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Steve Gibson, Gearbox's head of marketing, wants Microsoft and Valve to "Play Nice."

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
this is absolutely 100% false.

as if we needed more proof that gearbox has no idea what's going on with pc.
 

Steve Gibson

Neo Member
indeed, friends lists being cross compatible is a key component.

what i was talking to that press guy in london about was the hope that things would just go towards an open standard (not likely)

cant say i've ever been accused of not knowing how the pc gaming industry works... pretty entertaining to be on the other side of this stuff haha.
 

Zzoram

Member
Steve Gibson said:
indeed, friends lists being cross compatible is a key component.

what i was talking to that press guy in london about was the hope that things would just go towards an open standard (not likely)

cant say i've ever been accused of not knowing how the pc gaming industry works... pretty entertaining to be on the other side of this stuff haha.

Not knowing that GFW LIVE and Steamworks games like Dawn of War II allow you to play multiplayer with anyone else who bought the game, regardless of where or how you bought it, is a pretty big deal when this fact is in direct contradiction with your claim. You quote mentioned nothing about friend's lists, it took people who actually know about GFW LIVE + Steamworks games to even bring up the issue.
 
Hey Steve, when you said this:

"[We] want people to be able to play together and right now if a guy buys a game on Games for Windows and a guy buys a game on Steam - they can't play together," Gearbox's head of marketing Steve Gibson said at London Games Festival. "If another guy bought it in a retail store, he can't play with the first two guys."

What game(s) were you referencing, for example?

Also when is the Borderlands level patch coming (I know you know!)?
 

markot

Banned
Thats not true at all..... you can play BF2 with anyone else who bought it... from steam, from d2d, from retail...
 
MmmSkyscraper said:
jav6Z.gif
I like that gif, now show me what you are capable of. You cookie cutter mother fucker, you're just like the rest of these dudes safe moist as dudes.
 
Thanks for clearing that up Steve.

Yeah it would be nice in a perfect world, but we all know that's not going to happen. I'm sure Valve wouldnt have a problem with it but there is no way MS would consider connecting their live members with PC gamers who are not paying for thier service. Not to mention that they would be exposing live gamers to people who enjoy all of the same features for free on PC. Neither Sony or MS want to have their services connected to each other either. The problem has nothing to do with the PC or Valve. This is the nature of consoles.

And actually connecting PC gamers and console gamers in-game with each other just wont work. Even for a game like Borderlands that is focused on co-op instead of .vs. And a multiplayer game featuring keyboard/mouse users .vs controller users is a bloodbath waiting to happen.

Also, just in case you didn't pick up on it in this thread, Gamespy has always sucked and will always suck. Could you please pass that on to whoever needs to hear that at Gearbox. Thanks.
 

Steve Gibson

Neo Member
Zzoram,

i'd appreciate the benefit of the doubt given my history in pc gaming. i've been to a couple rodeos.

i would agree that if i was not aware of DoW2 and how they managed things that would be pretty surprising. you're right.

yes there are ways around the whole thing but it's all hackery trying to get around things and guys who arent as tech savvy can end up having a hard time.

i didnt think when i was talking to the guy that my mentioning that was even worth a news item. of course all gamers want the easiest and simplest method to find their friends online and play together. a unified protocol would make that easier.
 

Steve Gibson

Neo Member
blackMamba1187

i sure hope soon. i have 1 day at the office tomorrow before heading to australia. i'll see if either myself or Adam can get you guys an update on the status.

it is going to be in October for sure but that thing is a motherfucker to QA.
 
Steve Gibson said:
indeed, friends lists being cross compatible is a key component.

what i was talking to that press guy in london about was the hope that things would just go towards an open standard (not likely)

cant say i've ever been accused of not knowing how the pc gaming industry works... pretty entertaining to be on the other side of this stuff haha.

Given that your complaint even if it's about friends list isn't a problem with PC gamers, I'd say that you are a bit out of touch with the PC gaming community...

In case Steve or anyone else lurking from Gearbox didn't get the message...

I <3 Memes said:
Also, just in case you didn't pick up on it in this thread, Gamespy has always sucked and will always suck. Could you please pass that on to whoever needs to hear that at Gearbox. Thanks.

Please heed this...Don't use gamespy ever again..pleasae
 

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
Steve Gibson said:
Zzoram,

i'd appreciate the benefit of the doubt given my history in pc gaming. i've been to a couple rodeos.

i would agree that if i was not aware of DoW2 and how they managed things that would be pretty surprising. you're right.

yes there are ways around the whole thing but it's all hackery trying to get around things and guys who arent as tech savvy can end up having a hard time.

i didnt think when i was talking to the guy that my mentioning that was even worth a news item. of course all gamers want the easiest and simplest method to find their friends online and play together. a unified protocol would make that easier.
Any truly unified and ubiquitous gaming community protocol would have to be OS wide, and that's not likely given how hard MS has dropped the ball lately with GFWL and PC gaming in general. At the rate they're going Apple is going to beat them to it.
 
Gully State said:
not really... the PC version was basically a straight console port with gamespy tacked on despite them touting otherwise.

What's Gearbox's beef with Valve in the first place? This isn't the first time they've called out Steam in a ridiculous manner.
Randy Pitchford's beef with Valve is basically this:

1) Valve is going to release, let's say, Half-Left 4 Dead: Portal to the Team Fortress Strike, in 2010.

2) Gearbox is going to release Borderlands 2: Even More Boring, six months before that. Since it has a PC port, Take Two has decided to put Even More Boring on Steam.

3) So EMB sells gangbusters on Steam, netting a good profit for Take Two, and Valve takes a cut.

4) Pitchford argues that the money from Borderlands 2 is going to go in to the development or marketing budgets for their next ultra-game six months down the line. So when Gearbox releases Borderlands 2 DLC, probably about chimps flinging shit at each other, around the same time Valve is releasing their game, Valve gets a leg up off Pitchford's work with Borderlands 2.
 
Steve Gibson said:
yes there are ways around the whole thing but it's all hackery trying to get around things and guys who arent as tech savvy can end up having a hard time.

Your own company's latest product is guilty of perpetuating this (Want to take a screenshot in BL..adjust FOV..Benchmark....getting the UI to be PC friendly overall).
 
There's nothing to get around though. Neither system has any sort of block in place that prevents either from working with the other system and there's literally dozens of games on the market that use both in tandem just fine.

Of course you're not going to be able to share a friends list between the two systems but that's an absurd request and akin to expecting your PS3 and 360 friends list to be integrated. One thing that certainly doesn't help the segregation is using a third rate system like Gamespy that is structurally broken and has been all but abandoned by everyone else (because its so awful) so you need to create a completely new friends list. If you ahve a desire to create greater unficiation on the platform then why is your company going to much greater efforts than most to further segretate gamers on the platform?

Sorry, but I'm not buying your excuses, you've got this all wrong, the systems simply don't work anything like you're suggesting and what's worse your own company is personally sabotaging any attempts at unification as well. Want to show your commitment to the PC platform and making hooking up with your friends easier? Then confirm Steamworks support for Duke, don't create further segregation by using a shitty separate system no one wants. People don't take kindly to being lied to.
 

Stallion Free

Cock Encumbered
I totally see Gearbox going the way of Steamworks :lol

They just added Steam achievements to copies bought on Steam. Next step, Steam match-making and Steam cloud in Borderlands 2.
 
ShockingAlberto said:
Randy Pitchford's beef with Valve is basically this:

1) Valve is going to release, let's say, Half-Left 4 Dead: Portal to the Team Fortress Strike, in 2010.

2) Gearbox is going to release Borderlands 2: Even More Boring, six months before that. Since it has a PC port, Take Two has decided to put Even More Boring on Steam.

3) So EMB sells gangbusters on Steam, netting a good profit for Take Two, and Valve takes a cut.

4) Pitchford argues that the money from Borderlands 2 is going to go in to the development or marketing budgets for their next ultra-game six months down the line. So when Gearbox releases Borderlands 2 DLC, probably about chimps flinging shit at each other, around the same time Valve is releasing their game, Valve gets a leg up off Pitchford's work with Borderlands 2.

Which is why I can't stand Pitchford.
 

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
Boonoo said:
Gearbox is the last developer that should be telling people how to streamline online play.

This.

I know Randy didn't say all this crap, but until PC gamers get an apology for being lied to with developer double speak...

Randy Pitchford: The first thing is that we author our content on the PC. With Borderlands, we’re not porting the game to the PC, we’re starting there. The PC is our development platform.

Gearbox can take their games and eat it.
 

Steve Gibson

Neo Member
Gully State

i am just your typical fresh out of school yuppy suit who somehow got a marketing job so my being out of touch is a given :)
 
ShockingAlberto said:
Randy Pitchford's beef with Valve is basically this:

1) Valve is going to release, let's say, Half-Left 4 Dead: Portal to the Team Fortress Strike, in 2010.

2) Gearbox is going to release Borderlands 2: Even More Boring, six months before that. Since it has a PC port, Take Two has decided to put Even More Boring on Steam.

3) So EMB sells gangbusters on Steam, netting a good profit for Take Two, and Valve takes a cut.

4) Pitchford argues that the money from Borderlands 2 is going to go in to the development or marketing budgets for their next ultra-game six months down the line. So when Gearbox releases Borderlands 2 DLC, probably about chimps flinging shit at each other, around the same time Valve is releasing their game, Valve gets a leg up off Pitchford's work with Borderlands 2.


Your tag is wildly inappropriate.

I'm sorry if you didnt like Borderlands but most people who played it loved it. A flawed game yes, but it got more than enough right to be called a AAA game.

And while the game itself may be a port I appreciate that Gearbox didn't just paste console controls onto a mouse like far too many games have lately. Borderlands has some damn satisfying shooting going for it.
 
I <3 Memes said:
Your tag is wildly inappropriate.

I'm sorry if you didnt like Borderlands but most people who played it loved it. A flawed game yes, but it got more than enough right to be called a AAA game.

And while the game itself may be a port I appreciate that Gearbox didn't just paste console controls onto a mouse like far too many games have lately. Borderlands has some damn satisfying shooting going for it.
Wait hold on

Are you saying I'm unreasonable because I did not like Borderlands and was poking a bit of fun at it?

Or that I misrepresented Pitchford's argument somehow?
 
I <3 Memes said:
Your tag is wildly inappropriate.

I'm sorry if you didnt like Borderlands but most people who played it loved it. A flawed game yes, but it got more than enough right to be called a AAA game.

And while the game itself may be a port I appreciate that Gearbox didn't just paste console controls onto a mouse like far too many games have lately. Borderlands has some damn satisfying shooting going for it.

It was a good game that could've been great...
 
Steve Gibson said:
Gully State

i am just your typical fresh out of school yuppy suit who somehow got a marketing job so my being out of touch is a given :)

BTW...thanks for coming on here to clarify...gearbox guys seem to chime in on neogaf quite a bit so it's appreciated.

With that said let me ask you this...what will gearbox do down the line with its PC games to help with this issue? I mean you can complain all you want about Valve and MS not doing enough to integrate PC gaming but like many have stated in this thread, your own company is using an antiquated online gaming solution that forces PC gamers to create a new friendlist, has unintuitive UI that was straight ripped off from consoles, and touted features such as benchmarking and gun stat cards requiring the very same "hackery" that you are pointing out as a flaw in PC gaming in general.
 

Rainier

Member
Kintaro said:
This.

I know Randy didn't say all this crap, but until PC gamers get an apology for being lied to with developer double speak...


Gearbox can take their games and eat it.
Interesting read. Thought this part was fucked up...

RandyPitchford: I’ll tell you what. Steam helps. As a guy in this industry though, I don’t trust Valve.

MaximumPC: Because they’re competitors?

RandyPitchford: Right.

MaximumPC: You guys have worked with them a lot!

RandyPitchford: I know. And I, personally, trust Valve. But I’m just saying, honestly, I think a lot of the industry doesn’t.
WTF? :lol
 
ShockingAlberto said:
Wait hold on

Are you saying I'm unreasonable because I did not like Borderlands and was poking a bit of fun at it?

Or that I misrepresented Pitchford's argument somehow?


That you were too harsh on Borderlands the game. I can understand people being upset about the game being a port, gamespy, as well as the comments from Gearbox people. I'm just saying that for the majority of people who played it BL was a great game.

Maybe I'm just over reacting to you poking a bit of fun at the game. I'm just saying that for most of us who played it the game was a blast and far from boring. Just a few dumb design decisions, and with the exception of Dr. Ned, really bad endings.
 

ghst

thanks for the laugh
while i appreciate the effort from some developers to keep the libertarian banner of pc gaming flying high, i can barely think of a rational reason why anyone (who doesn't already have in a dog in the fight) publishing a pc game with any clout wouldn't just implement steamworks on a whim.

i mean, pros:

free.
no day 0 piracy.
integrated community.
multiplayer backend.
single unified, instantly updatable version.
bunch of shit off your mind.

cons:

might piss off brad wardell and joseph merrick.
doesn't give you asperger points.
selling out to the man.
 

derFeef

Member
Heh, I remeber when they talked shit about Valve in time for the Borderlands release. This feels like the same, but somehow dumber...
 
Steve Gibson said:
yes there are ways around the whole thing but it's all hackery trying to get around things and guys who arent as tech savvy can end up having a hard time.



There's no hackery because there's no restrictions there at all. There's dozens of GFWL titles sold on Steam and they all work just fine. You can play with guys who bought the retail copy and guys who bought it on the GFWL marketplace.

Similarly all Steamworks titles offer the exact same functionality to boxed products, Steam copies and copies sold on other DD platforms. There's no restrictions, all copies can play online with all copies with both systems.


Steve Gibson said:
of course all gamers want the easiest and simplest method to find their friends online and play together. a unified protocol would make that easier.


We've got two protocols that have very wide reaching support now. I don't think having two friendslists is such a big deal expecially when one is shared with your Xbox as well. Console gamers cope just fine with seperate PSN and Xbox Live logins. You can't begrudge Valve creating their own protocol when Microsoft's offering was so poor and included some pretty damn severe restrictions on developers (like having to pay for patches!!) Steamworks was needed so Valve filled that gap.

The current situation isn't ideal but it wouldn't be all that bad either if third party developers supported one of these two recognised solutions. They absolute worst thing anyone could do though and the one thing that's going to provide more headaches and issues for end users than anything else is to use some alternate third rate solution that integrates with neither and doesn't even work as advertised. This is precisely what Gearbox did with Borderlands and after such a shitty move designed to create greater segmentation on the platform well I'm sorry but I think you're the last person I want to hear complaining about others not working towards greater integration on the platform. Actions speak louder than words, and recent the actions from the company you're representing are in direct conflict with the message you're sending out here.

I think our position is quite easy to understand and completely reasonable. You're spreading clear misinformation about how these systems work, if that's a misunderstanding on your part then fine but I'm sorry someone in your position shouldn't be making these basic errors. You're also pleading others to take a stance towards something that very recently your company actively tried to destroy. I appreciate you taking the time to respond directly and yeah, when I don't expect someone to be listening in then I'm going to come off as a bit of an asshole but the complaints raised are genuine.
 

JWong

Banned
Sinatar said:
This seems like nonsense. Hell Dawn of War 2 is both GFWL AND Steamworks at the same time and works fine regardless of where you buy it.
Except GFWL made the game so cumbersome to play that Relic wants to get rid of GFWL from all its future titles.
 
Fredescu said:
No, you're right, if they did that you might be able to use the mouse wheel in the UI.

Valid complaint. But not being able to use a mouse wheel isnt as bad as the pathetic mouse controls of Oblivion, Fallout 3, Rainbow 6 Vegas 1 and 2, GRAW 1 and 2, Bioshock 1 and 2, Dead Space, and many many many more games that make a mouse feel like its a string tied to a consoles thumbstick.

Seems like more game than not give us the garbage mouse controls like the games I listed above. I guess that is what it has come to, appreciating the rare times PC gamers get actual honest to goodness mouse look.
 

markot

Banned
JWong said:
Except GFWL made the game so cumbersome to play that Relic wants to get rid of GFWL from all its future titles.
THQ, Bethseda... everyone is ditching GFWL, I think the only company that is using it is Codemasters >.< maybe Batman 2 will use it again...
 

Jintor

Member
Rainier said:
Interesting read. Thought this part was fucked up...

WTF? :lol

As a competitor, he doesn't trust Valve. As a person, he does.

That's what I'm getting out of it. Accuracy... debatable. :/
 

Nairume

Banned
Jintor said:
As a competitor, he doesn't trust Valve. As a person, he does.

That's what I'm getting out of it. Accuracy... debatable. :/
Alternatively, I'm taking it as somebody who is crazy, yet realizes that he has no rational basis for his craziness.
 
ghst said:
while i appreciate the effort from some developers to keep the libertarian banner of pc gaming flying high, i can barely think of a rational reason why anyone (who doesn't already have in a dog in the fight) publishing a pc game with any clout wouldn't just implement steamworks on a whim.

i mean, pros:

free.
no day 0 piracy.
integrated community.
multiplayer backend.
single unified, instantly updatable version.
bunch of shit off your mind.

cons:

might piss off brad wardell and joseph merrick.
doesn't give you asperger points.
selling out to the man.


Hey, I think even Merrick would take Steamworks over Gamespy! :lol

It isn't suited to everyone, the likes of Blizzard and even DICE have proven they can do a lot of interesting stuff on their own but if you can't and you don't have the budget for it then don't fight it, you're doing nobody any favours by patching together some hobbled system that doesn't work yourself or using some God awful broken POS like Gamespy.

Yeah, you might indirectly add to Valve's pools of money but you're also going to be able to offer your customers a significantly better product and generally speaking, having a better product (at a decreased outlay, no less) tends do the sale of your game no harm at all.
 

Zzoram

Member
ShockingAlberto said:
Randy Pitchford's beef with Valve is basically this:

1) Valve is going to release, let's say, Half-Left 4 Dead: Portal to the Team Fortress Strike, in 2010.

2) Gearbox is going to release Borderlands 2: Even More Boring, six months before that. Since it has a PC port, Take Two has decided to put Even More Boring on Steam.

3) So EMB sells gangbusters on Steam, netting a good profit for Take Two, and Valve takes a cut.

4) Pitchford argues that the money from Borderlands 2 is going to go in to the development or marketing budgets for their next ultra-game six months down the line. So when Gearbox releases Borderlands 2 DLC, probably about chimps flinging shit at each other, around the same time Valve is releasing their game, Valve gets a leg up off Pitchford's work with Borderlands 2.

Then why doesn't he have the same beef with Microsoft and Sony for taking a cut from his games for being on their platforms and using that money to develop first party games that compete with his games?
 

Fredescu

Member
I <3 Memes said:
Valid complaint. But not being able to use a mouse wheel isnt as bad as the pathetic mouse controls of Oblivion, Fallout 3, Rainbow 6 Vegas 1 and 2, GRAW 1 and 2, Bioshock 1 and 2, Dead Space, and many many many more games that make a mouse feel like its a string tied to a consoles thumbstick.
You can add Mafia II to your list. I don't really notice it outside the menus in first person games, but third person games like Mafia II and Dead Space, yikes. Controller time.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
BobsRevenge said:
Valve never admitted that Opposing Force was better than HL.

Well duh, its not. Also they totally reused OF's final boss in Borderlands. Was lame both times.
 

Zzoram

Member
Valve has done nothing to hurt the competitiveness of 3rd party FPS games on the Steam platform, in fact just the opposite. They have offered those 3rd parties every advertising tool on Steam that they use for their own games (pre-order beta, 4-pack, big splash page ad on launch day, free trial weekends) in addition to offering a ton of useful integrated free services that consumers want. Launching a new game on the front page of Steam probably helps to sell more copies than all the banner ads on all the game news websites combined. They don't even require patch validation like Microsoft does, so they are way friendlier for developers.

But that's not enough for Gearbox. They are fighting for consumers (even though consumers overwhelmingly voted with their wallets for Steamworks over all other solutions) by providing PC ports with such excellent interfaces that make you use PgUp and PgDn instead of a scrollwheel.
 

Nairume

Banned
Zzoram said:
Then why doesn't he have the same beef with Microsoft and Sony for taking a cut from his games for being on their platforms and using that money to develop first party games that compete with his games?

RandyPitchford: I’ll tell you what. Steam helps. As a guy in this industry though, I don’t trust Valve.

MaximumPC: Because they’re competitors?

RandyPitchford: Right.

MaximumPC: You guys have worked with them a lot!

RandyPitchford: I know. And I, personally, trust Valve. But I’m just saying, honestly, I think a lot of the industry doesn’t.

Even Pitchford knows he has no rational grounding for his stance.
 

Zzoram

Member
His comment about a lot of the industry not trusting Valve is also baseless. Every major publisher of PC games in the world except Microsoft and Blizzard (although Activision is on board) have signed on to Steam and are integrating Steamworks into all their flagship products while also dropping the GFW LIVE garbage. They wouldn't do that if they had antagonistic feelings towards Valve. They're all jumping aboard the Steam train because Steamworks is great for developers and consumers want it. Steamworks is the unified system that will bring PC gaming together as a platform.

I wonder how long it will be until PC vendors start pre-installing Steam onto video card containing PCs and stores start selling Steam gift cards.
 
Zzoram said:
Valve has done nothing to hurt the competitiveness of 3rd party FPS games on the Steam platform, in fact just the opposite. They have offered those 3rd parties every advertising tool on Steam that they use for their own games (pre-order beta, 4-pack, big splash page ad on launch day, free trial weekends) in addition to offering a ton of useful integrated free services that consumers want. Launching a new game on the front page of Steam probably helps to sell more copies than all the banner ads on all the game news websites combined. They don't even require patch validation like Microsoft does, so they are way friendlier for developers.

But that's not enough for Gearbox. They are fighting for consumers (even though consumers overwhelmingly voted with their wallets for Steamworks over all other solutions) by providing PC ports with such excellent interfaces that make you use PgUp and PgDn instead of a scrollwheel.

Tripwire literally would not exist if not for Valve and Steam and their games compete with Valve's titles more directly than anyone's. Yet they've got two successful published games under their belt (that continue to sell, KF is back in the top sellers list right now infact) and at least another couple on their way and all of their marketing efforts have come through Steam. Its a mutually beneficial relationship.
 
Wrong.

Well, I hope, as I just bought Dirt 2 on GFW and want to play vs my steam friends.

I'm pretty sure you can on GTA IV as well; Steam and GFW folks together.
 

Zzoram

Member
markot said:
EA isnt though for some reason >.< Sims 3 still isnt available on Steam!

EA is on board with all their hardcore (Dead Space, Mirror's Edge, Battlefield BC2, Medal of Honor) and crossover games (SimCity, Spore). They didn't put Sims 3 on Steam because they probably figure the market for Sims 3 doesn't know what they're missing.
 
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