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Valve is "open" to the idea of being bought out...
Desert_Eagle25
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/54037
If Steam goes to the shitter because EA decides to buy Valve, I'm going to murder someone.
Independent developer Valve is "happy to have that conversation" should the company be approached with a buyout offer, marketing VP Doug Lombardi has revealed.
That said, he noted that the independent studio behind Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, Portal and the Steam digital distribution platform is "doing pretty well" and is "really happy with what we're doing."
Lombardi also heaped praise on publishing partner EA, describing the relationship between EA and Valve as "really good," with Valve yet to see the fabled EA "boogeyman." id Software president John Carmack had previously said that Valve's positive experience with EA was a key factor in its decision to let EA publish id's Rage (PC, PS3, 360, Mac).
"We set up the deal so that it turned out that if EA was this evil empire, that it wasn't going to last forever," Lombardi explained to Gamasutra. "But it's turned out that all those scary stories--maybe some of them were true, and maybe some of them are history; I don't know--haven't appeared to us. We haven't seen the boogeyman."
"EA was very progressive about saying, 'We understand who you guys are. We understand what Steam is. We don't want Steam to go away,'" he continued. "Well, they might want Steam to go away, but they're not asking us to make Steam go away."
If Steam goes to the shitter because EA decides to buy Valve, I'm going to murder someone.
Desert_Eagle25 on
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So that guy with the EA hate thread was right!
Compare EA's online distribution service to Valve's. I think you can see where I'm going with this.
EDIT: And it's not so much EA as it is Valve being one of the last few, big independent developers. It'd be heart wrenching to see them sell out to any body, even EA with it's pretty good track record with the new CEO.
Valve makes good games. EA buying them will not change this.
It's not the games i'm worried about, hell, EA is pushing out some pretty damn high quality stuff themselves. I just dont want to logon one day to find out that Steam has merged with EA's online distribution manager and I suddenly have to pay $5 to keep my current games.
On the other hand, this could mean that EA wants to buy Valve so that it can throw its current distribution service in the garbage where it belongs and instead use Steam, which their stockholders would never let them get away with currently. I could definitely see that.
When the fuck is Episode Three even coming out
God damn it I want to know what happens
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
Anyone remember HL1? They getting ready to distribute the game when they suddenly go "yea, this isn't what we wanted at all. fuck that we're re-doing this."
And now we all have HL2
If thats the case, and they keep the guys at Valve running Steam the way they want it, then i'll be fine with whatever goes down. I dunno if trading off other publisher's games that are on Steam for EA's would be worth it though.
I imagine the original interview was about Valve's decision to join with EA to publish a game. Naturally talk turns to how EA has a habit of buying out companies they work with. Highly placed mucky-muck states they are willing to entertain any offers. Sounds like SOP for businesses worldwide.
Buyouts don't magically happen just because somebody backs a truck that is full of fat sacks of cash up to the building. I doubt Valve is going anywhere anytime soon.
Do not engage the Watermelons.
Their relationship with EA is pretty good. EA is good at physical/retail distrobution - it's the reason MTV went with them for Rock Band - while they are good at the whole digital thing.
I mean, I'm suprised people didn't make a bigger deal about id no longer being published by Activision. Something must have pissed them off real bad to switch publishers like that.
If I am ever in the position to buy out a company I will most certainly do it with a truck full of cash-sacks. I shall be perched atop them, top hatted and bemonocled, flourishing a gloriously white walrus mustache.
I never asked for this!
Hi5 for it being guaranteed to work on the 360!
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
Now if only Valve would implement a godforsaken Legacy control scheme..
First, because Valve is amazing, profitable, and everyone loves them. They don't really need to be bought out.
Secondly, because, while EA isn't being evil now, that might not always be true. I don't want all major video games to be made and published by like four or five mega-companies. Diversity is only a good thing, as indie games have shown with increasing frequency.
Thirdly, there are rumors of a Linux port of the source engine ("Postal 3 will have a Linux version!"), and those sorts of things seem like they have an unfortunate increased tendency to die with company acquisitions and whatnot.
and good luck with the linux port. if it's only being promoted for postal 3 then it's probably something those guys are working on, not valve.
Than buy the games and switch steam into offline mode
What? Steam is probably the easiest to use online distributor available. It's ridiculously easy. I bought Prey for $4.99 in like 10 seconds (literally) and downloaded it in about 3 hours. Then I started playing it.
I really hope this doesn't happen. No matter how unlikely it is, we can still not want it to happen.
Hopefully, if Valve did agree to being purchased by EA, they wouldn't hand over too much control.
Honestly considering the size of the companies I wouldn't be surprised if it was a merger
I've heard that only works for a while, and it need to go back into online mode eventually.
If it was *just* the DRM'd distribution center thingie, I'd agree that it was annoying, but the community features and the very nice support for modding (not to mention the amazing games distributed through steam in the first place), make up for it in my book.
Plus, it's decent DRM. I mean, not some crappy "only 3 installs" type of deal, and you can login and start playing without disks at any machine that has steam installed.
That too. After Half-Life, Half-Life 2 and its episodes, Team Fortress, Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike and Counter Strike: Source, I severely doubt Valve is small enough to get "swept away" as it were.
A buyout would be horrible. Evil only sleeps for so long. :P
Steam BoardGameGeek Twitter
I never asked for this!
Steam BoardGameGeek Twitter
Because Valve makes enough revenue per year that they don't need to stretch their arms out towards big old EA and shout, "Save us, EA! We need your money!"
Westwood and Looking Glass Studios were tiny companies. They didn't stand a chance. Valve won't be bought with a large check just because it's large.
Valve has the sway to say "Do what we want or we take our ball elsewhere." and get away with it.
I never asked for this!
The difference is that Blizzard had a ridiculously large guaranteed revenue stream. (and vivendi technically absorbed activision, they just used all of activisions execs instead)
Still, I am very adamant about it. I dislike the fucking idea that I must install something unrelated to my game. I go out, buy a disc, put it into my DvD drive, and then play the content on the disc which I bought with my disposable income from a legitimate job. But no, I must verify the content, sign up so that they have my personal information, and have extra software on my harddrive.
It's not that I don't mind giving .01% of my harddrive space, it's not that I am only mildly annoyed to have to right click and shut down steam from the icon tray, but it's the idea. Look it's great, digital distribution, but god damn, please do not cram it down my throat. I gave you my money, and don't want your extra software nor do I HAVE to give you my personal information. Period.
If I buy an iPod, it doesn't automatically install iTunes, Quicktime, and Safari last time I checked, nor did it ask for my name, number, and address.
I'm not saying EA is going to corrupt Valve, although that's one possibility. I'm just saying the people who think they're on equal footing are dead wrong.
Steam BoardGameGeek Twitter
I've done the exact opposite with Steam. Steam is now my gaming hub. All of my games are either bought or short-cutted into Steam, and the resources it uses during and out of gameplay is minimal at worst.
Also: I highly doubt a merger or valve being bought out would really change anything about their games. EA has kept it's studios relatively free to do their own thing and do it well. Mythic is a prime example.