Gabe Newell's Interview with G4

[DigiQ8]

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[br]G4 had an interview with Gabe Newell to get the latest on everything Valve, Newell discusses Left 4 Dead 2, Left 4 Dead 1 DLC and Episode Three.

G4: So, I guess the big surprise or not so surprising - because it got leaked - is Left 4 Dead 2. Why did you guys decide to go back and fire off a sequel right away?[br]

Gabe Newell: Well, there are a couple reasons for that. One was when we were shipping the game, a bunch of the people who were working on it had all the stuff that they wanted to do right away. It really grew out of the fact that we all played Left 4 Dead pretty religiously and so people said, ?You know, we don?t really want to stop. There?s too much fun stuff to go and do here.?[br]

And then there was this other issue was from a project management perspective, we were looking at different ways of thinking about scheduling. So Robin?s [ed: Robin Walker, Software Developer/Designer] been working on Team Fortress 2, and he?s become really good at turning two month long projects, and having everybody have a lot of fun and being able to do really good work. So, like the Spy update that just came out was on schedule and everybody knew exactly what they were going to get done and felt very productive.

G4: So, is it safe to say that you have like four different projects in development right now? So, you have Left 4 Dead 2, you have Team Fortress 2, I?m going to go out on a limb and say Portal 2 and then?Episode 3?[br]

Newell: [laughs] Uh, I?m not going to talk about things that we?we?re talking about Left 4 Dead 2 and Episode 3. As far as I know, that?s all that we?re talking about publicly.[br]

Doug Lombardi: We?re not talking about Episode 3 publicly. (smiles)[br]

Newell: Oh well, I guess I?m not talking about Episode 3 publicly either. (laughs) So..what?s your question? Yes, we have a lot of stuff that?s going on. We have Steam. Steam?s a lot of work. We have these movie things that we make, they take a lot of work.

Newell also mentions that they have good reasons behind Episode Three's disappearance in E3 that he will not talk about..yet. Read the full interview here.

 

[ktimekiller]

link seems broken?

 

[DigiQ8]

It seems their site is broken now.

 

[joule]

Link works here, and the interview was very enjoyable.

 

[Kirkburn]

Very interesting interview, thoroughly enjoyable, would read again. A+++++

 

[gFrohman]

Interesting, but Gabe definitely dodges the last question. Good read though.

 

[Lobster]

Good interview, its a shame they seem to have a massive embargo around Episode 3 info at the moment, I hope it simply means they are waiting for the right time. The last question/answer was kinda odd, they asked about Episode 3, and he braught up the Meet the spy video. lol.

 

[Diesel_Power]

Interview is not loading up for me on their site. :angry:

Can some one copy and paste it on to here?

 

[Kirkburn]

Good interview, its a shame they seem to have a massive embargo around Episode 3 info at the moment, I hope it simply means they are waiting for the right time. The last question/answer was kinda odd, they asked about Episode 3, and he braught up the Meet the spy video. lol.

Good point actually ... perhaps one of their big things is making an accompanying video to Ep3.

 

[Captain M4d]

Gabe totally dodges the most important question of the interview: when will we find out more information about Episode 3?

 

[chimpmunk]

Gabe totally dodges the most important question of the interview: when will we find out more information about Episode 3?

Newell also mentions that they have good reasons behind Episode Three's disappearance in E3 that he will not talk about..yet

So it seems he's not talking about Ep3 for a reason, maybe orange box 2? Or Ep3 is just so awesome they wanna keep the surprise? Maybe it's turned into a full fledged game? Or is almost ready?
Or maybe they're just avoiding talking about it so they do not set themselves up with too much hype?

 

[Captain M4d]

So it seems he's not talking about Ep3 for a reason, maybe orange box 2? Or Ep3 is just so awesome they wanna keep the surprise? Maybe it's turned into a full fledged game? Or is almost ready?
Or maybe they're just avoiding talking about it so they do not set themselves up with too much hype?

I just find it kind of irritating that they can't even talk about when they're going to talk about it.

 

[creepy_thing]

Good interview. It's just to bad Gabe wasn't alone maybe we could have gotten some info about Ep3.

 

[abraxaswizard]

oh for crying out loud spit it out already

 

[Sloth]

Can someone that can access it copy paste it into the thread?

 

[SolidSteel144]

Can someone that can access it copy paste it into the thread?

No, that would be frowned upon.
I wonder how much longer they are going to keep EP3 under wraps...

 

[Sloth]

It seems to work with IE...

 

[Cukel]

Here's the simplest and most likely explanation why they have not shown Ep3 yet: they don't have anything concrete to show. Valve has had all these other projects like L4D and TF2 updates, so Ep3 is still at an early concept stage. Maybe they're still finishing the script or throwing around gameplay ideas. I'm quite sure if they had anything good to show they would. They're not keeping it a secret because they are preparing a big surprise, believing that is just going to make you disappointed.

Remember that the end of Ep1 had a trailer of Ep2, and it took around 16 months to release after that. Right now, they're not even ready to discuss when they will have a trailer.

In conclusion: stop hyping yourselves up, Ep3 is not coming out any time soon

 

[Operational]

they're not even ready to discuss when they will have a trailer.

Because when they did the Ep2 trailer they had to change things later so the trailer didn't match the final product which is something they want to avoid this time around.

 

[Paulaner]

Showing random pictures of a game when it's at an early stage is unprofessional and tells a lot of things about the uncertainty of the project. See Duke Nukem Forever. A serious company talks only when it knows what it's talking about. I love Valve for this.

 

[QUINTIX256]

I don't think he quite dodged the last question.

His bottom line answer seems to be the theme of the interview: Valve is moving from "Valve time" to more reliable, more predictable, far shorter development cycles/"rhythms". They are releasing products far more frequently, from episodic content, to regular updates to their new multiplayer titles, to releasing a full fledged sequel within a year of the launch of the first title, while still fully supporting the first title.


In other news, the l4d2 boycott group has reached over 25k members

 

[Apos]

I dunno folks: Gabe's last answer is very interesting. He really seems to sort of be saying that Ep3 info will get leaked in a fun way, like the way that the spy video got "leaked."

 

[Crazy_killer]

Funny how he responded to Portal 2, I don't even think they spent on a single minute on that lol.

Geuss we'll just have to wait for his good reason as to why Ep.3 wasn't at E3.
I agree with the guy several posts above, I don't think they have much (finished) stuff to show yet.

 

[Barnz]

In other news, the l4d2 boycott group has reached over 25k members

Stop ****ing posting. Go whine on SteamPowered or somewhere else.

 

[Main Offender]

The page doesn't load properly for me using Google Chrome but it works in IE.

 

[Przemek]

Gabe didn't say anything about Episode Three and Portal 2, because Episode Three is Portal 2 :naughty:

 

[robsters]

Interesting Read, I feel sorry for whoever had to transcript the beast of an interview lol

I think its very likely there isnt really anything to show yet, or maybe its like the others have said and that they will leak a video. I get the feeling the source engine has been seriously updated for this as well

I personally quite looking forward to left 4 dead 2 now, they shud ditch console platform altogether really as it's always going to be an infrior platform, I think people are put off the pc because it used to be unstable which is funny when xboxes overheat and die anyway...steam is the best thing that happened to pc gaming. The sooner every game developer uses it the better!

 

[Darkside55]

We’re going to continue to do Left 4 Dead updates and release more content for Left 4 Dead,

Well, that was fun while it lasted. I was really enjoying watching the community tear itself apart, but now it's over. I guess it's back to trolling TF2 for me:

we’re in the process of iterating towards a more robust economy in the Team Fortress 2 universe.

economy

FPS

Lol

But we want to get the stuff out there so that we can start associating unique items with an individual customer.

unique items

FPS

Lol

Doug Lombardi: We’re not talking about Episode 3 publicly. (smiles)

I've really begun to love Doug Lombardi. I'm not being sarcastic, I rather love this man. I think he's brilliant. He shuts down interviewers like whoa.



And you know, seriously, with regard to the last question(s), and seeing some of the comments on here and the comments on the G4 page, people need to stop asking that question, or getting their panties in a knot when the question is dodged. You really just need to forget all about Episode 3. Forget about info on it, forget about getting a teaser or a tentative date or what have you. Forget it's even in development, because you're not going to get anything out of them and frankly people are just driving themselves into a frenzy over it.

 

[flamingdts]

To be honest, I rather Valve spend more time on TF2 and Portal 2.

They're releasing major game changing updates for TF2, but they're doing it at such a slow speed and the game is already 2 years old.

L4D 2 should be delayed and polished even more in my opinion. The melee weapons should be thrown in L4D as DLC, so that more polished design and ideas can done to L4D 2.

All of that being said, I won't be surprised if Valve announces a temporary halt to the development of L4D2. If the "boycott" group is growing rapidly, Valve may be pressured to halt development. I am not expecting Valve to give in to the pressure, I'm only expecting them to do the right thing. They should very well in their hearts that no matter what they say if L4D2 is released the first L4D will suffer from a massive drop in servers and players.

I hope for Valve's sake they're doing the right thing. Valve is my favourite game companies along with Blizzard. They both decide when and what to do, and rarely give in to fan pressure.

DO THE RIGHT THING VALVE!!!!!!

 

[Eejit]

It's gonna end up as Half-Life 3, not Episode 3

 

[DarkevilPT]

G4: So do you think you might try to test some of the new weaponry in Left 4 Dead 1? Such as bring in chainsaws and some other things like that?

Newell: We’re always going look at what makes sense to do and how to manage that transition. You have these complicated situations and on PC it’s not so bad. On the Xbox it’s a lot more complicated because you can’t guarantee that people have all of the right content given their DLC model, where some people might have some content and others not, which makes it end of up with this weird, complicated thing where this person has this, and this person has this. Where as on the PC we can assume that people have everything. So, we’re trying to get that fixed because they’re sort of cramping our ability to push more free content into customer’s hands when we aren’t sure which free content they have right? And the stuff that you’re allowed to require customer’s to have on the Xbox, it’s only 8MB. That’s the maximum size you can ever change. So, we do that with the first minor update that we do. We’re trying to figure out how to manage that.

So, those are the things we’re sort of struggling with. These constraints on the Xbox. We can release new content on the PC and know that 100% of the customers have it so we don’t have to worry about splitting up our user base into those people who have this weapon and those people who don’t. On the Xbox you don’t have that luxury, where some people could have half the weapons, but not the other weapons. And you don’t know. Every person can be unique. So what we’d really like to do on the Xbox is work with Microsoft so that we can do exactly the same thing that we do with PC users and say hey, everything’s free and everybody always has that. The one problem would be the people who don’t have hard drives and what we would do with them is just orphan them to the first initial release and they can play against all those other people who don’t have hard drives. Everybody who has a hard drive will be up-to-date all the time, the same way they are on the PC side, and that, I think, would help us enormously to have that consistent model across the PC and Xbox.

G4: So, last time we talked at Leipzig, I had asked you why there would be no Left 4 Dead on PS3 and you said because Valve, itself, wasn’t big enough to yet support PS3 development in-house. Is that still the case why Left 4 Dead 2 is not announced for the PS3?

Newell: Yes. We haven’t done a good job of taking care of our PS3 customers at all for the existing Orange Box customers, and that is very frustrating to me personally. Until we can do a better job than we have, I’m sort of hesitant to go back and screw them again. So, I want to make sure when we have customers on the PS3 they don’t end up in the sort of second class citizen that I feel that they’ve been by what we did originally with the Orange Box.

This is the reason why they are making a left 4 dead 2 and not a DLC for left 4 dead 1, you guys missed that part!

 

[robsters]

To be honest, I rather Valve spend more time on TF2 and Portal 2.

They're releasing major game changing updates for TF2, but they're doing it at such a slow speed and the game is already 2 years old.

L4D 2 should be delayed and polished even more in my opinion. The melee weapons should be thrown in L4D as DLC, so that more polished design and ideas can done to L4D 2.

All of that being said, I won't be surprised if Valve announces a temporary halt to the development of L4D2. If the "boycott" group is growing rapidly, Valve may be pressured to halt development. I am not expecting Valve to give in to the pressure, I'm only expecting them to do the right thing. They should very well in their hearts that no matter what they say if L4D2 is released the first L4D will suffer from a massive drop in servers and players.

I hope for Valve's sake they're doing the right thing. Valve is my favourite game companies along with Blizzard. They both decide when and what to do, and rarely give in to fan pressure.

DO THE RIGHT THING VALVE!!!!!!

Halt because some stupid american 13 and 14 year old boycott group! god i hope not! i want episode 3 badly but if valve give into that shit i'd be seriously surprised! 6 billion ppl on the planet i doubt they care about a few 1000 winy teenagers who clearly have to much time on there hands! thing is we make it worse for ourselves with episode 3, if we stopped asking we prob of had news sooner to keep interest alive but valve know they dont have to bother trying to keep the interest alive in episode 3 because we talk about it so frigging much.

 

[ríomhaire]

I can just imagine the interview as Gabe and Billy (guy who posted the interview) talking away pretty casually, and then Gabe says
"We’re talking about Left 4 Dead 2 and Episode 3. As far as I know, that’s all that we’re talking about publicly."
And then Doug Lombardi steps out of a shadow you hadn't even seen, leans to Gabes ear and says
"We’re not talking about Episode 3 publicly."
Before sinking back into the corner.

 

[Sloth]

I can just imagine the interview as Gabe and Billy (guy who posted the interview) talking away pretty casually, and then Gabe says
"We’re talking about Left 4 Dead 2 and Episode 3. As far as I know, that’s all that we’re talking about publicly."
And then Doug Lombardi steps out of a shadow you hadn't even seen, leans to Gabes ear and says
"We’re not talking about Episode 3 publicly."
Before sinking back into the corner.

That was my impression - Doug there as a minder for Gabe...

 

[LazyMofo]

I hate the power that Valve has over me. I really do. I was so mad when it came out that there was no Episode 3 at E3... I was in a crappy mood all day after that.

But here I am now a week later and he just says the words "Episode 3" a few times and here I am all excited like a little kid on Christmas again. He didn't even say anything about it; he just acknowledged that it exists. Am I the only one?! lol.

 

[barbarbarbarbar]

no im still pretty much pissed

 

[Darkside55]

Doug Lombardi steps out of a shadow you hadn't even seen, leans to Gabes ear and says
"We’re not talking about Episode 3 publicly."
Before sinking back into the corner.

God he's so badass.

I was so mad when it came out that there was no Episode 3 at E3... I was in a crappy mood all day after that.

You know I've just really got to wonder about some people on here. Everyone was expecting Ep3 news, apparently, but I just can't fathom why. I mean was anyone REALLY expecting it or was it just wishful thinking? Because even for wishful thinking, that's a stretch. Everybody should have known Valve wasn't going to say anything about Episode 3 at E3.

 

[robsters]

I hate the power that Valve has over me. I really do. I was so mad when it came out that there was no Episode 3 at E3... I was in a crappy mood all day after that.

But here I am now a week later and he just says the words "Episode 3" a few times and here I am all excited like a little kid on Christmas again. He didn't even say anything about it; he just acknowledged that it exists. Am I the only one?! lol.

nah ur not the only 1 deep down inside we all hoped it was something good but unfortunatly now im getting older i learn not to get my hopes up anymore

still the l4d2 info was cool i thort i like to play it all the same anyway

 

[jondy]

You know I've just really got to wonder about some people on here. Everyone was expecting Ep3 news, apparently, but I just can't fathom why. I mean was anyone REALLY expecting it or was it just wishful thinking? Because even for wishful thinking, that's a stretch. Everybody should have known Valve wasn't going to say anything about Episode 3 at E3.

Everyone was expecting it because Valve suggested Episode 3 information would be released late 2008, and E3 was the perfect place to make up for lost time. Wishful thinking or no, there were valid reasons.

 

[nyght]

Theres only one thing that will save L4D imo...


Release the SDK for L4D but DO NOT release the SDK for L4D2.

That way mod'ers can keep the L4D community going. I prefer Mods to the originals.

nyght