Valve Outgrows Its "Episodes Phase"

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Gabe, I know the Steam Forums challenge Xbox live for sheer idiocy, but for god's sake listen to your fans. You KNOW how much hassle L4D2 caused and you can SEE the problems with annual content from other developers.

How about doing what you do best and providing games that take their time but actually deliver?

We really don't care about motion controlled, 3D, Bookface enabled, e-peen stores; we'd like some of the really great games that you've produced in the past.

 

[Grabbin Keelz]

"simply because we have the ability to do that."

Simply put, we're gonna make the best shit you guy have ever seen Because we can.
Go for it Valve.

 

[Spudgun Man]

The fuck? They made two episodes with ridiculously long development times and are sort of already doing the proposed idea by adding more useless crap to tf2 and increasingly harder game modes to left 4 dead 2. Or do I just keep slipping into comas from the awesomeness of this stuff?

 

[Vault boy Eddie]

I've always thought that Episode 3 would just be the beginning of Half Life 3.

 

[Choppaduel]

I don't see anything inherently wrong with it.
up to Valve to make it work well.

 

[SovietSecrets]

Long as I get something Half Life, I don't care what kind of model they decide to go with.

 

[hermes]

I liked how the idea of "Outgrows" for Valve is more like "Not Being Up To The Challenge". Episodic content is not bad (it sure is better than your development cycle being closer to DNF numbers), it is just that you couldn't do it.

Valve, for an example, look at Telltale. They are far smaller than you and never had a problem with the concept...

 

[guntotingtomcat]

It's like he's a drug dealer who got me hooked, but ran out of drugs before he could get to the 'bleeding me dry phase'. Somehow, I feel just as used.

Release the next fucking half life!

 

[The Hungry Samurai]

"Left 4 Dead 2 is starting to approach the TF2 cycle. Portal 2? We'll have to see how much our customers want us to push in that direction," he continued. "In general, our approach to our customers is, every day, to ask what we can do for them."

If you could liquefy Portal 2 put it in an I.V. bag and just jam that mofo into my veins I'd gladly hand over my wallet and first born. Make that my second born. The first is my co-op partner.

 

[Fappy]

If you want to make an MMO, Valve, just make an MMO.

Don't test them like that... they may actually do it! :O

 

[kelevra]

It ever had an episodic phase? What was it between episodes one and two? A year? Two? Episode 3 is going to need an entirely new engine at this rate... why not just call it Half Life 3? And hell Valve, I spend 6 months of every year in a place with some pretty unpredictable internet connections... it just becomes easier and more tempting for me to pirate when I at least get stable software which doesnt require a damn permanent connection to the Steam overmind.

 

[Sixcess]

I'm starting to see why people call Gabe Newell a troll. I mean, unless he's planning on announcing that Half Life 3 is coming in the very near future he's really just taking the piss and winding people up now.

 

[Frotality]

you know im pretty sure alot of people dont like the constant crap piled onto TF2 as much as you do, gabe.

of all developers valve should know the value of a contained and polished experience....but no, it seems they just want to rip off modders some more.

 

[Legendairy314]

Come on now, they're practically announcing Half-Life 3 by now. At first they tell us Episode 3 is coming soon and then they say they're not doing episodes anymore. I'm pretty sure we can expect the announcement from them at E3 this year. On a lighter note, those that predicted Episode 3 won't ever come out were actually correct. Though now I don't think we could even consider it vaporware. It looks like they were just using it for a cover while they updated the source engine.

 

[EternalFacepalm]

I don't know about you, but I'm happy about the end of episodic stuff. I don't see what's wrong, really; longer game, and (probably) not that long until a release date, either.
Or he may have been sarcastic with the "shorter development time"-thing. If so, Gabe, I salute you, you're the most successful troll I've ever seen.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

I think this is cool, but it does create some problems. Reviews are going to be reviewing products that simply don't reflect what they are 2 or 3 years later (or, potentially overcompensate) and very few other companies are in the situation where they can do this (continual development for a single fee product).

That's a good point, but the review system seems to have already found a way to cope with MMOs and the way that they completely change over 2-3 years. If that's still not enough, maybe it'll do more to bring about the end to the current 'score' system that treats a 7 out of 10 as a failure.

Either way, I think Valve are really smarting up here. The part about 'outgrowing' episodic content made me laugh, but then no one in gaming ever admits they really messed up unless it's a marketing ploy to get you to buy their next game (and I think we all know who I'm talking about here...) As much as people complain about hats and DLC, the fact of the matter is that games like TF2 have a far longer 'shelf life' than the current AAA model where a game costs upwards of several million in development to be selling only for a year before a sequel is released. The success of TF2 and Minecraft shows that this kind of continual, evolving development not only keeps people interested and copies being shifted, but it also means that more content gets added to games, instead of them becoming cut down affairs like most AAA games. So really, it's good for both the publisher and consumer.

 

[MahouSniper]

Um, from what I understand, Robin Walker is not the co-founder of Valve. He's just one of the head software programers and the co-creator of the original Team Fortress.

 

[Hijax]

Shut up, stop working out smart business models, and put out the next half-life game. NAOW!

 

[iDerp]

I want Half-Life 3. Call it an episode or a new game, I don't care.

"In general, our approach to our customers is, every day, to ask what we can do for them."

Answer this:
Half-Life 3 is coming out [DATE GOES HERE].
OR
Half-Life 3 isn't going to happen.

That's what you can do for me.

 

[tweedpol]

I was somewhat late to the HL party: only played HalfLife2 last year sometime, then got both episodes and played through them. It didn't take long. And even I'm thoroughly sick of the interminal wait for ep3. I would rather have full finished games with maybe some updates/patches every so often to fix bugs or add maps or whatever, or expansion packs which they've made an effort on and last more than 90 minutes.
I can't abide the idea of continual trickle updates, adding like 30 minutes every 3 months or whatever, it's like reading one of those webcomics where each plot point takes months because they update twice a week and each comic takes all of 2 seconds to read. No flow, no immersion and no bloody fun!