Stardock Boss Thinks Steam Is Holding Back Half-Life
- Thread starter Logan Westbrook
- Start date
It is a pretty weird comparison. What did Valve develop and release before Steam?
I can think of Half-Life (1), and a few mods such as Gunman Chronicles (co-developed with the mod author IIRC), Counterstrike Zero (again, an elevated mod), plain vanilla Counterstrike.
And Steam began as an update mechanism for Counterstrike, later being transformed to go along with Source (Half-Life 2, Counterstrike Source, and the lazy port Half-Life: Source).
After Steam, we have HL2 "Episode" One, "Episode" Two, Day of Defeat Source (elevated mods), Team Fortress 2, Portal, Left 4 Dead, soon Portal2, DOTA2 (and a couple of other elevated mods)... but with long gaps between releases.
So again, we have basically a one game developer (Half-Life) who have since "becoming" Steam released multiple games with a slow release ratio. How can we say with any certainty that Steam is holding HL2EP3 back? It might simply be Valve's lacksadaisical development cycle, or have more to do with that thus far each Half-Life game was a new engine (HL = GoldSrc, HL2 = Source, HL2EP1 = Source 2005 / HDR, HL2EP2 = Source 2008 / Orange Box), so maybe they're just waiting for the next Source to be stable, following the interim games DOTA2 and Portal 2.
I can think of Half-Life (1), and a few mods such as Gunman Chronicles (co-developed with the mod author IIRC), Counterstrike Zero (again, an elevated mod), plain vanilla Counterstrike.
And Steam began as an update mechanism for Counterstrike, later being transformed to go along with Source (Half-Life 2, Counterstrike Source, and the lazy port Half-Life: Source).
After Steam, we have HL2 "Episode" One, "Episode" Two, Day of Defeat Source (elevated mods), Team Fortress 2, Portal, Left 4 Dead, soon Portal2, DOTA2 (and a couple of other elevated mods)... but with long gaps between releases.
So again, we have basically a one game developer (Half-Life) who have since "becoming" Steam released multiple games with a slow release ratio. How can we say with any certainty that Steam is holding HL2EP3 back? It might simply be Valve's lacksadaisical development cycle, or have more to do with that thus far each Half-Life game was a new engine (HL = GoldSrc, HL2 = Source, HL2EP1 = Source 2005 / HDR, HL2EP2 = Source 2008 / Orange Box), so maybe they're just waiting for the next Source to be stable, following the interim games DOTA2 and Portal 2.
Speaking as a Manowar fan who was only seen one new studio album in the 10 years since they launched their Magic Circle Music record label...
I think he may have a point.
I think he may have a point.
What? How is that a low blow in any way? Valve's release schedule is already a standard industry joke, and he just wondered if there was a correlation between that and the fact that they were now running a retail service. Actually, I don't even think that counts as insult, really.Tzekelkan said:
I mean, yeah he has motivation to say something like this, but these overreactions are getting crazy.
First of all, this is Valve. They don't release a game unless they feel it's ready, and deadlines and release dates can blow off with the wind.
Second, Valve knows that if they end the Half Life story on anything less than a superb note they'll get rampaged by rabid fanboys.
Third, Don't take it seriously when someone says their business rival should shoot their golden goose.
Second, Valve knows that if they end the Half Life story on anything less than a superb note they'll get rampaged by rabid fanboys.
Third, Don't take it seriously when someone says their business rival should shoot their golden goose.
I never thought of it this way, but what if the next part to the story is acutally involved in portal 2? maybe thats why, if so then i dont mind waiting.
ps.I mean in regards to half life sequal of course
ps.I mean in regards to half life sequal of course
I think it's mainly the fact he's badmouthing Valve for the very same thing his company is doing, but Valve is clearly winning in comparison on pretty much every level. I mean, Stardock's few notable games are Galactic Civilizations II and Sins of a Solar Empire, and the second was a third party game they assisted development with.Ironic Pirate said:
Valve have Half Life, Portal, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, Counter Strike, Day of Defeat, and most of their library has received updates in the past (Those listed are still updated to this day with engine upgrades and tweaks, or in L4D and TF2's case still being updated with more content) using Steam as a method of receiving and applying these updates automatically.
Valve rakes in close to a billion a year off of Steam.
If anything it's only helping development by giving them the best possible set of resources they can buy, at least that is how I see it.
If anything it's only helping development by giving them the best possible set of resources they can buy, at least that is how I see it.
THANK YOU. I've been waiting for somebody else to realise this.draythefingerless said:
Half-Life 3 is not the new DNF! It's been in development for just over the normal amount of time it takes to develop a game. I get that it was supposed to be episodic, but that doesn't make the 3 or so years it's taking completely unreasonable.
Also, I find it funny that everyone in this thread now hates the guy and is calling him a jerk. It seems to me that he's just making a level-headed observation about another company. I suppose it's possible you could interpret it as a criticism... I guess?
Are the people who work on Steam the same people who work on games? I bet not, there are probably two separate teams so unless Valve is strapped for cash (which doesn't seem to be the case) they shouldn't have any trouble having a fully operational Steam team and a fully operational developement team.
Bethesda is both a publisher (Bethesda Softworks) and a developer (Bethesda Game Studios) and one doesn't interfere with the other, in fact both seem to benefit from the arrangement quite a bit.
Bethesda is both a publisher (Bethesda Softworks) and a developer (Bethesda Game Studios) and one doesn't interfere with the other, in fact both seem to benefit from the arrangement quite a bit.
Exactly.draythefingerless said:
Half Life 2 Episode 3 is not being held back because of Steam, Valve polishes every single one of their games till they're of highest quality. That's why a large number of games coming from Valve are great.
The only thing I dislike about Steam is the fact that you can't play any games if your internet connection is down.
I know the time making HL is taking the piss but lets look at this from another angle. Would you rather wait for(given Valves general record) will probably be a decent to good quality game or would you rather they rape the franchise into stagnation CoD style? I am not saying I agree with the wait but looking at it from that angle I know which one I prefer.Korak the Mad said:
OT: Valve has spent a lot of time doing free updates and map packs for their games over the years. Yes Steam will drain a certain amount of resources but I don't think Steam is the problem. Why would you have people on a dev team working on retail?
If your company is expanding to create a new revenue creating product, you should bring in new staff, and properly manage your distribution of staff on your projects. If you're pulling people from across projects, you're doing something wrong, and getting whiney at the company with the better hiring and project management policies doesn't help anyone.
Steam is a business system for dealing with the purchasing and distribution of software and media content over the internet, making use of a range of technologies, and VALVe advertises for people to fill steam positions with those skills. The employee profiles even mention the ones who work on steam.
To say that the operation of steam requires most of the attention of valves 250+ software engineers, artists, etc. is just silly.
While the management at my workplace does make some foolish decisions, it's the one to properly section project teams that scored me my job, and has greatly helped the productivity of those already there, because it allows them to focus on a single task, without running off to do other stuff every 5 minutes.
Steam is a business system for dealing with the purchasing and distribution of software and media content over the internet, making use of a range of technologies, and VALVe advertises for people to fill steam positions with those skills. The employee profiles even mention the ones who work on steam.
To say that the operation of steam requires most of the attention of valves 250+ software engineers, artists, etc. is just silly.
While the management at my workplace does make some foolish decisions, it's the one to properly section project teams that scored me my job, and has greatly helped the productivity of those already there, because it allows them to focus on a single task, without running off to do other stuff every 5 minutes.
Obviously the man doesn't know about the huge development time for Team Fortress 2
But whatever just try to discredit Valve in any way possible without look at their past
But whatever just try to discredit Valve in any way possible without look at their past
The problem is that, frankly, there isn't any correlation. Half Life 1 and Half Life 2 was released six years apart, for example.Ironic Pirate said:
How dare he say that Steam is successful and based on his own experience make an assumption regarding the lack of a new Half Life game being linked to the need to invest more resources into it! Off with his head! He doesn't have the right to an opinion since he used to own a competing distribution software and made one game that failed to achieve it's goals for which he has apologized constantly and is in the process of making up for it by giving away the next game for free. I've also heard that he likes bees, for shame, what a despicable person.
Stardock sold theyre digital distribution service because it interfered with theyre games development, so he has first hand experiance.