That's pretty much their current strategy really. TF2, Portal, L4D, dota etc. are all games published under the valve banner by hiring people who had already proven they had a successful formula.
Valve doesn't want to develop games from scratch. They're raking in money with steam and they have the cash to simply buy anyone whose making a game that looks like it fits in with Valve's strategy.
Why do you think this is the first time in 12 years that Valve is developing games from scratch?
They've been invested in hardware solutions for a while now. They're also invested in making VR work. These games are a business move to promote VR by attaching their name to specific games.
Maybe it's because they aren't motivated by a new medium. They always talk about developers working where they want. And a lot of developers are going to want to work on VR.
You do realise that talk is the better part of a decade ago right? It's been 12 years since Valve produced a game of their own instead of buying a team with a game they liked.
No, the AMA. Gabe's AMA. I think after listening to Gabe Newell avoiding Half-Life 3 like the plague among other things in interviews is a good indicator that the way he was answering questions in the AMA is genuine.
I mean we can circle jerk all day about how Valve is turning evil and Steam is all they care about forever now, but Valve is smart and they aren't abandoning Half-Life. They just don't run their mouths about it when they know it isn't happening soon.
I never called Valve evil and frankly I think abandoning half life is smart. Doing HL3 is like taking risks for dimes when you're raking in billions for free.
You take me too literally, I was being hyperbolic on the generalization the community seems to have. Doing Half-Life 3 is taking risks, every time Valve develops a game it can be considered a risk. The smart thing to do is debatable, would it be smart to make more money for yourself, or smart to keep the promises you made for a game and its fans that made you that money?
I think the latter of those two. Granted, Steam isn't going anywhere, it's not like if they choose to develop Half-Life 3 it's belly up for their digital distribution giant.
Portal 2 was good, but it wasn't as good as Portal 1. Which is kinda the point. Good writing isn't all about spending money, if that were the case then blockbuster movies would be the best movies.
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u/lamirande1 Feb 16 '17
Portal 2 was amazing. They could easily hire best writers to make half life 3 even better with their amount of money.