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Commercial failure, perhaps. I'd suggest not delivering Half Life 3 (or even HL2: Episode 3) is their biggest failing. All the resources in the world, and they'

Commercial failure, perhaps. I'd suggest not delivering Half Life 3 (or even HL2: Episode 3) is their biggest failing. All the resources in the world, and they're happy resting on their laurels. It's such a shame.

dageshi 7y ago
They don't know how to make it "special". They don't want to make just a good game, they want to make something exceptional and they don't know how.
johnchristopher 7y ago
I remember it was discussed a month ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20098638 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20098638
mwfunk 7y ago
Agreed. Basically, not being able to both run Steam and continue being one of the best game development studios in the industry, which they surely were 20 years ago. I understand that they're going to naturally follow the money and put their resources where those resources will do the most good, it's just a shame that they couldn't keep succeeding at the thing that made them big in the first place. They've made many great games.
blueboo 7y ago
Indeed there’s no level of success for a narrative FPS big enough to warrant waiting so long on such a valuable IP. Why let the workflow/team get stale?...the answer must be that engineering was rerouted to Steam or porting or something but they could’ve made at least tens of millions * several sequels by now...
- rasz 7y ago
  tens of millions ... is what you make _in a month_ by selling hats inside free to play game. Valve has precisely zero incentive to make any game except for concepts centered around selling digital property, coincidentally like a computer card game!
- bluescrn 7y ago
  When you control a near-monopoly App Store and can take 30% of revenue from so many successful developers, there’s little incentive to actually make ambitious games Steam is hundreds of times more profitable than any game could ever be.
shultays 7y ago
Valve has very little reason to make a single player game. Why make hl3 while someone else can make a similar selling game and you taking 30% of it? A game like artifact is more appealing to them because it has a potential to become next hearthstone, which is much more profitable than a single player game that only sells once Also hype around hl3 is too much, it will be below expectations no matter how much hard Valve tries.

dageshi 7y ago

They don't know how to make it "special". They don't want to make just a good game, they want to make something exceptional and they don't know how.

johnchristopher 7y ago

I remember it was discussed a month ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20098638 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20098638

mwfunk 7y ago

Agreed. Basically, not being able to both run Steam and continue being one of the best game development studios in the industry, which they surely were 20 years ago. I understand that they're going to naturally follow the money and put their resources where those resources will do the most good, it's just a shame that they couldn't keep succeeding at the thing that made them big in the first place. They've made many great games.

blueboo 7y ago

Indeed there’s no level of success for a narrative FPS big enough to warrant waiting so long on such a valuable IP. Why let the workflow/team get stale?...the answer must be that engineering was rerouted to Steam or porting or something but they could’ve made at least tens of millions * several sequels by now...

rasz 7y ago
tens of millions ... is what you make _in a month_ by selling hats inside free to play game. Valve has precisely zero incentive to make any game except for concepts centered around selling digital property, coincidentally like a computer card game!
bluescrn 7y ago
When you control a near-monopoly App Store and can take 30% of revenue from so many successful developers, there’s little incentive to actually make ambitious games Steam is hundreds of times more profitable than any game could ever be.

shultays 7y ago

Valve has very little reason to make a single player game. Why make hl3 while someone else can make a similar selling game and you taking 30% of it? A game like artifact is more appealing to them because it has a potential to become next hearthstone, which is much more profitable than a single player game that only sells once Also hype around hl3 is too much, it will be below expectations no matter how much hard Valve tries.