Re:Writing for Half-Life
by sangnoir on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @01:00PM
(#12637027)
> How could valve motivate not making a game that would sell like hotcakes no matter how terrible it is?
I think it mostly boils down to Valve being a privately held company that is not under pressure to meet arbitrary quarterly financial targets. The article is quite clear that Gabe Newell gutted HL a few months before the original release date rather than deliver a game that wasn't quite "there" yet.
Additionally, if Valve have maintained their notoriously flat structure, HL3 will need to acquire critical mass /buy-in within Valve before it can make it out the door.
> Even if Valve decides against ever doing HL3, could they afford not to sell the franchise?
Yes, as long as Steam remains a money printing machine, they will not be desperate.
I think it mostly boils down to Valve being a privately held company that is not under pressure to meet arbitrary quarterly financial targets. The article is quite clear that Gabe Newell gutted HL a few months before the original release date rather than deliver a game that wasn't quite "there" yet.
Additionally, if Valve have maintained their notoriously flat structure, HL3 will need to acquire critical mass /buy-in within Valve before it can make it out the door.
> Even if Valve decides against ever doing HL3, could they afford not to sell the franchise?
Yes, as long as Steam remains a money printing machine, they will not be desperate.