Valve Is A Good Developer?

[Oli]

Valve is probably one of the best developers out there, turning out games that have gone on to be epic in years to come but also games that are good in todays society. The Source community seems to love them in the most part, yet go over to other communities and they are absolutely raping the developers that they follow for not delivering the goods.

My theory is:

Free Content + Cheap Games = Win for Valve

They bring out regular(ish) content for L4D and TF2 and it's also free (for PC users). I have a feeling that their tactics are very very clever. Offer very cheap games £6 for TF2 at the moment and £13 for L4D when it was on sale, and get the customer hooked on Valve games. They know that their games are good so once they have someone hooked they're unlikely to move away from the Valve side of gaming.

I know I wouldn't unless it was for a BF game. Now, the question is, why don't other companies do this? Surely they must see how succesful it has been for games like TF2, L4D, Portal...etc.

Discuss...

[MrChris_CJ]

Re: Valve Is A Good Developer?

Valve make good games but unfortunately you always get retarded twats who moan etc about FREE updates

maybe they should **** off to subscription heaven Xbox live and get the same stuff u get on the pc, instead you have to pay and wait longer

some companies do, do this, but not a lot of them have the position and strength of Valve

[TheEn|gma]

Re: Valve Is A Good Developer?

I don't really see how it sustainable although it clearly is, their update weekends must rape it in, in terms of extra sales to cover the costs of running a development etc.

[iQue]

Re: Valve Is A Good Developer?

Valve <3

Their customer service is great, free updates and bugfixes, and steam is a user friendly gaming platform. They have a lot of spare money though from selling CS in many many years, it being the biggest online FPS on the planet

People are raging over the scout update being crap, but you only hear that little minority that won't stop bitching over every update. I thought this was one of the best updates this far, and I know many agree, you just don't hear them too much as they're busy playing the game :3

[Micster]

Re: Valve Is A Good Developer?

Seriously? People are whining about the update? At this point I've lost all faith in humanity.

And I think it's quite simple. The masses don't know that games are this cheap, and as such big names like EA can still continue to price them that way.

Heck, they still have large prices on Steam too.

Of course, I may very well be wrong and seeing it from just one perspective.

[CtrlAltDe1337]

Re: Valve Is A Good Developer?

The main things that makes Valve good is they make fun, quality games with few bugs.

[MrChris_CJ]

Re: Valve Is A Good Developer?

its not so much moaning about updates in terms of content, that can be a generally well formed opinion

but if you ever dared to enter the TF2 section of the Steam forums it is full of threads from ungrateful pricks (who know nothing about coding, or game development) moaning because an update is late, not forthcoming or because they think in some magical world Valve can make updates every 5 minutes

[Oli]

Re: Valve Is A Good Developer?

The main things that makes Valve good is they make fun, quality games with few bugs.

Good point, nice solid games and the bugs there are, are very tiny.

Unlike BF2 where I could crash out for absolutely no reason.:laugh:

its not so much moaning about updates in terms of content, that can be a generally well formed opinion

but if you ever dared to enter the TF2 section of the Steam forums it is full of threads from ungrateful pricks (who know nothing about coding, or game development) moaning because an update is late, not forthcoming or because they think in some magical world Valve can make updates every 5 minutes

The difference is, those people feel they have to go there to complain about the game. I should hope that most posters here are posting because they enjoy the games and want to discuss the games. Hence why we're a lot nice bunch :awes

[MrChris_CJ]

Re: Valve Is A Good Developer?

true, google has ensured that all smacktards with no braincells can easily navigate the internet and thus reach the Steam forums, then create 10000 threads because they have no patience

I thought most people here were just gender confused!

[Yukiism]

Re: Valve Is A Good Developer?

I guess i am the perfect example of that story.

I once bought TF2 because it seemed that everyone on TGN played it and i just bought it without expecting anything from it.
When i launched it, i was immediately hooked! Over the course of time, i've bought almost every single Source engine game ( except CSS )

I played CoD4 before i started playing TF2 and i basicly never opened CoD4 since i bought TF2

[Oli]

Re: Valve Is A Good Developer?

CSS was my first game, I guess the ease of purchasing the game over Steam and knowing I can never lose it because of losing a CD key or whatever really kept me hooked. So I went on to buy the OB.

I think CoD4 has been my only non-Valve game of recent times.

[KillerStickMan]

Re: Valve Is A Good Developer?

I think the major thing that valve has going for it is the source engine. It's a wonderful engine, and they've been using/modifying it/tweaking it for so long that it's almost perfect. That's why their games don't have nearly as many bugs as others. Also, rather than stick with a series of games, they've expanded their horizons and made many different games. One more thing they have is the fact that they own steam and it costs $100K-$200K for a normal $50 game to get a license to be put on steam. So they don't really have to worry about money while making a game because they have a fairly steady income. And they just know how to make awesome games and make people happy.

[TheEn|gma]

Re: Valve Is A Good Developer?

One more thing they have is the fact that they own steam and it costs $100K-$200K for a normal $50 game to get a license to be put on steam. So they don't really have to worry about money while making a game because they have a fairly steady income. And they just know how to make awesome games and make people happy.

I kind of just thought a percentage of the price went to the developers/publishers/pimp

[KillerStickMan]

Re: Valve Is A Good Developer?

I kind of just thought a percentage of the price went to the developers/publishers/pimp

I'm not really entirely sure, and now that I think about the game I was referencing from is free so it may be different in how they would handle it.

[BobTheJob]

Re: Valve Is A Good Developer?

Valve games are the only ones I seem to be getting lately, but I don't get new video games very often.