTA2) make the company tick. Aside from that, they really aren't bringing a lot to the market. Some people act like they are a paragon of creativity and development practices, however they don't put out much actual content.
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That implies that creating a robust digital distribution infrastructure (Steam) doesn't bring something to the PC market ... digital distribution has kept PC gaming from diminishing and I am happy to see them focused in that area ... there are lots of good PC game developers these days but only a handful of digital distribution venues and publishers and the quality levels of these vary greatly ;)
 
If the Great Gaben was truly in it for the gamers he would finish (make) HL3. Until then bottom line is they stumbled into a gigantic cash cow several years ago, which allows them to not take a chance and make it. For all the perceived good they do its kind of sad and infuriating.
 
pcjunkie said:
If the Great Gaben was truly in it for the gamers he would finish (make) HL3. Until then bottom line is they stumbled into a gigantic cash cow several years ago, which allows them to not take a chance and make it. For all the perceived good they do its kind of sad and infuriating.
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Why bother with all the support for indie games then? I can't imagine they do much more than break even from that, unless a game makes it big like FTL.
 
polonyc2 said:
Steam is their cash cow....the games are a secondary consideration
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That's what it seems like. They seem to have switched the focus into delivering gaming experiences via new ways rather than delivering actual games.

Not that it's a bad thing, but it'd be nice to see something new in the form of an actual game from a studio with all this talent.
 
M'ichal said:
I always found Valve's success interesting. They basically made 2 games - HL and HL2 and everything else is a mod of various complexity of these two games.

Then, there is, of course, Steam - an online shop, which we all love so much.

What a weird studio, lol
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Half life was the beginning to that end as it kicked off the in game multiplayer search/finder. Seeing as they killed off gamespy with that, they built upon it with steam while putting up their own catalog of games up for sale. It was a trickle effect in the end that made it big. Gabe saw how well it worked for them and their games that when he opened it up to third-party developers they flooded him.
 
M'ichal said:
That's what it seems like. They seem to have switched the focus into delivering gaming experiences via new ways rather than delivering actual games.

Not that it's a bad thing, but it'd be nice to see something new in the form of an actual game from a studio with all this talent.
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Didn't DotA2 (one of the most played games in the world) just come out not long ago?
 
Peter.Cort said:
Why bother with all the support for indie games then? I can't imagine they do much more than break even from that, unless a game makes it big like FTL.
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That's totally different than releasing a giant bomb they programmed themselves. If money was an issue I'm sure we'd have seen something long, long ago.
 
M'ichal said:
Not that it's a bad thing, but it'd be nice to see something new in the form of an actual game from a studio with all this talent.
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I think Valve is wasting one of the great game franchises in Half Life. Certainly they could have done more with it than they have at this point and like many I wonder why this is the case.
 
I think another reason why they haven't been pumping out games like other developers is because they know they can create a game that will sell. With that kind of mind set they can comfortably focus on different aspects of business and gaming.

Personally, I have never ceased to be amazed by every major title that Valve has put out and I know what ever is coming next will have my attention.
 
They release at least 1 game per year. That's more than almost any other major studio. :confused:
 
Gabe giving an interview to the Washington Post on Jan 3rd is no coincidence...viral marketing at it's best :D
 
LeninGHOLA said:
They release at least 1 game per year. That's more than almost any other major studio. :confused:
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I don't know how you are counting 1 game per year (maybe you are counting mods etc) but any other major studio releases atleast 3-5 games per year across multiple platforms and big name studios almost as much as 8-12. Only shit studios release 1 game per year and/or indie developers.

Example, Ubisoft, Atlus, 2K games, EA, Activision. Now I am not saying all are quality games but last year alone I remember playing at least 3 games from EA, 5 games from Ubi and 2 games from WB that were worth my time.
 
polonyc2 said:
Gabe giving an interview to the Washington Post on Jan 3rd is no coincidence...viral marketing at it's best :D
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From the Article:
What makes Valve so successful? In November, I sat down with Valve CEO and co-founder Gabe Newell in the gaming company's Bellevue office for a feature story. Newell argues that attracting and retaining talented programmers and designers is key to the firm's success, and explained the company's strategy for doing that.
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But posted on the 3rd = HL3 confirmed.
 
KickAssCop said:
I don't know how you are counting 1 game per year (maybe you are counting mods etc) but any other major studio releases atleast 3-5 games per year across multiple platforms and big name studios almost as much as 8-12. Only shit studios release 1 game per year and/or indie developers.

Example, Ubisoft, Atlus, 2K games, EA, Activision. Now I am not saying all are quality games but last year alone I remember playing at least 3 games from EA, 5 games from Ubi and 2 games from WB that were worth my time.
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This is the problem, were talking quality games.

Blizzard (OTHER THAN DIABLO 3) has released quality games at a rate of 1 every 2-3 years!
 
KickAssCop said:
I don't know how you are counting 1 game per year (maybe you are counting mods etc) but any other major studio releases atleast 3-5 games per year across multiple platforms and big name studios almost as much as 8-12. Only shit studios release 1 game per year and/or indie developers.

Example, Ubisoft, Atlus, 2K games, EA, Activision. Now I am not saying all are quality games but last year alone I remember playing at least 3 games from EA, 5 games from Ubi and 2 games from WB that were worth my time.
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Those aren't studios, those are publishers. No dev studio releases more than 2 games a year unless they are small indie games, or throwaway mobile games.

Yes, Valve releases on average 1 game a year.

Great job making a dumb post, though.
 
FrEaKy said:
This is the problem, were talking quality games.

Blizzard (OTHER THAN DIABLO 3) has released quality games at a rate of 1 every 2-3 years!
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Quality is very subjective and I will not argue it. But for me last year alone from Ubisoft, I saw COJ Gunslinger, Farcry 3 (not sure if it was last year or year before), Farcry 3 Blood Dragon, ACIV, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Rayman Legends all of which are super high quality games across genres.

From EA also, I think we saw BF4 (yes with its bugs and what not, still I have about 20 hrs in it uptil now with many more to come since I bought Premium), NFS Rivals (very enjoyable if you get a good session going), and Fifa 14.

From Warner Bros, I saw MK9 and Injustice both quality games in fighting genre.

From Valve we saw Dota 2 where I doubt Valve actual employees had much to do with it and most of the stuff was done by the core gamers who build the Dota mod. Now Valve hired them and if you want to qualify it as your one game so be it.

For me Valve as a studio is dead. They have nothing in the pipeline and HL3 may wow us but then it will be drought for another 7-8 years from this studio whilst they liftoff talent as it comes to them.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Those aren't studios, those are publishers. No dev studio releases more than 2 games a year unless they are small indie games, or throwaway mobile games.

Yes, Valve releases on average 1 game a year.

Great job making a dumb post, though.
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Valve is also a publisher with multiple studios as far as I understand it. I don't they them publishing more than 1 game a year either.
 
KickAssCop said:
Valve is also a publisher with multiple studios as far as I understand it. I don't they them publishing more than 1 game a year either.
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No. They don't have subsidiary development studios. They publish their own games and that's it. Where are you getting this information?
 
pcjunkie said:
That's totally different than releasing a giant bomb they programmed themselves. If money was an issue I'm sure we'd have seen something long, long ago.
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That's my point, I find it hard to believe that they're money-grabbers or just sitting on their laurels. The previous poster that I quoted said that valve wasn't in it for the gamers, but I disagree because if they weren't in it for the gamers and in it for money they'd be doing things like EA and Activision and just sitting on their franchises and putting out half-assed games. If they were really in it for the money we'd be on half-life 7 or half-life: ghosts of headcrabs past.
 
So you are saying that Team Fortress 2 and Left for Dead and Half Life 2 and Dota 2 were all made by same group of people. Just because they don't put a FORMAL name to a studio doesn't mean that they don't have a group of people allocated to a single game development.
 
KickAssCop said:
So you are saying that Team Fortress 2 and Left for Dead and Half Life 2 and Dota 2 were all made by same group of people. Just because they don't put a FORMAL name to a studio doesn't mean that they don't have a group of people allocated to a single game development.
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Enough with the bullshit. You were wrong. Grab some coffee and chill out.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
They release at least 1 game per year. That's more than almost any other major studio. :confused:
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As someone above said, you're mostly counting mods - CS:GO, TF2, L4D...

LeninGHOLA said:
Didn't DotA2 (one of the most played games in the world) just come out not long ago?
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Yeah, I forgot about DotA, although that's still kind of an oddling as it started out as a WC3 mod and Valve just raised it properly. But sure, lets count it as a unique game on it's own next to HL and HL2.
 
M'ichal said:
Yeah, I forgot about DotA, although that's still kind of an oddling as it started out as a WC3 mod and Valve just raised it properly. But sure, lets count it as a unique game on it's own next to HL and HL2.
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Dota 2 runs as a standalone product so I think it's fair to call it a unique game. And they just gave icefrog the money and dev's to create the game fully which creates a lot of unique advantages for him as he can do a lot more with it running as a standalone game rather than through WC3.
 
M'ichal said:
As someone above said, you're mostly counting mods - CS:GO, TF2, L4D...



Yeah, I forgot about DotA, although that's still kind of an oddling as it started out as a WC3 mod and Valve just raised it properly. But sure, lets count it as a unique game on it's own next to HL and HL2.
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Those aren't mods, they are games. They do have mod support, however.

Yea, DotA2 is a full game also.
 
There is only one person spreading bullshit here and that is you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Corporation

This is a list of Valve's release schedule and also let's all start counting all the modes, expansions and experiments they conducted as full games to hit the 1 release per year target (be it published or developed). For me they are a shell publisher that acquires talent that already exists with little of their own making. You can click on each of the games and find out exactly where the game started out.

That is like saying because EA acquired Criterion we can count all the games Criterion made prior to joining EA as part of EA's portfolio. Legally that maybe true but EA had no role in the original burnout series.

Let's set some completely different standards for Valve because they are special. They are special for acquiring modders and giving them jobs as full time employees and making them produce sub-par half assed games like the horrible Blue Shift, or Half Life Deathmatch, or Portal 2 hour experiment, or Dota 2 that was a WC3 mod or Alien Swarm lol.

And btw they are not all one studio either in the way they operate.

Either way we are digressing. Gabe is very nice. We will see HL3 soon and it will blow our socks off just like HL2 did with its almost 4-5 hour campaign lol.
 
Release HL3 or GTFO...

As a strong fan of the HL series that's what I'd like to say to Gaben...
 
KickAssCop said:
I don't know how you are counting 1 game per year (maybe you are counting mods etc) but any other major studio releases atleast 3-5 games per year across multiple platforms and big name studios almost as much as 8-12. Only shit studios release 1 game per year and/or indie developers.

Example, Ubisoft, Atlus, 2K games, EA, Activision. Now I am not saying all are quality games but last year alone I remember playing at least 3 games from EA, 5 games from Ubi and 2 games from WB that were worth my time.
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I'll take one game from a 'shit studio' over one from EA or Activision any day
 
KickAssCop said:
There is only one person spreading bullshit here and that is you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Corporation

This is a list of Valve's release schedule and also let's all start counting all the modes, expansions and experiments they conducted as full games to hit the 1 release per year target (be it published or developed). For me they are a shell publisher that acquires talent that already exists with little of their own making. You can click on each of the games and find out exactly where the game started out.

That is like saying because EA acquired Criterion we can count all the games Criterion made prior to joining EA as part of EA's portfolio. Legally that maybe true but EA had no role in the original burnout series.

Let's set some completely different standards for Valve because they are special. They are special for acquiring modders and giving them jobs as full time employees and making them produce sub-par half assed games like the horrible Blue Shift, or Half Life Deathmatch, or Portal 2 hour experiment, or Dota 2 that was a WC3 mod or Alien Swarm lol.

And btw they are not all one studio either in the way they operate.

Either way we are digressing. Gabe is very nice. We will see HL3 soon and it will blow our socks off just like HL2 did with its almost 4-5 hour campaign lol.
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Move the goalposts and your argument is still shitty.

Valve is one studio that works on multiple products. They still aren't a publisher. They buy the rights to mods, take over development and release them as full games.

If you're going to go back to Blue shift, that was made by Gearbox and published by Sierra. Alien Swarm was FREE and pretty decent. DotA2 is a fully developed standalone game, it's not a mod. It's also one of the most popular games in the world. HL:DM was awesome.
 
Pringle said:
I'll take one game from a 'shit studio' over one from EA or Activision any day
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I wouldn't personnaly, but for historical reason... Without both of those company you probably wouldn't have the gaming industry as you know it today. Both EA and Activision were part of the industry revival in the mid 90's after the mid 80's videogame crash.

Even if they are only a shadow of what they were, you still have to respect them for this.

Now, I'm not in anyway saying that Valve is bad, quite the contrary, they are one of my fav game studio, but lets try to be a bit more civil...
 
Tuxon86 said:
I wouldn't personnaly, but for historical reason... Without both of those company you probably wouldn't have the gaming industry as you know it today. Both EA and Activision were part of the industry revival in the mid 90's after the mid 80's videogame crash.

Even if they are only a shadow of what they were, you still have to respect them for this.

Now, I'm not in anyway saying that Valve is bad, quite the contrary, they are one of my fav game studio, but lets try to be a bit more civil...
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I'm not saying EA hasn't done anything to improve the industry

I'm saying I wouldn't touch any of their products going forward
 
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