9 Sep, 2010
Valve boss Gabe Newell has called his company’s assumptions over Xbox Live “such a train wreck”. Speaking to PC Gamer, Newell said one of Valve’s failures over the years was to assume that Microsoft would improve Xbox Live so it could update its games regularly for free.
When asked if its mistake on Xbox Live was to assume Microsoft would let Valve update its games more often, Newell said:
“We thought that there would be something that would emerge, because we figured it was a sort of untenable… Oh yeah, we understand that these are the rules now, but it’s such a train wreck that something will have to change.That’s why we’re really happy with the current situation with the PS3,” he said. “We’re solving it now in a way that is going to work for our customers, rather than assuming something is going to emerge later that will allow us to fix this.”
Microsoft has a notoriously closed approach to its online service compared to PSN, with developers allowed as little as one free title update (though there are exceptions) and limitations on the amount of free game content they can release.
Source: PC Gamer
I guess it explains why we don’t see updates for games like Left 4 Dead as often as the PC version. This is a big problem for a lot of people who are used to using Steam, and getting all their updates and content free.
A friend of mine recently explained to me how companies like Valve make back the developement cost on it’s DLC ect. but I still don’t entirely get how they can afford to develope this stuff and distribute it for free!
Xbox Live/Microsoft Live is what keeps me from playing games like Halo or buying an Xbox. I understand game development is costly (I have a computer science related degree, for some street cred on that…), but I also know revenue from video games is huge. Paying a fee for what should be free content/updates or just multiplayer functionality is highway robbery in my book! I am not a huge Valve fan either (Steam is bloatware) but I do agree with their statement here!
Your comment doesn’t make sense. Xbox Live cost billions to make and get running to where it is today, and Microsoft only gets a specific cut of every game sold on its system.
The free alternatives: PSN, Wii24Connect are a shambles compared to Xbox Live, because you pay for what you get.
Why do you think the service should be free? Do you also think DLC should be free, or is it just the service? As I never understand why some gamers feel they are entitled to free stuff.
I agree Mark! You get what you pay for with PSN, especially in this country. The PSone Classics section of the store in particular actually disgusts me when compared to other territories and it’s no wonder! Microsoft take subscription fees and pour it back into a marketplace full of rich content, something PSN has NEVER had.
I don’t see how they think Sony are going to be any keener to be giving away content for free though?…
Steamworks is VALVes tool to anyone who wants it at the moment for PC games.
Steam’s a fantastic tool to distribute DLC and patches to the full games it offers too. They said about getting a steam api or steamworks into Portal2 on the PS3 so it’ll be through that you get updates or content, leaderboards or whatever they’ll do. I dont know if to say, It’ll make it a more up to date game, a feature Sony will Have to allow, or would be silly not to.