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[yuraya]

They are.

It would have taken longer but someone else would have come along, things are going digital, goes without saying games will too, they have been.

Maybe GoG would be the big dog, or someone else. If there had been a large enough vacuum someone would have filled it. Just like how Netflix came along and changed the game and now more and more options are popping up.

So yes, Valve is fortunate. They were the first, that fact is their saving grace. God knows people don't stick with them due to their customer support.

Being first isn't luck.

Being a distant 2nd, 3rd and 4th while still being relevant is luck. Its the other PC clients today that are lucky Valve decides to not be competitive.

 

[Blam]

To the people in this thread saying that they are surprised valve doesn't hire more people. You do know that valve hires very few people because you need like 10+ years of experience with the field you're applying for.

It's pretty hard to get in with them you need to be a veteran pretty much.

 

[Mechanized]

I'd like it if they could actually make some new games on a more regular basis.

 

[JaseC]

To the people in this thread saying that they are surprised valve doesn't hire more people. You do know that valve hires very few people because you need like 10+ years of experience with the field you're applying for.

It's pretty hard to get in with them you need to be a veteran pretty much.

It varies, but it's never quite as high as 10. You can see the base requirements for several positions on the jobs page -- some don't specify a level of industry experience while others ask for 6+ years. But, yeah, the more experience you have, the better your chances.

 

[TheRedSnifit]

Being first isn't luck.

Being a distant 2nd, 3rd and 4th while still being relevant is luck. Its the other PC clients today that are lucky Valve decides to not be competitive.

^

 

[Katcrawler]

Never said it didnt count, so dunno where the insult of my opinion came from HUUURRR DUUUR.

Just saying that having them make a VR game, which could potentially be extremely short and not be a fully fleshed game with a small team, which is exclusive to a device that costs £700 with basically fuck all games on it vs say making a third game in one of the many franchises that people have been begging for years for, isnt exactly getting me out of my seat in excitement

Its not exactly hard to see why people would be dissapointed in valves direction in terms of software.

It's a good thing Valve already said that the 3 VR games are FULL games, not some short demo. And the reason Valve is making 3 FULL VR games is because they feel like there has not been a VR system seller yet and they want to hopefully change that so there will be more VR headsets sold.

 

[Nessus]

I should have better prepared myself when Gabe said that Portal 2 would probably be Valve's last game with an isolated single player experience.

Marc Laidlaw and Erik Wolpaw leaving Valve really sucks. I loved their respective authors' voices. Now even if Half-Life 3 ever actually happens I won't get to see what Laidlaw imagined for an ending. I don't blame them though. Must have sucked sitting around for years not having much to do.

 

[MUnited83]

Never said it didnt count, so dunno where the insult of my opinion came from HUUURRR DUUUR.

Just saying that having them make a VR game, which could potentially be extremely short and not be a fully fleshed game with a small team, which is exclusive to a device that costs £700 with basically fuck all games on it vs say making a third game in one of the many franchises that people have been begging for years for, isnt exactly getting me out of my seat in excitement

Its not exactly hard to see why people would be dissapointed in valves direction in terms of software.

They are full games so complaining about is nothing more than random shitposting. "Stop making games that advance the medium because I don't like the platform waaaaaaaaaah"

I'll take 3 VR games over HL3 any day of the week. HL3 will never ever live up to expectations of it even releases.

 

[ashecitism]

I also don't think they care about what is going to please the biggest amount of their fanbase when deciding what to do next

Of course they care. That's why Steam gets new features and Dota, TF, CS are still supported. As you said those are all bigger than HL now. It's their current customer base. Valve is serving them, wether you think adequately or not that's another thing, but they do.

 

[Isotropy]

...do any of Valve's projects actually go anywhere anymore? Sometimes it feels like a bunch of crackpot nonsense held together by the endless tides of Steam profits.

 

[LordCiego]

Well its an intelligent move for Valve to not being the ones manufacturing the product, VR set are a huge endeavours compared to a Gamepad.

They dont want to be a manufacturing company but they have to release an updated Steamlink that has a better WiFi connection, because its the only flaw of a very good product. And in the future would be nice to have a revision to the Steam Controller.

 

[AmFreak]

Valve is lucky it came up with Stream before any real alternatives arose.

Extremely lucky.

Funny because Valve approached multiple companies with far larger resources than them to do something like Steam.
They had to make it themselves, because nobody else, including Microsoft, was willing to do it.

 

[JaseC]

...do any of Valve's projects actually go anywhere anymore? Sometimes it feels like a bunch of crackpot nonsense held together by the endless tides of Steam profits.

Well, that is actually true to some extent. I mean, I doubt Valve employees intend to work on projects that will ultimately be put out to pasture for one reason or another, but there's no pressure to release something just because it has consumed its fair share of resources.

 

[Nzyme32]

"R&D company Valve" is how they should be addressed now.

"Controllers of the revenue firehose that is Steam"

Really disappointed with them at the moment but if they wake up from the money coma and start doing things for the sake of being artistic again, all is forgiven.

If that was in the cards, people wouldn't be jumping ship though...

I find it hard to be "disappointed" or upset by Valve utilising their current position to push the technology and industry side of things in riskier directions that other companies are not likely to do or do in such a way that attempts to be closed. The situation with Linux has been a fantastic one to the point where it is more supported than it ever has been within engines and its library. Of course, many years of work to go, but the intention has never been to supersede other OS from day one. The living room movement has also been great with Link and Steam Controller (particularly on the software side of the latter). In these efforts, the effects continue in the ecosystem as a whole because of it (much of the reason why I now have a lounge setup and mitx machine). The development for Vulkan, Lighthouse / OpenVR / OpenXR and VR R&D is also really great. As far as games go, of course it's what everyone wants and no one will believe till they actually release more, but for a company of 330 - no, I am in no way disappointed at their output - frustrated by their prioritisation perhaps in terms of Steam features left aside in favour of larger updates later, but that's about it. As usual it depends on what you are utilising of theirs. Link, Steam Controller, Steam, SteamVR, CS, are all getting regular use from me rather than Dota, but its obvious to me that these are all different audiences that use these things.

Valve is lucky it came up with Stream before any real alternatives arose.

Extremely lucky.

Funny because Valve approached multiple companies with far larger resources than them to do something like Steam.
They had to make it themselves, because nobody else, including Microsoft, was willing to do it.

Yeah this is always a funny dismissive argument. They also pitched to Yahoo, Real and EA I think, all said no.

...do any of Valve's projects actually go anywhere anymore? Sometimes it feels like a bunch of crackpot nonsense held together by the endless tides of Steam profits.

A lot probably don't. With money not really being a concern, a lot of their work tends to be experimentation on what they find interesting, whether business models, tech, software etc. A lot has probably failed, you just never see it or hear about it.

 

[Micael]

Valve is lucky it came up with Stream before any real alternatives arose.

Extremely lucky.

Yeah it was pretty lucky to make a cinematic FPS before that was really a thing, they were lucky to push mods into full fledged games, they were lucky to make the small portal puzzle game which drove a whole lot of other small puzzle games, they were lucky to release steam the biggest distribution platform in the world, they were lucky to make l4d one of the first online co-op games (using a complex learning AI for difficulty), they were lucky for doing the item economy, lucky for doing good VR research, lucky for doing the lighthouse system.

It is truly amazing just how lucky valve is, I'm thinking the all we want hour employees to be T-Shaped is just a facade that instead of a T what they really want is for the employees to be double L back to back to bring all that luck into the company.

I'll take 3 VR games over HL3 any day of the week. HL3 will never ever live up to expectations of it even releases.

More importantly the last thing this industry needs is more studios just doing sequels.

Of course they care. That's why Steam gets new features and Dota, TF, CS are still supported. As you said those are all bigger than HL now. It's their current customer base. Valve is serving them, wether you think adequately or not that's another thing, but they do.

Supporting their fanbase and deciding things based on what is going to please the biggest amount of their fanbase are not the same thing, I'm sure they care about their fanbase, but pleasing their existing fanbase certainly isn't what decides the next project they, since as I said they would still be doing half life if that was the case.
Valve is mostly about creating value to the consumer, which is not the same thing as their fanbase, not unless we assume that valve has a fanbase of over 100 million people.