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Edge 250 has been released. You can subscribe and pick up the print edition, or you can purchase this issue via the iTunes and Play marketplaces for around $7. Below are some excerpts lifted from the Valve editorial inside:
"Newell replies to our question offhandedly, 'We think of ourselves as a game developer, sure.'"
"Valve comprises just 350 people, stretched over six floors... Valve also opened a new floor to house audio studios last month, which marketing director Doug Lombardi had managed to forget until reminded of it."
"Valve might seem to be straying into territory outside of games... The point, according to Newell... 'When you're off working on user interfaces for letting you friends sort groups of their friends by the games they have, certainly game developers think you're doing game development at that point,' he says. 'Or if you're making a TF2 short. It's just the definition of what gamers want continues to change all the time. And we just feel like we're following behind and trying to understand that better.'"
"Valve wanted [Icefrog's] talent rather than to specifically make Dota 2, and the eventual decision to work on the game is an example of Valve's pragmatism. In Johnson's words, Valve's goal in decision making is, 'What is the most efficient thing for us to work on to entertain the most people?' This is also an insight into why another sequel to Half-Life hasn't yet appeared - making a highly expensive, linear, story-driven singleplayer game just isn't efficient when stacked against the community payoffs of a top-class multiplayer game."
[box=left][On the subject of the Steam Workshop] "'One thing we think is happening is at some point you guys are going to have Developers Of The Year and it's going to be the gamers themselves,' says Newell. 'We're going to end up with a situation where companies are best at creating a framework in which gamers are creating the vast majority of the value; that notion of user-generated content is going to be critical for the next round of successful entertainment properties.'"
"The Steam Linux client originated with Newell pushing the idea five years ago... It seems like a prescient approach now, with business developer Anna Sweet encapsulating the trend by explaining that 'as a whole the industry is looking at different platforms and different ways to reach gamers.' But Valve still doesn't know the extent of the market for games on Linux. It does know how much passion there is in Linux's community, though."[box=right]
[On Big Picture Mode] "'We just want to prove that divide no longer really serves software developers or users,' reinforces Newell. But when Holtman evangelises the idea that PC games subtly change when they're made communal on a TV, you can't help but feel that Valve's also consciously making a bid for territory long held by consoles. Both Holtman and Greg Coomer would still distance themselves from the idea of Valve as a competitor to the console makers; as ever, it's about what the players want."
"'We're thinking a lot about input, actually, and we have some people here who are thinking about taking the hardware side of input in a number of different directions,' explains Coomer... Using the example of playing Dota 2 in the living room, Coomer says that the team is seeing if it's possible to deliver an even better play experience via a traditional gamepad than players can get at a desk."
[box=left]
[On the employee handbook] "'It's been almost overwhelming, the outpouring and questions about it,' says Coomer, its author. 'Agencies from all over the world were getting in touch: public works, legal institutions, real estate, a lot of companies interested in reforming their organisation from the practices outlined.'"
"'We're really good for people who like to set their own agendas, manage themselves, who've shipped their own products, are experienced, and we have people who are just as comfortable going on TV doing an interview as thinking about server costs and designing weapons,' says Newell, 'We're a great environment for someone who has that kind of breadth and flexibility, but we're a terrible environment for somebody who's coming straight out of school.'"
