In a very recent interview with PC Gamer, Valve's Gabe Newell, Erik Johnson, and Robin Walker all spilled the beans on a few projects and ideas that the team have sort of "screwed the pooch" on, so to speak.
Here is just the tip of the iceberg:
Other notable failures include Blobulator, both the first and the second builds of Team Fortress 2, a flying fairy game, the riot shield in Counter-Strike, updates for Xbox 360 owners, essentially screwing over PS3 owners for the longest time entirely, mass unjust bannings by VAC in Modern Warfare 2, and more. Feel free to read the entire interview over at PC Gamer.
Here is just the tip of the iceberg:
PC Gamer: You said you have to fail to learn something – are there things you think you have failed at?
Gabe Newell: Moss, in the original Half-Life 1 (They once said moss would grow in real-time in Half-Life).
Erik Johnson: The first few months of Steam weren’t exactly…
Doug Lombardi: It’s hard to say now, but the first two days of Half-Life 2. That was a failure.
Gabe Newell: What else… Prospero, the game that we never shipped.
Gabe Newell: Moss, in the original Half-Life 1 (They once said moss would grow in real-time in Half-Life).
Erik Johnson: The first few months of Steam weren’t exactly…
Doug Lombardi: It’s hard to say now, but the first two days of Half-Life 2. That was a failure.
Gabe Newell: What else… Prospero, the game that we never shipped.
Other notable failures include Blobulator, both the first and the second builds of Team Fortress 2, a flying fairy game, the riot shield in Counter-Strike, updates for Xbox 360 owners, essentially screwing over PS3 owners for the longest time entirely, mass unjust bannings by VAC in Modern Warfare 2, and more. Feel free to read the entire interview over at PC Gamer.