Valve Boasts That Any Three Employees Can Ship Any Game

[MikeWehner]

Valve Boasts That Any Three Employees Can Ship Any Game

It seems that Valve can count to three after all.

Speaking at the Seattle Interactive Conference this week, Valve's Greg Coomer had some interesting things to say about how the company approaches each game it creates. Most interesting of his many hypothetical claims is that any trio of Valve employees could, in theory, build and ship absolutely any game they desire.

"Three people at the company can ship anything," explained Coomer. "And the reason it is three people - because really it is one person can ship anything - but the work gets better if you just check with a couple of people before you decide to push a button."

Valve's flat internal employment structure means that its employees are able to take on multiple different tasks, with no one person specializing in a single area. "Nobody is checking your work," notes Coomer, emphasizing how the company trusts each employee to be at the top of their game. "Every single person is responsible for deciding what they do every day."

So, of Valve's 320 employees, any group of three could, according to Coomer, be working on Half-Life 3 right now. Or Team Fortress 3. Or Portal 3. Or Left 4 Dead 3. In fact, maybe they are, and that's why it's taking so long. Ba-zing!

Source: GeekWire [http://www.geekwire.com/2012/valve-designer-greg-coomer-world-bosses-leads-games/]

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[Erttheking]

Yes, but then they'll leave said game on a cliffhanger for nearly a decade.

 

[Rainboq]

Doesn't surprise me, plus really Valve, time isn't an issue, every game you release, save Ricochet is absolutely amazing. The wait is worth it.

 

[Covarr]

So, of Valve's 320 employees, any group of three could, according to Coomer, be working on Half-Life 3 right now. Or Team Fortress 3. Or Portal 3. Or Left 4 Dead 3. In fact, maybe they are, and that's why it's taking so long. Ba-zing!

He's not saying that any 3 can work on the game. He's saying that three people can decide to ship it as-is, decide when it's done. Someone at VALV[sup]E[/sup] could release the current incomplete build of Half-Life 3 as final this very moment and charge $600 for it on the Steam store.

P.S. Thanks

 

[tmande2nd]

HOLY SHIT!

Valve can actually count to three!
Mind = Blown.

 

[GAunderrated]

HOLY SHIT!

Valve can actually count to three!
Mind = Blown.

Haha that was the sweet gem of the entire article. I wonder how long it took to come up with that quip. lol

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

It seems that Valve can count to three after all.

I think I peed myself a little when I read that

 

[anian]

THEY CAN MAKE A GAME ANY TIME THEY WANT...they just don't wanna.

Seriously, could Valve survive from just the income of their games? Doubt it.

 

[Paladin2905]

Yeah, it makes complete sense that you can ship a game with three people if you never have anything remotely resembling a release deadline. I can also build a skyscraper with three people, just don't ask me for an occupation date.

Seems like Valve is making more noise about their corporate culture to show off lately than anything people might want to know. Its like getting a constant stream of self-indulgent DVD extras while being told that the movie is "totally still being made, we'll get back to you on that".

 

[NLS]

3 employees may be enough to ship it, but the big question is, will it float?

 

[RA92]

THEY CAN MAKE A GAME ANY TIME THEY WANT...they just don't wanna.

Seriously, could Valve survive from just the income of their games? Doubt it.

They can survive just from the income form HATS.

 

[Callate]

It's nice to have confidence in your employees. It's nice to be an employee at a company that has confidence in you. It makes it much harder to countenance massive layoffs or so-called "reorganizations".

But I will note that he didn't say anything about how long it would take those three employees to ship anything. The "infinite number of monkeys, infinite number of typewriters" gedanken comes to mind.

So, yeah... where is Half-Life 3, anyway, guys?

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

So are they saying that a large group of people chose to willingly make the seasonal items and...well hats for TF2? Does that challenge their skills and abilities? I didn't think it was totally ridiculous until I saw the $100 "engagement ring". Seriously, no.

I understand the pluses of having a corporate structure like this, but won't it make the eventual Half-Life 3 feel inconsistent? With people doing a little bit of this and that, leaving for something else, and having a person with different artistic sensibilities take over?

 

[Mikeyfell]

Any 3 huh?

Let's get 2 voice actors and someone from accounting go!

 

[LostintheWick]

THEY CAN MAKE A GAME ANY TIME THEY WANT...they just don't wanna.

Seriously, could Valve survive from just the income of their games? Doubt it.

I actually don't think that the method Valve makes games is really all that great. There is alot to learn from their process, but they take FAR TOO LONG to finish titles.

Yes, the games that finally DO make it are awesome... but I bet they would still be awesome with a 3-5 year dev cycle (still extremely generous) instead of a 10 year or whatever it is now.

It's like they don't give themselves any concrete goals so all of that amazing talent is going unseen (for the most part).

 

[Guffe]

Any 3 huh?

Let's get 2 voice actors and someone from accounting go!

And all the puns in that article and you ninjad me on this -.-

I hate the escapists, you guys are too fast for me!

 

[gardian06]

So, of Valve's 320 employees, any group of three could, according to Coomer, be working on Half-Life 3 right now. Or Team Fortress 3. Or Portal 3. Or Left 4 Dead 3. In fact, maybe they are, and that's why it's taking so long. Ba-zing!

He's not saying that any 3 can work on the game. He's saying that three people can decide to ship it as-is, decide when it's done. Someone at VALV[sup]E[/sup] could release the current incomplete build of Half-Life 3 as final this very moment and charge $600 for it on the Steam store.

P.S. Thanks

no. when the word ship is used with a publisher it means "we decide when it goes out the door", but when the word is used for a developer (which is what Valve primarily is) it means "we make the games from beginning to end", so they are saying that literally any 3 people could make a game from beginning to release, and it will be good. granted this was stated "hypothetically" so I doubt that it is completely accurate. it would probably be more along the lines of at any given time there could be 3 people working on a section of a game at a time.

 

[Scow2]

No proof they can count to three. They know it's a word that means a specific-ish number, but there's nothing in their statements that they actually know where it falls on the number line.