Gearbox Software head Randy Pitchford has a long history with the folks at Valve, which is probably why he’s able to speak with just candor when it comes to what he believes are serious missteps on behalf of the acclaimed developer.
Coming off a series of comments criticizing Valve over their digital delivery platform Steam, Pitchford recently told the UK gaming publication OPM that Valve’s avoidance of PlayStation 3 support bears similarities to the kinds of “childish and narrow minded” attitudes that fanboys are famously known for having for or against a particular console, AnalogHype (via Develop) reports.
"I noticed something on the net not too long ago. Doug Lombardi (Valve's VP Marketing) had to take a swipe at the PS3 again, and I thought it was foolish. I read it the same way I read fanboys. Like there's a guy who brought the Sony platform and he's a Sony guy, so he decides he's going to spend a certain percentage of his time bashing Microsoft. And there's a guy on Microsoft doing the same thing,” Pitchford explained.
As for his own stance on the PS3, Pitchford said, “The PS3 is awesome. I think Valve...I don't know why they are doing that. It's weird. But yeah, the PlayStation platform's really cool. It's different to others and it's certainly a challenge to be able to develop software for. But that's where the fun is, right?"
Valve has rather famously criticized the PS3 for being too difficult to program for, and as such, Sony’s console has received very little in terms of support from the developer. Then again, I don’t think anyone would criticize Epic Games or Insomniac Games for having “fanboy”-like attitudes towards the 360 and/or PS3 because they work exclusively on their respective consoles of choice. When developers say things like, “We prefer working on the 360 because we find it easier” and “This game could only be made on the PS3,” it doesn’t strike me as fanboy-ish; it just sounds like developers expressing their personal technological preferences (which are oftentimes dictated by exclusivity deals, but those deals wouldn't have been agreed to in the first place if the developers didn't feel some kind of reasoned draw to a particular console).
I’ve contacted Valve to get their take on this, so I’ll let you know if I hear anything.
Do you think Pitchford’s characterization of Valve’s attitude toward the PS3 is fair/accurate?
