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Why Valve has no interest in making console games

Eurogamer: It sounds like Valve has no interest in making console games.
"We get really frustrated working in walled gardens," Valve founder Gabe Newell said at a media roundtable at Valve's offices attended by Eurogamer.

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eurogamer.net
UltraNova3384d ago

Valve's disdain on working with closed enviroments hurts us, the gamers. Its a shame they dont even bother anymore.

freshslicepizza3384d ago

it hurts console gamers more than it hurts pc gamers. i imagine they are just sick of the process working with those companies who need to authorize every little detail including game patches. consoles have so many restrictions which is why i prefer pc gaming.

UltraNova3384d ago

Thing is they should have known better before agreeing to do busines with the worlds most closed enviroment owner(Apple). Now we(PC/console gamers) pay the price.

_-EDMIX-_3382d ago

Well when you put it that way of course you're talking about a company that basically owns a ridiculously huge distribution system.

So for them clearly they're going to weigh in the difficulties with working with other companies if they could just distribute their own games to a ridiculous amount of their install base.

Technically speaking when compared to PlayStation and Xbox steam has the largest install base.

In my opinion they very much at this stage in their company can afford to not actually support other platforms other than their own.

Mind you that is something that could not do 10 years ago.

Lynx02073382d ago

Seriously? How it hurts console gamers?

freshslicepizza3382d ago

@Lynx0207
"Seriously? How it hurts console gamers?"

you will miss out on dota and other valve games coming out in the future which will likely be vr games. valve is tired of walled gardens and frankly so am i and the subscription fees to play online.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 3382d ago
FreeSpeech693382d ago

Why don't you go into the Open Environment of PC Gaming? Consoles are just shitty Closed Laptops without screens anyway.

XanderZane3382d ago

Didn't they make Portal 1 & 2 and The Orange Box for game consoles last gen? Didn't they all sell millions? Valve is stupid. Meantime PC gamers still wait and wait and wait for Half Life 3, which no one cares about anymore. Maybe they are mad because no one bought their SteamBox. Their own dabble into console gaming that failed. I honestly could care less what Valve does anymore. If they didn't own STEAM they would be irrelevant right now.

Hey Gabe? What happened to the Half Life and Portal films that you were making with J.J. Abrahams? Oh.. it's still sitting in limbo after 4 years. http://www.imdb.com/title/t...
What a joke.

Godmars2903384d ago

The user base can't debug their games?

theXtReMe13384d ago

This is exactly what it is. They keep their games in endless beta and rely on the customers to report bugs and brainstorm features. Without the ability, in Gabes own words, to update their game 6 times in one day... they cant release incremental patches to patch each issue on its own and fix issues that one patch that day may have caused.

I understand the issue Valve and other developers have with this, because this is the game world we live in now. Where you can release a game half way through development, as retail, and continue to add features and fix issues. Hello Games did it with No Mans Sky and many developers before them are guilty of the same.

Retail anymore, means that the game shipped on disc... it doesnt mean its finished. Hence the day 1 patches, some dozens of GBs, and usually 5 or more after... that every game launched now receives.

TheGamingArt3382d ago (Edited 3382d ago )

Yup, pretty much just describes them as bad developers with a bad software lifecycle process. This is also ignoring the fact that their last game was released how long ago? They honestly have no place to stand when discussing platform limitations, SDLC, or anything that actually relates to them not banking on their old platform continuously making them money.

Also, I will say flat out, that any decent development company will happily and willingly accept a closed defined/standardized environment over the opposing any day. When looking at decisions/resources/etc, it's a no brainer from both a business perspective and a far better experience for both development and the customer aka a better product. You'd have to be a naive dev to state otherwise (or an idiot).

Cobra9513382d ago

The difficult and expensive updating process on consoles is something that can be fixed. By that I mean that MS/Sony could enter into agreements with financially well-backed, established developers to get an expedited, costs-covered updating process. In return, the devs would agree to indemnify MS/Sony against any ills brought about by lousy game updates. I'm not sure about the PS4, but I know the X1 runs games and apps in a virtual machine; so there is no harm that a bad patch can do to the system. It's a workable problem, and if the console makers want to attract more PC devs, they need to make such allowances.

XanderZane3382d ago

That's the problem. Games should be FINISHED with ZERO BUGS before they are released to retail, so you would never need gamers to beta test and find bugs in your damn game. When games were on cartridges, they made sure they were pretty much PERFECT before they were released. Developers now know they can just patch bugs and instead of making a perfect game with no bugs, they release a half-ass game that they want gamers to buy and help beta test. It's complete BS. Developers really shouldn't need to patch anything unless they are adding additional content to prolong the life of the game.

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3382d ago
XanderZane3382d ago

The user base shouldn't have to debug anyone's games. Is Valve going to pay the user base to do what their developers and testers are getting paid to do?

Godmars2903382d ago

Its what they've been doing for years I believe.

I mean, weren't Team Fortress, Portal and Left 4 Dead originally fan mods?

XanderZane3382d ago

@Godmars290
Well for MMO's and big online games, they've always done it on PC as least. Once those games started coming to game consoles they did it for some of those as well. For regular single player and co-op type games, they wouldn't need to do this.

-Foxtrot3384d ago

They don't like money obviously

Imagine the profits if they made the console version of Team Fortress like the PC one.

Cross play and all the trimmings.

andrewsquall3382d ago

I was hoping for something like this on PS4 after the successful release of Portal 2 on PS3 that came with a copy of the game on Steam and did cross play and that was with ALL the Operating Systems that the game supports.
They could have brought over all of their main games to PS3/PS4 since Sony's PSN allows this to easily happen if a dev wants to go to the effort of doing that.

agent45323382d ago

Is the fact that if Sony/Microsoft do not approve it, is game over. Every single game on console must meet Sony/Microsoft standards.

AuToFiRE3382d ago

If I'm not mistaken, Steam is richer than Sony

-Foxtrot3382d ago

Eh? I never said anything about Sony or who was richer

If there was L4D, Team Fortress 2 or Half Life collections on consoles they'd take it in

TheOptimist3382d ago

Valve is richer than Sony. They already have tons and tons of money through Steam

XanderZane3382d ago

They aren't richer then Microsoft or Apple however.

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WeAreLegion3382d ago

They made L4D 1/2 for 360 and Portal 2 for PS3. If and when we get new Valve games, they will probably come to consoles.

XXanderXX3382d ago

No loss , plus allows for money to be better spent elsewhere.

XanderZane3382d ago

Completely agree. Valve can do this with no interest in game consoles.

http://giphy.com/gifs/middl...

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70°

Microsoft Gaming Revenue Drops 7% Year-on-Year, Content and Services Down 5%, Xbox Hardware Down 33%

Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.

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simulationdaily.com
Jin_Sakai19d ago (Edited 19d ago )

Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.

dveio18d ago

To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.

Jingsing18d ago

The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.

Tanktopmaster9218d ago

Once they re-evaluate exclusive all will be fine….

S2Killinit18d ago

Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.

Jingsing18d ago

15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.

Tanktopmaster9218d ago

These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse

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50°

Spiders Studio, Developers of GreedFall: The Dying World, Announce Liquidation of the Company

Spiders: "We're going to cut straight to the chase so you're not left wondering: After a long period without clear answers, we have received confirmation that Spiders is being liquidated.

What does it mean? This means the company as a whole no longer exists. We'll cease our functions immediately. The planned DLC will release via Nacon, and then-- well, that's it.

We're sorry that it's come to this and would like to thank each and every one of you for your support over the years.

If you have any questions or run into issues with your games, please contact Nacon directly as we'll no longer be able to reply."

60°

Steam Controller (2026) review

Second time's the charm.

cl198319d ago (Edited 19d ago )

Seams like a nice controller

Reaper22_19d ago

Two analog sticks acrossvftom each other is a no go.When will everyone learn.