Valve: Perhaps Not The Great Pile Of Steaming Turd We Once Thought They Were.

We’ve been very vocal about Valve and their refusal to develop on Playstation 3. But thing have changed since Valve last shot their mouth off. Sony essentially re-marketed the Playstation 3 in the backend of last year, and the console has since emerged as a worthy contender in the console war, rather than a straddler.

That’s not totally changed Valves mind about the system, but it seems, in the least, the company are coming round to the idea of developing on Sony’s platform.

“Before we do anything on the PS3 we need to be able to support it in the right way,” Valve’s Chet Faliszek told Edge. “But we’ll look at it, and I’m sure down the road we’ll do it.”

Well thank goodness for that. In some ways we respect Valve for not wanting to put out a sub-par product, and we hope the next iteration of Left 4 Dead, or Half-Life or whatever makes it onto PS3.

Sorry Gabe, But I've Lost A Lot Of Respect For Your Company.

I have absolutely no problem with console exclusives. I love them, actually. Console exclusives are what make me a Playstation fan, a Nintendo fan and an XBOX fan. Granted I write my column on a Playstation website, that gives me a vested interest in the Sony side of things, but I still find it interesting the way a console exclusive can really define the philosophy of a platform. Halo and Gears Of War define the XBOX 360 just like Mario and Zelda do the Wii. Valve choose to keep their games exclusive to the XBOX 360 and PC platforms and I think that’s absolutely fine. What I do object to is their “fanboy” mentality they use to justify the decision. Insomniac Games handle the situation well – whenever asked about plans to release a multiplatform game they simply reiterate their Playstation alliance; no need for insults or backhanders. Why can’t Valve do the same?

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Basically Sums Up Our Thoughts For You.

Look Valve, we get it. You’re shitty programmers who can’t be arsed to learn a more complicated platform. You make majority of your cash from Microsoft backhanders, so they can tout the “exclusivity” of your games which aren’t even exclusive in the first place. Guys, we know about it, we’ve heard you tell us.

What we really don’t take to kindly too, is the treatment of any video games fanbase — be it for XBOX 360, PS3, Wii, or a particular genre — getting talked down like second-rate citizens. Whatever your business objectives, at the end of the day we’re all gamers looking to have a good time right?

So next time you want to insult a playerbase Left 4 Dead man Chet Faliszek, save it for somewhere more appropriate, like the toilet, because the shit is just spilling out of your ass as it is.

Randy Pitchford Likens Valve To "Fanboys" Over Playstation 3 Treatment.

Gearbox’s Randy Pitchfod thinks Valve are “foolish” to not support Playstation 3 development.

“I noticed something on the net not too long ago. Doug Lombardi had to take a swipe at the PS3 again, and I thought it was foolish,” Pitchford told OPM. “I read it the same way I read fanboys. Like there’s a guy who bought the Sony platform and he’s a Sony guy, so he decides he’s going to spend a certain percentage of his time bashing Microsoft. And there’s a guy on Microsoft doing the same thing.

“Those guys are childish and narrow minded, it’s the same kind of thing.

“Valve think their own stuff is the only stuff that matters, to the point where they have their own distribution platform. It’s like, I don’t care about retail, about Marketplace, or PSN, I’m going to have Steam.

“It’s cool, it’s good, and they’re doing a good job but at the same time they’re reliant on the rest of the world. They had to do that [Left 4 Dead] deal with EA. When I see the L4D ad on the television I don’t see a Valve logo, I see an EA logo, and when I bought it, I bought it at a store.”

It’s blunt from Randy Pitchford, but at the same time, it’s kinda what we’ve all been thinking.

We're Not Judging When We Say Gabe Newell Probably Doesn't Exercise Much.

As one of the world’s most renowned development houses we find it pretty shocking to hear Valve consistently talk about the Playstation 3 like it’s a challenge to their mighty development skills. Perhaps the system isn’t indeed worth their time, but there is money to made on Playstation 3 (we’d buy Left 4 Dead) and we find it surprising they don’t hire a team to, at the very least, give development on the PS3 a shot. After all, they’re one of the best third-party development houses in the world – there’s no doubt PS3 owners would buy their games and, well, the team must be more than capable of developing on another system, regardless of the weeks or so of man hour they could put into – again – at the least research the system.

Is owner Gabe Newell going to research the PS3 though? Is he fuck. As clarified in an interview with Geoff Keighley where Newell clarifies, “No [we're not working on the PS3]. Not in any way”.

Newell has consistently had beef with the Playstation 3 since its inception – inherently because of its “awkward” design structure. Interestingly, we’re still talking about one of the most renowned development houses in the world here.

Newell would like to apologise to PS3 owners however, regarding the inferior version of The Orange Box that launched on the system:

“If you look at the customers that I feel we’ve done the worst job at taking care of is the people who bought our product on the PS3 – Orange Box on PS3. Those are the people who I have trouble saying anything to other than ‘Yeah, I’m sorry. You have legitimate beef with us.’”

Still, can a development team who can’t even bother to look into another architecture really be considered one of the best in the world? Really?

We’re not sure Gabe Newell. We’re just not sure.

Valve Are Looking To Hire A Playstation 3 Team.

We’ve been a bit harsh on Valve in the past. We know they’re a small company who make their bread and butter building PC games. And as such we know those games can be ported to the XBOX 360 with ease. It does irritate us when great games don’t get released on a system with an audience waiting to buy them though.

Still, it seems Valve aren’t quite as down on Playstation 3 development than we’d previously thought. In fact, by reading into Joystiq’s interview with Valve’s Doug Lombardi, you’d be safe to assume Valve PS3 games are a case of “when” not “if”.

“If you look at The Orange Box — PC: 96 on Metacritic, 360: 96 on Metacritic, PS3 like… 84 or something. That’s not even close to where we are right now with the 360 and PC and the reason is people.

“We have to get people under our roof who are dedicated, talented PS3 guys and then all bets are off. We can take the same sort of strides and get the quality out of the box and offer the same support post-launch on that platform, as well.”

Doug later goes on to conclude that Valve are always looking to hire. So hey, if you know any talented Playstation 3 coders, get them to call up Valve and start work on a Left 4 Dead port.

Left 4 Dead 2 Has Been Marked For Release On PS3... Surely A Database Error?

Before you go crazy over this, we’re pretty sure this is going to turn out as being a database error and nothing to really get too excited about. Still, it’s exciting enough to warrant mention. Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2 – an XBOX 360/PC “exclusive” – has been tagged for release on the Playstation 3 via an EA webpage. The EA game has since had the Playstation 3 association removed but there is still the most slim of chances that EA are holding out on announcement.

It’s very unlikely the game will come to the PS3, with developers Valve straight out denying the existence of the Playstation 3, but, alas – stranger things have happened this gen.