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 Posted: Thu, 24th Nov 2011 21:32 Post subject: Gabe Newell Interview |
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http://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/story_type/site_trail_story/interview-gabe-newell/
| Quote: | As the co-founder and CEO of Valve, how would you best describe the corporation? Are you predominantly a games developer or are you predominantly a digital distribution company?
We usually think of ourselves as customer centric rather than production centric. Most of our decisions are based on the rapidly evolving opportunities to better serve our customers, and not on optimizing to be a better game company or digital distributor. The latter focus would be more of a straitjacket than conceptual aid.
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Last year Forbes listed you as 'man you need to know' for your digital distributions platform, Steam. Could you briefly explain Steam to those who might not be familiar with it? How do you explain your success with Steam?
Steam is a set of tools and services that allow digital content creators to have a relationship with a worldwide audience. That includes support, communication, distribution, sales, and so on.
Our success comes from making sure that both customers and partners (e.g. Activision, Take 2, Ubisoft...) feel like they get a lot of value from those services, and that they can trust us not to take advantage of the relationship that we have with them.
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As the creator of the hugely popular and critically acclaimed Half-Life franchise, can you say in hindsight what you feel the reasons were for its success?
Half-Life in many ways was a reactionary response to the trivialization of the experience of the first person genre. Many of us had fallen in love with videogames because of the phenomenological possibilities of the field, and felt like the industry was reducing the experiences to least common denominators rather than exploring those possibilities. Our hope was that building worlds and characters would be more compelling than building shooting galleries.
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Do you consider releasing Half-Life 2 sequels in an episodic form a mistake?
Not yet.
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Portal and Portal 2 have been big hits. Were you at all apprehensive about releasing a game with mechanics so unlike anything else at the time? Did you expect it to be so warmly received or was it a bit of a risk?
We are always apprehensive about everything we release. Admittedly creating a first-person puzzle game entails an added bit of apprehension. We are a privately held company, owned by the employees, largely because it gives us more freedom to take creative and design risks that in aggregate and over the long term will be less risky than a shorter term focus. The gaming community is sophisticated enough that they recognize that trade-off, want to encourage us in that direction, and will forgive us the occasional fiasco that results.
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Team Fortress 2 is one of the most played multiplayer games right now. You recently made it free to play. Was that a difficult decision to make?
With Team Fortress 2 we have released a series of updates, over 150 since the game shipped in October of 2007. Steam gives us the ability to closely monitor customers' reactions to those changes. By making a series of small steps we have reached our current design, which includes a free to play model. The fact that we've been getting feedback from our customers all along the way made this a fairly easy decision. If we hadn't been able to monitor the reactions, it would have been terrifying.
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Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a sensitive issue. Many games have been the subject of boycotts due to a draconian use of DRM. The most extreme DRM forces players to be online, and to stay online, if they wish to play the game. What are your views on DRM?
In general, we think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable. Most DRM solutions diminish the value of the product by either directly restricting a customers use or by creating uncertainty.
Our goal is to create greater service value than pirates, and this has been successful enough for us that piracy is basically a non-issue for our company. For example, prior to entering the Russian market, we were told that Russia was a waste of time because everyone would pirate our products. Russia is now about to become our largest market in Europe.
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Do you still consider coding games for consoles to be an unpleasant experience? What makes the PC so much more desirable?
The coding part is a one-time fixed cost. The much larger problem is the restrictive nature of the customer relationship where the console owner won't let you try to discover the best value proposition for each customer. On the PC we've done 150+ updates for Team Fortress 2, while on the Xbox 360 we've done two. We have lots of content we'd like to give to our Xbox 360 customer for free which we are precluded from doing given the restrictions under which we have to operate.
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The coming year sees the launch of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2. Can you tell us what to expect from these games?
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a major update to modernize Counter-Strike and bring it to console customers at the same time. Dota 2 is what Icefrog wanted to create with Dota once the imitations of working within the MOD environment of the original were relaxed.
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What do you think of the notion of e-sports? Will it ever be as popular as regular sports? Do you think we'll be seeing live commentary on a mainstream channel for video games any time soon? If not, what's holding it back?
I think e-sports are at a fairly primitive stage as far as the design of the audience experience. The players themselves are extraordinary. We learned a great deal staging The International, the Dota 2 tournament we held at Gamescom, about how to improve both the broadcasting production toolset and the viewer experience. One issue is giving the audience a sense of agency, which will be a critical component that differentiates the experience of e-sports from traditional sports. I think the popularity of e-sports will grow enormously once a set of design issues get addressed on the Spectation side, and that there are fundamental advantages that e-sports will have over traditional sports.
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Why do you think gaming isn't generally considered as artistically valuable or esteemed as film, TV or literature?
Given the history of new media I expect that this is just an issue of time. TV, film, plays, comics et alia all went through an initial period of condemnation and critical scepticism. I expect Homer was asked why epic oral poetry wasn't as artistically valuable as rock paintings.
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When will Half-life 3 be released?
I don't know. |
It's great seeing someone in the industry who actually knows what's up with piracy.
<3 Gabe
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| Posted: Thu, 24th Nov 2011 21:34 Post subject: |
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Thats why Gabe is the men.
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sausje
Banned
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Location: Limboland, Netherlands
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| Posted: Thu, 24th Nov 2011 21:35 Post subject: |
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Shame other devs don't take his "advice" (donno how to call it otherwise) and get the same mentallity about how things REALLY are these days.
Proud member of Frustrated Association of International Losers Failing Against the Gifted and Superior (F.A.I.L.F.A.G.S)
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garus
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| Posted: Thu, 24th Nov 2011 21:35 Post subject: |
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snip
Last edited by garus on Tue, 27th Aug 2024 21:32; edited 1 time in total
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| Posted: Thu, 24th Nov 2011 21:36 Post subject: |
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Russia is their largest market because their games are a god damned FRACTION of what they are in the rest of the world. Sell the games at EU/NA territory prices and then see how large a market you have. Honestly, using Russia as an example is just... it's just wrong.
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| Posted: Thu, 24th Nov 2011 21:38 Post subject: |
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sausje
Banned
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| Posted: Thu, 24th Nov 2011 21:39 Post subject: |
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Hmm didn't think of that, their prices in Russia are bitch ass cheap then compared to EU? (I know EU is already quite expensive, but still)
Proud member of Frustrated Association of International Losers Failing Against the Gifted and Superior (F.A.I.L.F.A.G.S)
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garus
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| Posted: Thu, 24th Nov 2011 21:40 Post subject: |
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snip
Last edited by garus on Tue, 27th Aug 2024 21:32; edited 2 times in total
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garus
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| Posted: Thu, 24th Nov 2011 21:41 Post subject: |
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snip
Last edited by garus on Tue, 27th Aug 2024 21:32; edited 1 time in total
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sausje
Banned
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| Posted: Thu, 24th Nov 2011 21:45 Post subject: |
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Damn that is fucking cheap indeed 
Should start learning russian now 
Proud member of Frustrated Association of International Losers Failing Against the Gifted and Superior (F.A.I.L.F.A.G.S)
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| Posted: Thu, 24th Nov 2011 21:56 Post subject: |
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The same prices for all countrys in europe for example are plain stupid!
How the hell can a game cost 50€ or 60€ in a country: " France's minimum wage is €8.86 per hour; or €1343.77"
and then the same price on:" Portugal's minimum wage rate is €450 per month for all full-time workers"
I could say even worst scenarios.. those were the first examples i came across.
That is what is mostly wrong besides quality/replay value etc ..
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| Posted: Thu, 24th Nov 2011 22:04 Post subject: |
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| sabin1981 wrote: | | Russia is their largest market because their games are a god damned FRACTION of what they are in the rest of the world. Sell the games at EU/NA territory prices and then see how large a market you have. Honestly, using Russia as an example is just... it's just wrong. |
Did you know that all those price changes were launched massively only in september? Before that we had the same prices in $ plus restrictions on some AAA titles (there are more of those restriction now, by the way). Russia was Gabe's oftenly used example for quite some time already.
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| Posted: Thu, 24th Nov 2011 22:08 Post subject: |
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| potatoman wrote: | | sabin1981 wrote: | | Russia is their largest market because their games are a god damned FRACTION of what they are in the rest of the world. Sell the games at EU/NA territory prices and then see how large a market you have. Honestly, using Russia as an example is just... it's just wrong. |
Did you know that all those price changes were launched massivley only in september? Before that we had the same prices in $ plus restrictions on some AAA titles (there are more of those restriction now, by the way). Russia was Gabe's oftenly used example for quite some time already. |
Yup, and he's been talking about it since 2010.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/09/15/we-ask-gabe-newell-about-piracy-drm-and-episode-three/
| Quote: | Gabe Newell: Once you actually localise your product in Russia and ship it on the same day that you ship your English language versions, this theoretical hotbed of piracy becomes your second largest- third largest after Germany in continental Europe? Or third after UK?
Erik Johnson: In terms of retail units?
Gabe Newell: In terms of sales of our products, yeah. Overall, Steam plus retail.
Erik Johnson: Probably second. It’s a big number.
Gabe Newell: The point is that there’s this market that you shouldn’t waste your time on, that went from, “You shouldn’t waste our time on it, they’ll just pirate it,” to “it’s actually a really large market for us now,” once you actually do the things that allow your product to be played. And that’s why some of the DRM approaches are so bad, because they create negative value, not positive value. |
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ixigia
[Moderator] Consigliere
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| Posted: Thu, 24th Nov 2011 22:12 Post subject: |
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Gabe should indeed make prices proportionate to the average wage of the country, in that way Italy would easily receive the same treatment as Russia, while Steam games in Greece would be free. German and French users will be those who will rebalance everything!
Oh and New Zealand, too 
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| Posted: Thu, 24th Nov 2011 22:31 Post subject: |
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I think using Russia as an example is still valid. The prices are set according to the average wages there, so it's not like the ruskies are getting the games dirtcheap. It still proves that making good games is the best way to get people buying them instead of pirating them, not DRM.
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chiv
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Location: Behind You...
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| Posted: Fri, 25th Nov 2011 03:04 Post subject: |
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but... but.. gabe has zero control over his business  i mean, apparently..
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| Posted: Fri, 25th Nov 2011 09:34 Post subject: |
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Why wasn't this posted in the Valve thread? So many Valve threads are crowding the PC section now...
1 and 2 are still amazing.
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chiv
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| Posted: Fri, 25th Nov 2011 10:35 Post subject: |
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because gabe is god, now shut your mouth.
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Werelds
Special Little Man
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| Posted: Fri, 25th Nov 2011 10:42 Post subject: |
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| skytzu wrote: | The same prices for all countrys in europe for example are plain stupid!
How the hell can a game cost 50€ or 60€ in a country: " France's minimum wage is €8.86 per hour; or €1343.77"
and then the same price on:" Portugal's minimum wage rate is €450 per month for all full-time workers"
I could say even worst scenarios.. those were the first examples i came across.
That is what is mostly wrong besides quality/replay value etc .. |
Right, so because the minimum wage here in NL is also around 1400 EUR we're supposed to pay more for games? Even though our normal costs are also a lot higher? Just for health and car insurance alone I lose 200 EUR/month (and I have only the very basic health insurance and an 11-year old car that is in the second-to-lowest tax/insurance category; plus my premium is lower because I've been driving without damage with it for 3 years now), let alone all the crappy taxes we have to pay. It's exactly this reasoning why Europe pay so much more than the US for example. Fuck off please.
Edit: I personally make a lot more and I have absolutely no money concerns, I was just making my point. People earning more should be paying more taxes in their own country, you can't just treat all consumers in one country equally. The insane differences between rich/poor in the US and Russia is the best example for that.
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| Posted: Fri, 25th Nov 2011 11:14 Post subject: |
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Can't Steam be considered as a big DRM? It's even worse than Ubisoft's always on DRM since Steam is region locking shit. Don't get me wrong, I like Steam and use it, but Gabe Newell knows what is going on with piracy? Yeah right.
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Neon
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| Posted: Fri, 25th Nov 2011 11:20 Post subject: |
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Valve has enough pull now to make demands.
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chiv
Posts: 27530
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| Posted: Fri, 25th Nov 2011 11:25 Post subject: |
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no, valve is a pawn of the system. they're a small time company that has zero pull with anyone in the business, period.
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Neon
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| Posted: Fri, 25th Nov 2011 11:30 Post subject: |
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You really think a publisher would risk that? I don't know the stats, but I'm pretty sure a shitload of sales comes from Steam. So you really think this region shit happens because poor Valve is just too small to go against it? I'm not saying Valve should say FU to publishers, but I highly doubt they're doing this shit with pain in their heart.
I still remember the ruckus when digital distribution was all new and shit. What happened? Dick. Prices are still the same as retail. It's a joke.
Last edited by Mister_s on Fri, 25th Nov 2011 11:32; edited 2 times in total
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| Posted: Fri, 25th Nov 2011 11:31 Post subject: |
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He´s full of shit, Steam is a platform filled with overpriced games (promotions not withstanding).
Like it or not, the main reason people pirate games is because of their price, they are just too expensive for most, especially now in a time where any kind of superfluous spending is out of the question.
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chiv
Posts: 27530
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| Posted: Fri, 25th Nov 2011 11:32 Post subject: |
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valve has a lot of pull, the problem is that its a business and it just doesnt give a fuck. as long as it gets its cut, it just doesnt see any reason to rock the boat for its customers sake - THATS the truth of it. its not that valve CANT - because it COULD - its that valve just doesnt see the point.
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That interview was interesting, but his point about counter-piracy was utterly lost on me when he used Russia/CIS as an example of how it works. Off the same prices to the rest of the world and watch piracy plummet.
