Verno wrote on Dec 2, 2011, 14:10:
Dev wrote on Dec 2, 2011, 14:01:
Various stuff unrelated to HL3
You know what Valve and Gabe like more than fun? Money. Half-Life titles make them a bundle, both directly through game sales and providing value/attachment to Steam. Valve working on other titles or going into other markets (most of which are actually properties they purchased along with the employees) has nothing to do with episode 3/HL3. You've offered a lot of sniped quotes and text but nothing of substance that points to HL3 not showing up.
Wake me up when Gabe literally says HL3 is not in development, you're so willing to take him at his word after all
Gabe bragged in a recent interview with forbes that they make more money per employee than google. In that same interview he said they were up 200% in a years time. They aren't hurting for money.
Another interesting thing that emerged from interviews around portal 2's release was how much gabe cares about his employees. Basically to an obsession. It was working on the HL universe where things that happened to employees in crunch time scared (and scarred) him so much he changed the entire focus of development in that universe to episodic development. That's why he obsesses over his employees working on things interesting to them. Up until those interviews revealing valve history, I always thought the episodic thing was more in response to fans saying it was taking too long between games and the other companies that were doing episodic models around that time. Since those interviews, the biggest driving factors behind switching to that model are now revealed.
While that's laudable, I think valve's leadership is lacking a bit in walking the balance a between employee needs and company needs.
So in fact, NO, gabe (and thus his company) doesn't like money more than fun.
In fact, valve even have to be in the game development business, they'd still be a huge success because of steam's constant income.
This comment was edited on Dec 2, 2011, 14:36.