Valve won't charge for DLC

[CSN NewsBot]

Yes, the news is that Volvo's once unique Dive and Lift Control will be free from Valve, drastically impacting the Swedish automaker's sales and signaling Valve's entry into the heady car manufacturing market:

Valve has told Eurogamer that it has no intention of charging customers who download additional content for games like Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2, despite the widely spread increase of paid-for updates in the PC and console world.



Valve's marketing director Doug Lombardi admitted the company had "pretty strong opinions" about how to handle post-release content. "Our philosophy there is, if you buy the product, we put more content out to keep the game interesting, we sell more products."



"Counter-Strike is number one and has been since '99 because we kept the game interesting, not because we tried to charge people more, and that's come back in sales of Counter-Strike," he added.

Oh right. Anyway, this makes for an interesting sidebar to the current debate over the late Black Box and in-game ads, and speaking of new content I'd like to see an official de_vertigo source sometime this year. Read the full article at Eurogamer here.

[icemanz-alb]

What a bunch of fucking faggots.

[omgomgz]

Edited by [user="381418"] @ [time="1179861501"]

"Counter-Strike is number one and has been since '99 because we kept the game interesting, not because we tried to charge people more, and that's come back in sales of Counter-Strike," he added.

Number 1 since '99, and virtually unchanged since '01? That's interesting alright.



I miss the old Counter-Strike.net site. Now Valve's changed it into their personal "BUY CS NOW!" site. Actually, it's their personal "BUY CS:S NOW!" site.

[DaRk-AnGeL]

Excuse me while I wipe the red mush from the walls since the collective fat head at Valve just exploded everywhere.

[Zom-B]

"if you buy the product, we put more content out to keep the game interesting"



You call In-Game ads interesting? Pfffft.

[meowmeow]

No matter how much you guys bitch and whine, you'll still play the game, admit it. I know I do.

[Softy's 24/7 Fraggin]

Often it's the indy developers who do it for the love who make the best games and movies. You can't expect a public company to do anything but try an maximize profits and create new revenue streams. Valve has to milk it while there is still some left in the old CS cow. I am hopeful that some of the new Source mods like Insurgency will bing back the FUBU feeling CS has lost. Sorry if I am off topic, I had a long day at the piggery.

-softness

[omgomgz]

meowmeow wrote..

No matter how much you guys bitch and whine, you'll still play the game, admit it. I know I do.

We can criticize the developers and still like the game you know. It's getting a little clear that Valve's words and actions aren't that similar at all.



For example.. a few months ago Gabe was talking about the Wii and mentioned that the other console developers (microsoft, sony, etc) weren't in tune with what their fans wanted. It's ironic because that's exactly what Valve has been criticized for.



And here, Lombardi says "if you buy the product, we put more content out to keep the game interesting", yet there hasn't been any new content released for CS in years. He even says "Counter-Strike is number one and has been since '99." Now how does it make ANY sense to not release more content for the number 1 game to keep it number 1?

[Snakebyte]

"Our philosophy there is, if you buy the product, we put more content out to keep the game interesting, we sell more products."

Then they make us buy the same games again to get the new additions with the orange box.

[DaRk-AnGeL]

omgomgz wrote..

We can criticize the developers and still like the game you know. It's getting a little clear that Valve's words and actions aren't that similar at all.



For example.. a few months ago Gabe was talking about the Wii and mentioned that the other console developers (microsoft, sony, etc) weren't in tune with what their fans wanted. It's ironic because that's exactly what Valve has been criticized for.



And here, Lombardi says "if you buy the product, we put more content out to keep the game interesting", yet there hasn't been any new content released for CS in years. He even says "Counter-Strike is number one and has been since '99." Now how does it make ANY sense to not release more content for the number 1 game to keep it number 1?

Maybe its because they just think of Counter-Strike as a mod... which is pretty ironic :/

[Bokuho]

meowmeow wrote..

No matter how much you guys bitch and whine, you'll still play the game, admit it. I know I do.

You'd be amazed how many people on here don't still play.



So yeah. Looks like Valve is taking a leaf out of ArenaNet's book.



Though I have a question: what free DLC have Valve put out anyway? I can think of a couple of maps added to Source within it's first couple of months of release, but there's been nowt else for ages.

[Gpig]

I buy Valve products just like I buy EA products (well, burnout and eventually spore) and eat meat that I know was raised unethically. Sure, I'd be happy if Valve or EA went under, but if they put out something I really want then I'm going to get it (or borrow an account from a friend ala HL2 & ep1).



They really are cunts though.

[Zips]

Bokuho wrote..

You'd be amazed how many people on here don't still play.



So yeah. Looks like Valve is taking a leaf out of ArenaNet's book.



Though I have a question: what free DLC have Valve put out anyway? I can think of a couple of maps added to Source within it's first couple of months of release, but there's been nowt else for ages.

They've had how many years of updates for CS, HL, and TFC over the years before Source came out? And even AFTER Source was released there was still gldsrc engine updates. It may not always be a new map, or model, but damn if they aren't good with the support over the years.

[icemanz-alb]

Gpig wrote..

They really are cunts though.

yayyyyyyyyyy

[Diamond Dust]

Gpig wrote..

I buy Valve products just like I buy EA products (well, burnout and eventually spore) and eat meat that I know was raised unethically. Sure, I'd be happy if Valve or EA went under, but if they put out something I really want then I'm going to get it (or borrow an account from a friend ala HL2 & ep1).



They really are cunts though.

A big difference between the company's is valve is a game developer that is starting to publish itself, while EA is just a publisher that buys developers. I'm not a all happy with some of valves decisions as a publisher, but the games that they make are fucking top notch (i don't include CSS in that because I doubt they let their talented designers sink their teeth into the development).



If you compare just two games, BF2 and CSS. Valve has really just ignore bug fixes, which is really lame, but it's no where near as offensive as EA's ability to make large changes to the gameplay without and kind of balancing, and of course they fix bugs and add more. Not to mention also the fact that most people have to re-install the entire game every time there is a patch (they didn't even release a incremtal last update). So EA is really shitty and valve is taking steps in EA's direction. I'm really anxious to see what TF2 is like, I think that game will set a bar for what valve will become in the future.