averyblund said:
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Reasonable said:
Funnily enough, Valve don't want to charge using the MS model - strange but true. Also, they may still pickup the Orange Box on PS3 - they don't have to, but despite all the grumbling you see in my experience Valve, when they do decide to back something, back it fully, and so I suspect they may either bring it under their wing or find another way to encourage PS3 owners to get onto their platform.
It's important when considering Valve's approach to understand that they try very hard to get players to embrace a broad number of their titles, by keeping them all on Steam and continuously upgrading them. Getting Steamworks and Portal 2 properly on PS3 is a start, but for Valve I'd say getting their core Half Life franchise sorted out on the platform would be a priority afterwards, as well as getting L4D on the platform, too.
As for TF2 on the 360, I don't actually see Valve sharing any big responsibility other than, arguably, never releasing on the 360 platform at all given their desired approach was so completely at odds with MS.
Also, I'd bear in mind that the whole 'loving the PS3' approach is a very good way of putting presure on MS to relent - if Valve games become more popular on PS3 and better supported this will put a lot of pressure on MS to cave, particularly if they continue to sell so well.
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One thing I love about Valve, no-matter their current console preference is just how much value they see in community relations. Releasing free titles like Alien Swarm- a game that provides dozens of hours of enjoyment with top shelf FX, or Portal for all new Steam users along with free entire levels to games like L4D 1 2 is just great. In an industry that seems hell bent on ever increasing DLC pricing and lameness, Valve stands literally alone. They don't hold back content for later DLC and release it a week after the game drops, they don't limit installs, they don't drop support for old titles....ever. Compared to a company like Activision they are just great at reminding us that gaming is about making a title perfect, evolving it over time. Not dropping a turd, charging for completed levels ripped out for profit, or in the case of MS and EA dropping multiplayer support for games that still have a large following. Heck Valve is currently releasing most of their back catalgue of games on Mac, and guess what? Those of us who bought titles like Half-Life 2 back in 2004 can no download them on either platform for no added charge. Thats amazing support, something no other company I know of provides.Now don't get me wrong I think it was stupid of them to expect MS to bend to their will, but I also think its silly not to wish MS had. If every developer treated their users like Valve does, gaming would be a lot better off.
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