Every Game Made To Come to Steam: Newell

[Junaid Alam]

Every Game Made To Come to Steam: Newell

In an extensive interview, Valve head Gabe Newell spoke of Steam's benefits over boxed game packages and announced his ambition to have every PC title ever made eventually available for the platform.

"The worst days [for game development] were the cartridge days for the NES," Newell said in response to a question about flexibility in making different types of games.

"It was a huge risk - you had all this money tied up in silicon in a warehouse somewhere, and so you'd be conservative in the decisions you felt you could make, very conservative in the IPs you signed, your art direction would not change, and so on," he added.

The advent of Steam, Valve's online game store, download center and community, Newell continued, has changed the status quo: "Retail has a kind of filter function: people hate to send boxes back, and if the boxes go back you're wasting all this money. If someone doesn't download something on Steam, we don't lose any money."

Reminiscing about old games, and noting that he fired up Quake 1 whhile the team was testing the Team Fortress 2 beta, Newell said he eventually expects to see a massive and comprehensive catalog available for purchase and download via Steam.

"I expect we'll go back in time and eventually pretty much every game that's ever been available will be on there 24/7."

Source: Rockpapershotgun.com [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=617]

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[Mossberg]

Would certainly be fine by me. There are plenty of old games that I missed when they came out, and now are next to impossible to find. A comprehensive catalog would void the need for "legally grey" sites like Home of the Underdogs.

 

[Nordstrom]

I would like to see Grim Fandango come to Steam.

 

[Arbre]

If this becomes true, I know a couple of fatheads who will owe me some well deserved bucks.
It was just too obvious, from the get go, that the system was headed that way. All the better!

 

[JimmyMD]

Yeah it would be nice to have all our games accessible but wait...are you fucking kidding me? We can't let this fat prick make even more money than he is already - but wait - he'll make money for everyone else too...ah well I guess that's okay then...I'll stick to my constant fucking steam UI updates twice every day.

Some games should never be sold ever again but they were fucking shit the first time and they'll still be fucking shit now. PLUS...there's a limit to what you'll want to play again - rather let the memory live on in you otherwise you may just fuck it up by going back and seeing how shit it is today because all of the new games have ruined it for you.

 

[BigText]

I don't know a lot of the "old" games. However, Gabe seems to be doing nothing but good for the gaming industry.

 

[SatansBestBuddy]

I wish.

So many classics I never got a chance to play, so many hidden gems I just didn't put enough effort into looking for when they came out....

I really wish they'd make this a reality, though of course, saying it and doing it around miles apart, though in this case, it's more like worlds.

I mean, it's not like they have the support of every company under the sun.

Hell, quite a few really good games were made by companies that have since gone under, and who knows what happened to the rights for publishing them since?

And getting, say, EverQuest up and going is probably more troube than it's worth.

I'm not saying it's not a good idea, it's a great idea, but making it a reality will take a huge amount of time and effort, lasting years, decades even!

I can only guess how long it will be before it's true and not just an idea.

And that's also if somebody else doesn't beat them to the punch; Nintendo's doing good, and though they don't seem to realize that nobody wants some of the crap games rereleased for no reason, they are keeping a steady stream that's already pretty huge, and still growing.

God speed, Valve, Steam, and Gabe; I wish you luck.

 

[CarlosYenrac]

Would certainly be fine by me. There are plenty of old games that I missed when they came out, and now are next to impossible to find. A comprehensive catalog would void the need for "legally grey" sites like Home of the Underdogs.

Legally Grey? i was under the impression HOTU only hosted downloads after the games became freeware.... i feel so dirty now....

 

[blackadvent]

Okay, I'm echoing the sentiment of bringing the Lucasarts adventure games onto Steam. I never got to play them, and I sure as hell do now.

While I'm at it, convince Bioware to bring the Baldur's Gate series on board, complete with modding tools.

And just for my own pleasure, rerelease Freelancer on Steam. One of my favorite PC games, and I've lost the CD.

 

[Mossberg]

Legally Grey? i was under the impression HOTU only hosted downloads after the games became freeware.... i feel so dirty now....

Well, I'm fairly certain System Shock 2 hasn't been cleared, and they host that. I believe they try first to point users to somewhere they can buy the game, if there's no place to be found they host it themselves, and take it down if/when the C&D order comes down (they also take down their files if they find someplace selling the game).

I got lucky by finding SS2 several years ago in a now dead place known as the EBgames(stop) PC bargain bin, for the low low price of just 7.99
So I don't have to feel guilty about that particular one (though being a used copy it's not like anyone of import got the money, anyway).

Such is the nature of abandonware. So, full steam ahead Mr. Newell. Death to abandonware, rebirth to abandoned games!
Oh, and money to the devs. Can't forget that one.

 

[Andy Chalk]

First of all, abandonware isn't "legally grey," it's illegal unless the copyright for the program is in the public domain, which with the vast majority of titles is not the case. Just because you can no longer pop out to the local EB and pick up a particular title doesn't mean it's suddenly FREE AND LEGAL, BABY!

As far as Gabe goes, I fully expect Steam's catalog of older releases to grow, but let's bear in mind that the man isn't exactly a master of subtlety and understatement.

 

[Arbre]

With copyrights usually lasting 'life of the author + 5 decades' at least, abandonware is more a myth than anything else.
There are few exceptions.

 

[drunkymonkey]

Every PC game ever?

I don't believe that for a second. As good as Steam is, that is a totally unrealistic goal, but if it *does* happen, then (PC) gaming will become much, much better: classics from years ago will be available for download, and new releases won't be the only ones to get people's wallets emptier.

 

[runtheplacered]

Every game ever? I made a little game one time, back when I was in High School that I don't even have a copy of anymore.. can't wait to see that on there.

I'm guessing he meant to say every Commercially released PC game ever? Even still, that would be extremely tough to do, I would think.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Also bear in mind that he said they were going to go back in time to accomplish this.

 

[SatansBestBuddy]

Also bear in mind that he said they were going to go back in time to accomplish this.

I'm pretty damn sure he didn't mean literally.

Unless they know something about time travel I don't, but they're a game devlopment house, he didn't mean anything more than putting older games up onto Steam.

One thing I've only just thought of is compatiblity, which is a big thing when trying to run PC games.

Most of the older stuff was all DOS based, and I've had a pretty hard time getting them to work, even with the help of emulaters.

My copy of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (the single most obsucre game I have) simply will not work, and I've tried everything I can think of short of rebooting my PC into DOS mode, since the last time I did that, I couldn't restore Windows and had to throw the whole PC out.

This also applies to stuff form the Win '95 era, too.

Though there are games from ten years ago that will work just fine today, there are also others that don't fair as well, and I'd like to know how Valve would plan on fixing problems like these should they go through with this.

 

[The Irrelevant Gamer]

I'm also all for this, but only on the condition they attempt to make these older games run on newer systems. I already have two games on Steam that refuse to run properly on my dual core processor, and it is a setting the affinity to one processor is a coin toss that doesn't always work.

 

[Andy Chalk]

I'm pretty damn sure he didn't mean literally.

That was kind of my point.

Actually, no, scratch that. That was exactly my point.

 

[Chaos Marine]

Every PC game ever?

I don't believe that for a second. As good as Steam is, that is a totally unrealistic goal, but if it *does* happen, then (PC) gaming will become much, much better: classics from years ago will be available for download, and new releases won't be the only ones to get people's wallets emptier.

Maybe not entire. Hexen works beautifully on both XP Home and Pro. I really hope we get to see Chaos Gate and Final Liberation though. I don't mind booting up Virtual Server to play them but it'd still be nice to.

 

[Elurindel]

I'd love to see every game ever made on Steam. Just as long as compatibility is ensured upon purchase.