The thing is Valve is far more integrated with the studios it makes partnership with. They are in the same offices, go to lunch together and everything.Andy of Comix Inc said:This is kind of misinformation, Turtle Rock Studios did develop the original Left 4 Dead but the studio is owned by Valve anyway and near the end of development the folded into each other. So they're basically different teams in the same company, and pretty certain Robin Walker (Team Fortress 2's lead designer) played a HUGE role in making Left 4 Dead 2 so that's basically bread and butter Valve.redisforever said:Valve owns my wallet. (Steam wallet. See what I did there?)
I own all their games, except L4D, but they didn't develop those, it was Turtle Rock Studios.
Not that it matters you didn't buy 'em, just clearing up - they're as Valve as Half-Life 2 ever was, and more Valve than the original Portal. If you can measure "Valve-iness," anyway.
Activision or EA, they may acquire a studio in a different country and only have a few QA people visit the studio, and the occasional teleconference with the executives of each. They made trade game assets and engines but one thing they don't do is trade ideas, you can only do that by working closely together and integrated.
Valve and other companies are integrated, the riches are shared. The the Activision/EA model is much more like Client employee, there is a huge divide between the publisher and the developer.