EA and Valve announce partnership

[Chazore]

FloatingWaffles said:

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't even care about Origin or Uplay either. This is the same company that would literally rather not mention a single word about Half-Life for 12 years now than simply give people an answer as to why HL2 EP3 never came out no matter how much they asked. I just can't see them feeling threatened by any other possible storefront in that case, but maybe i'm wrong.

What's really gross about it too is it's like people are trying to act as if EGS are actually the ones to thank/credit for any new feature Valve creates for PC gaming (ie. "we wouldn't have these new things if not for your competition, thank you EGS") and not Valve themselves, you know, the people who actually spent time working on this stuff. I've seen people legitimately post "see, this is why competition is good" in regards to the EGS in threads of Valve doing new things while conveniently ignoring all the things Valve has already been doing for years now before the EGS was even a thing. (Hell, Proton was just 4 months before EGS even came out). But according to these people Valve didn't do anything new at all until after it became a thing. 

Like you said, most of it probably is feigned ignorance but at the same time I wouldn't be surprised if some people are actually dumb or delusional enough to believe that EGS scared Valve into some sort of overdrive mode where they somehow created things like Remote Play Together, the new steam UI, etc in less than a year. 

Honestly, those really wanting a HL3 right about now, I'd point them to that Valve documentary from years back, because back then, one key point Valve pointed out was this:

They make games they want to play, and games they think people want to play.

They don't do what EA, Ubisoft, Konami and some other pubs out there have done, and that's tossing out sequel after sequel, after sequel. I mean, look at the recent Ghost Recon or Battlefield, or even MG Survive, all of them fell short of what people wanted, and it was just the focus of pumping out as many sequels as possible, completely disregarding the IP's worth, and value in lore.

People also have to remember at this time, that Valve only has one HL writer, with the rest having left over the years, meaning a proper, homegrown, absolutely original HL3, will never happen. As soon as the first writer left, I saw the writing on the wall, and I knew the dream has fading. Second writer left and I knew the dream was dead.

I'm currently looking at the latest Terminator film, and it's looking like an absolute flop, despite it having JC, it was mostly Tim Miller's fuck-up, and that's because he wanted to make it *his* film, not JC's, and JC didn't have full control over all (which he should have, because Tim needs to learn it's not all about him and his SJW nonsensical crap). The film basically tried to rehash T1-2 with sprinkles of 3 in there, but again, the lore was disregarded and messed around with and guess what?, it's a trashbag waiting to be thrown to the dump.

If I were wanting a sequel from Valve, it'd be L4D, a game where it's not always about the lore, and it's something to roll with, unlike HL, which is heavily dependant on a story to drive it forward, and with only one core writer left, it's not worth hedging all bets on it being good, because you and me both know that it would have insanely unobtainable expectations to meet. 

I don't think Valve need to worry about EGS or any other storefront, because while Origin reared it's ugly end, Valve kept on going. Same with the other clients as well. I don't see EGS forcing Valve to do anything, unless EG contained 90% of the PC market (which even Valve doesn't have), but then by then EG would hit a dead end due to laws preventing a total monopoly (like with Disney and the film industry). 

What's funny to me, is how I'm seeing "newbie" devs on the scene, giving tons of credit to EG, despite the fact that Valve offer devs free tools to use, even with their new network features. I've seen one dev praising it, but that's because they bothered to use it as an early dev test, while the rest promptly ignore it and other such free tools, and just ignore what Valve has done over the past 15 yrs. All EG gets focus for is grants and the free exclusivity cash, both of which are one time monetary gains for some devs, who just so happen to win the random golden ticket lotto, which isn't some new feature or free tool either, but both are praised as if they are. 

It is most definitely feigned ignorance, because that one group want the whole show run by a different ideology, one that doesn't care about you or me, advancement in tech or free tools for all, but just for big sacks of cash and a few words. I actually find that group appalling, because they dare step in the way of progression in the tech field, by vying for a company, that just wants to crush everyone else and then erect walls once it finds itself the "victor".

People forget that EG left PC gaming years ago, blamed it all on piracy (not at all on their copy+paste output and lack of good direction), while moving over to the console space and mocking the open platform from afar. Now it only comes back because it has the money to take back a slice of the pie it never deserved, and that it had very much willingly given up to the then new competition, that decided to earn it over the course of 15 years. EG have so many years to catch up and earn proper trust from the open platform, and it won't be earned via exclusivity bullshit and a server lack of features and free tools.