Gabe Newell

[PlayerReview]

Valve = biggest Indie dev? ... j/k, but if you have an hour and are interested in how successful business models work, see why:

I heart GabeN



Around 45:00 in he starts talking more about user-based (non Valve-specific) stuff comes in.

Pfft, Valve isn't indie. They're basically a publisher themselves nowadays.

I have strong and unpopular views on Steam anyway so I'll shut up.

[mgnade]

I like Valve, but they are definitely not indie (at least they're privately owned). Lately Steam has started to make me nervous since it's never good to have such a dominant distributor with so much power. Only time will tell, but at least Gabe seems to get it.

[canj]

If you think of where Valve came from; and what they have done for digital distribution - it's really impressive.

Counterstrike was an "indie" before the term even really was anything, and Valve took it and made it a great popular game. The half-life mod community(and others like quake, ect) were really the only "popular/known" indie dev communities that were of substance. Not saying there wasnt indie games before that, but it was a lot more niche. I'm only 25, but that's my generation of gaming.

When Steam first came out, it was TRASH. It actually didn't even work properly for like the first 3-4 years.

This has been more of a debate recently, but I can't fault Gabe/Valve for trying to take over - thats just how business works.

Again, I intern with Universal Music, so I'm a total sellout

mgnade wrote:

I like Valve, but they are definitely not indie (at least they're privately owned). Lately Steam has started to make me nervous since it's never good to have such a dominant distributor with so much power. Only time will tell, but at least Gabe seems to get it.

Same here. Monopoly (and current state of Steam IS close to this definition) is never good for customers. I know way too much peoples saying "Dat? Dis game not on Stem? Screw it den". Vice versa i found some game i want to be released ONLY on Steam. Probably its not that bad for developers, but feel like freedom violation for me.
BTW, this why i thank IGS for - that they dont go "Steam only" style like some we dont want mention here.

canj wrote:

This has been more of a debate recently, but I can't fault Gabe/Valve for trying to take over - thats just how business works.

This is exactly the point where government regulations should take action and gently or not so gently rein business trying to get more then they can handle.
Yes, this is how business working, BUT business mechanics is not ideal by default and will turn into commercial tyranny without proper external brakes.