Valve Sings Very Different Song, Praises PSN, Calls XBL “Train Wreck”
Gabe Newell and the team over at Valve seem to have had an incredibly affectionate relationship with the Xbox360 and XboxLive over the past few years, tearing into the PS3 every chance they got. However, it looks like Gabe and his pals are singing a very different song now.
Apparently, the grass on XboxLive’s side of the fence isn’t as green as their logo, as Gabe Newell and Erik Johnson from Valve tore into the online service this week in an in-depth interview conducted by PCGamer. According to Gabe, providing updates for gamers on XboxLive is a constant hassle for developers, while the PSN is comparably much easier, giving developers the ability to release as much content and as many updates as they need, free of charge.
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… 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.
Erik Johnson also sounded off in the interview:
Favourite conversation of ours! PS3, so far. The way we’ve dealt with those customers so far, and the product that they have, and the lack of updates on the 360 for TF2 is also a total failure. Those are the ones that sting the worst because… it got all the way through to customers. It’s like a bug. If you fix a bug before it ever ships, it’s pretty cheap. If you ship it and then fix it, it’s really expensive. Those ones are really bad.
The tide is ever changing in the PS3 vs. 360 battle, even though according to Sony, it’s not about beating Microsoft, but about how much quality content they can deliver. If execs at a company like Valve, once the PS3′s harshest critics, feel this way, there’s no doubt that these feelings are probably resonating all around the development community. And people thought the Sega vs. Nintendo era was intense!?
[Via]
17 Responses to “Valve Sings Very Different Song, Praises PSN, Calls XBL “Train Wreck””
valve just wants the sony cock now cause they fucked up.
Yup.
…and they’re STILL not getting my money.
well, I don’t care for the Left 4 Dead crap, honestly…but Portal 2 has got me intrigued , I won’t deny I’d really like to play it.
Just because they didn’t have the best things to say about PS3 doesn’t mean that their relationship with Microsoft was all roses. We can make all the speculations we want about why things have turned around, but we know for a fact that Microsoft runs a very tight ship with XBL, whereas Sony is more open to developer freedom with their product. Valve really doesn’t have to release a single game on console and they could put their kids through college off Steam alone, so it’s not like their being forced to do anything. I think they just realize PS3 is a much more profitable venue now, for several reasons, than what it was before.
@Odium Genesis
Is there any particular reason they won’t get your money, or is it just because they “attacked” PS3 previously?
I don’t really care for Valve in all honesty, and some things said about PS3/Sony were ridiculous
If they can make a game that’s interesting to me, then I can look past that, at least they are making SOME sort of change in the end y’know?
Don’t get me wrong, that stuff still is annoying and gives a developer or publisher a bad rep.
I still don’t care about Crysis 2 because I got soo tired of hearing how “great” the game was from the developers, and that’s not even them bashing anyhting.
PSN is a lot better than Live. Its so much easier and totally FREE
Wait so let me get this straight. Microsoft charges developers to put out updates of fixes for their content? That makes no sense to me at all. I try to stay away from fan boy remarks but in this instance M$ certainly seems fitting.
Hmm…..
@DarkKnighT_0_9
I find it quite easy to defend this action actually. These developers wouldn’t need to put out updates to fix their content if they double-checked for the bugs and glitches to begin with maybe if they think they might have to pay for the updates they need to make they’ll look harder the first time. though at the same time I do appreciate that it’s not often easy to find these things so maybe MS could think about droping the charge.
The PSN also does something similar, charging per Gigabyte for content on the PSN Store. Gabe Newell is being quite stupid here, as a third party games designer he should not be taking sides therefore nobody can accuse him of any wrong doing,
This also won’t end well for Valve as I don’t think Microsoft will be happy about Gabe and Eric making this public.
@Timewarp – you’re right, in that this is another dumb PR move for them. But lets face it, they put out fantastic games. Half Life 2 was phenomenal – if only we hadn’t gotten a shitty port for PS3. Team Fortress has always been a butt load of fun, I can’t wait for Portal 2, and Left 4 Dead (while not my cup of tea) has sold like hot cakes. Call it overconfidence, but he probably thinks he can say whatever he wants, because MS would be dumb to not have their games on the xbox. Damn, he might be a jackass, but I don’t care as long as I keep getting awesome games.
EPIC GAMES will be next! jejejeje! >:D
If MS give Gabe a Cheeseburger, he will be singing a different song…..
ah its good to be back
I’ve been noticing more and more often in the gaming community, from developers to third party support communities, that things like loyalty, consistency, and general professionalism are becoming ideas of the past. Sure it was like this 7 years ago when developers first started saying that the original Xbox was better than started fleeing it like rats from a ship when the PS2 got better API’s. But it seems more pronounced now.
Valve has repeatedly failed to patch third party programs on their distribution network. Pure online games are more like work than play. And communities seem to have trouble keeping focus on it’s original plan.
It’s days like this where I’m glad that I stuck with Sony over the past decade.
Gabe Newell should look in the mirror before calling anyone or anything a train wreck.
And how is the “tide ever changing?”
The 360 has OUTSOLD the PS3 the last 3 months.
@Nosferatu – PS3 sales are picking up. PS3 game sales are picking up. PSN sales are going up. All the while Sony continues to make developing games for them much less of a headache, and apparently microsoft keeps making it more of a headache. “The tides are changing” doesn’t indicate that the world has flipped upside down, but that its in the process of becoming something different… or.. changing. ahem. In the same sentence he stated “according to Sony, it’s not about beating Microsoft”. It is moving in the general direction of outselling 360 – its not there yet. Keyword -yet.
@Nosferatu King
I would say that has a lot to do with the new Xbox slim than anything else.
Oh how the tides of turned and I feel a shift in the wind.