Valve Closes Down San Francisco Office

[MCerberus]

So the news about Valve getting rid of anything:

1. VR hardware. Let the engineers go with the hardware and rights for something created on company time
2. Studio closure. 'You can keep your stuff. Just make sure to release your next game on steam'

The shocking and completely unexpected part of this is that a company can avoid a PR nightmare and alienating fans by not being a collective of dicks.

 

[Falterfire]

How the heck is Valve still in business if they do things like this.

They have a little known program called Steam that they use to sell games. It makes them a couple bucks a week.

 

[NachoKingP]

This honestly sounds less like a studio closure and more like buyer's remorse on Valve's part.

 

[Something Amyss]

It almost sounds like Valve bought them, got them a place to start, supplied them with start up funds. And then let them go. How the heck is Valve still in business if they do things like this. How much money did they invest into them, are they expecting them to make games and then release them on steam later on?

Valve has a dedicated fanbase who thinks they can do no wrong. Valve can afford to piss away money now and again. Even more so because they aren't beholden to public investors/shareholders.

 

[HellbirdIV]

How the heck is Valve still in business if they do things like this.

Well, basically...

God damnit Valve. Even when you're closing studios, it's STILL hard to get mad at you.

Yeah, what he said.

That's the thing that Electronic Arts, Microsoft and Activision can't seem to grasp - Valve has the love and goodwill of the players.

They don't try to extort money from you with "optional" DLC that contains major story points, they don't use Steam to restrict how many times you can install a game or demand that you connect to Steam every few days to make sure your games aren't stolen - you can actually play your Steam games offline.

Valve listens to the players, playtests rather than focus-tests. They interact with the players like friends and equals, not victims they plan to scam. They refuse to put out products before they're finished, because they goodwill they have mean that people will buy their products for their quality, rather than churning out releases at christmas to boost sales, regardless of the game's actual quality.

Cynics will tell you that being the good guy doesn't benefit anybody. Realists will look at Valve and tell you that isn't true.

 

[Jacco]

It almost sounds like Valve bought them, got them a place to start, supplied them with start up funds. And then let them go. How the heck is Valve still in business if they do things like this. How much money did they invest into them, are they expecting them to make games and then release them on steam later on?

Valve has a dedicated fanbase who thinks they can do no wrong. Valve can afford to piss away money now and again. Even more so because they aren't beholden to public investors/shareholders.

Agreed. Valve is like the Apple Corporation of the gaming world. Te fanbase is rabidly loyal to a fault and they exploit that to make money.

Not that there anything wrong with doing that necessarily, they are a company and exist to show a profit, but the idea that they are somehow completely altruistic in all their motives is asinine. That's like people saying that this new "low cost iPhone" that Apple is releasing is to make an iPhone available to those less fortunate.

 

[MCerberus]

Agreed. Valve is like the Apple Corporation of the gaming world. Te fanbase is rabidly loyal to a fault and they exploit that to make money.

Not that there anything wrong with doing that necessarily, they are a company and exist to show a profit, but the idea that they are somehow completely altruistic in all their motives is asinine. That's like people saying that this new "low cost iPhone" that Apple is releasing is to make an iPhone available to those less fortunate.

More to the point, it's a sad state of affairs where not actively and publicly hating your consumer base is the exception. Valve and GoG exist to make money, they're generally not dicks about it like some other companies we can name. Sony (I'll remind you is a big dog in the RIAA and Sony Pictures seeds its own movies to sue downloaders) hates its consumers just a little less than Microsoft, so they get a large upswing of support.

I don't get Apple though, they seem foaming-at-the-mouth rabid about keeping the customers in step. Someone must have seen their classic Superbowl commercial and thought 'you know what's a good idea?..'

 

[DaxStrife]

So, what actually happened here? Valve bought a studio but then realized they didn't need it? Or were they too close to actually releasing a game and thought, "Well, we can't have that... shut 'em down!"

 

[Slash2x]

So, what actually happened here? Valve bought a studio but then realized they didn't need it? Or were they too close to actually releasing a game and thought, "Well, we can't have that... shut 'em down!"

Ummm nooooo.... Valve worked with them on some projects. Realized beyond the projects they did not need the studio... Then left them alone, it was basically like they "leased" them for a bit and then when the "lease" was over they let them get back to work on their own stuff.

I think you got confused with EA. EA would have cracked all their bones and drank the marrow before they shutdown the studio.

 

[Lightknight]

Did Valve get anything out of this? Collaboration on a side project, IPs that they aren't letting them work on, etc?

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Valve seems to be allergic to having subsidiaries. First they get rid of Turtle Rock (the creators of Left 4 Dead), and now this. I realize that they want to keep operations small, but the world also wants more than one Valve game per year. Becoming a publisher and allowing us to also get one game per year that's developed with some help from them seems like a reasonable compromise.

 

[Jeffrey Beyerl]

Wonderful to see the little man not get squashed.

 

[Dangit2019]

As much as I hate to be that guy, I feel like living here gives me no choice:

Valve Closes Down San Francisco Office

...sorry.

Uh, that's spelled with a c. It's not a typo.

 

[Griffolion]

And that's how you let a dev team go.

Though I guess it's weird that we applaud Valve for doing what should be the norm. But in a world of EA and Activision chewing up studios in their relentless quest to homogenise gaming, this is nothing short of worthy of a knighthood.

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

Uh, that's spelled with a c. It's not a typo.

It was at the time. Guess they fixed the headline since then. (That just leaves the typo in the story itself, but whatever.)

But yeah, good on Valve for resisting the all-too-common urge to kill off the studio and fire those guys.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

According to Pacific Rim, on August 10, 2013 (Which is today) the first Kaiju makes landfall in San Francisco(which is that city). And I saw Pacific Rim three times...so logically...

Half Life 3 confirmed!

 

[miketehmage]

Hahaha I came to this thread with a heavy heart expecting to finally be disappointed by valve.

I should have more faith in Lord Gaben

 

[Vigormortis]

All too often redundancies, sackings and studio closures get sugar-coated and buzzworded with 'parting ways'. This does actually more of a parting of ways, rather than a studio closure or sacking.

Much like Microsoft threads come with predictions of incoming Microsoft fanbois, Nintendo threads come with predictions of incoming NDF japes; should we now predict the incoming of Valve haters?

I'm shocked. It took a whopping eight posts after yours before the first "hate post" showed up.

But this is the Escapist forums. It goes without saying that they'll show up at some point. Every thread has 'em. On every subject.

It's just like those that hate EA for any and every reason imaginable. As is often said, "EA could create a cure for cancer and people would still find a reason to hate them for it."

Same applies here.

 

[camscottbryce]

Being fired by Valve is better then keeping a job at Gearbox. I hear they reanimated Hitler's corpse and fucked it up royally (insert least favorite game developer here)

Uh, no. Fuck no. Getting fired is terrible and will always be worse then working at whatever your least favorite developer or publisher is for a simple reason. Fire = no personal income, working = getting personal income.

Are you making the assertion that making personal income is ALWAYS a better scenario than not making personal income? I'd be willing to debate that one.

OT: Meh, could care less, just wanted to respond to that guy. It's great that they still have the keys to the studio though, pretty awesome.