Valve to create a dedicated PS3 team
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If certain analysts can come out declaring the sky is blue, then we feel it’s acceptable to also state the blatantly obvious sometimes.
Valve do not like the PS3.
This position may change though as, speaking to Joystiq at a press-event in London yesterday, Valve hinted towards embracing Sony’s console – but only when the time is right. Namely when they have the people in place to do so.
While at the Left 4 Dead 2 event in the UK capital, Valve’s Doug Lombardi made the following comments:
“If you look at The Orange Box — PC: 96 on Metacritic, 360: 96 on Metacritic, PS3 like… 84 or something. That’s not even close to where we are right now with the 360 and PC and the reason is people.”
Of course, it was EA who handled the port of The Orange Box to the PS3 but it’s evident that Valve are at least protective of their properties and their name. And if the studio are to produce PS3 games with the Valve stamp of approval, it will only be when they know they can produce products of equal quality. Lombardi continued with:
“[...] we have to get people under our roof who are dedicated, talented PS3 guys and then all bets are off. We can take the same sort of strides and get the quality out of the box and offer the same support post-launch on that platform, as well.”
Much has been made of the Half-Life developer’s attitude towards our console of choice; especially when comments like “The PS3 is a waste of everybody’s time” from Valve Big Whig himself, Gabe Newell, resounded around the internet like wild-fire last year.
We’re not going to defend Valve, that comment or their current stance on what platforms they do or do not wish to develop games for. After all, every studio has the right to choose what hardware they will or will not work with.
However, it does appear that a lot of the anti-PS3 sentiment from Valve over the years can be attributed to simple ignorance of the technology rather than blind distaste for something they obviously know little about. Valve are a PC, and by extension a 360, developer at heart. They’re good at making games on these platforms and have sales figures to prove it.
What the company appears to be doing now is standing up and admitting that their PS3 knowledge is lacking. And until they put a dedicated PS3 team together so as to produce the same degree of quality for their titles across all platforms – only then will Value support it.
This is excellent news, just hurry up already!
I’m actually really enjoying Half Life 2 (The Orange Box) on PS3. One of my gaming highlights of the year in fact! There are issues with the sound, but if you can get past that, there is a hell of game in there.
I actually read that Half Life 2 Episode 3 would be coming out on PS3 (sorry guys, I said it, I read other sites!), although I did not quite believe it at the time. I’m now a bit more hopeful after reading this article.
That’s ok Duce, we read other sites too.
That said, we did mention Half-Life 2: Eps 3 in our Games Database feature earlier this year. I’ll save you a click:
“Another one straight from the “You saw this one coming†pile, Episode 3 will finally tie up all the lose ends and allow Valve to close the book on Half-Life 2. And move on to Half-Life 3 no doubt. Gordon will be back, goatie and all, as long as he’s not stuck in Geneva looking for the Higgs Boson with the Large Hadron Collider. The big question is however, when? According to Valve they still haven’t even locked down the plot to the final chapter. We can’t see it coming this year – but you never know.”
Your a star. I’ve done a heck of a lot of clicking this week at work, so I can reduce the count back the other way by one now. Woot!