Valve & Blizzard...and no one else

Hectic Glenn

Hectic Glenn

Site Director
Staff member
Joined
Aug 8, 2004
Messages
12,233
Reaction score
241
I was discussing this with a friend earlier tonight and wondered what people thought. Imagine this crazy scenario of all game developers vanishing leaving you with just Valve & Blizzard titles of present and future.

Without factoring the boring concepts of monopolisation & industry collapse...could you survive on a staple diet of titles from these two industry leading companies? Could you game on with the missing genres? Would you go insane with the cavernous interludes between title releases? Could you get up in the morning knowing there will never be a Black Ops 2?
 
Kind of. Love Valve and Starcraft. Indies + Valve + Blizzard would be perfect.

But yeah I think I'd manage!
 
If Starcraft 2 and Team Fortress 2 are still around with occasional HL2/Portal/ other Valve stuff dropping in I would be fine.
 
You're talking about two companies that have a reputation in starvation (or in Blizzard's case, starvation supplemented with a constant slow-drip of gruel -Edit: actually wait, that applies to TF2 as well). I probably could survive on them but I wouldn't want to. Throw in a few more companies like BioWare and Naughty Dog and I think you would probably end up with a balanced diet.
 
I'd prefer Valve and Telltale or Valve and Nintendo. Not much of a Blizzard fan here. I guess I'd just invest more time in reading and doing other stuff that isn't video games. My world would not end anyway.
 
They'd suck me out of all my money.
 
Why Travis? I want to know what your brain is thinking.
 
One plus of this would be the constant stream of quality products. That's a given. Bugs would be minimal, everything would have high production value and you would know that your $50 is money well spent. However, without the shitty ones, without the experimental ones, without the indie developers pushing boundaries and trying new things, the PC market would dry up. Creativity would suffer and it would be just two software giants ruling the nest. It would be like EA became the only developer for consoles games. It'd just be boring.

Would I be content with this? Given how much I play games anymore, yeah, it would be fine. And I would trust Valve and Blizzard to provide enough entertainment to keep PC gaming afloat. But it definitely wouldn't be best for the platform.
 
It wouldn't be that bad, but it would suck. I could survive off a stream of valve games and WoW, though.
 
Wait, do we have to subsist on their current games, and just get more and more sequels? Because Valve comes up with great ideas for new games in addition to their current IPs.

If we only get new games in established series then I would probably just stop gaming so much, and find something else to do. Probably kick up tabletop wargaming a notch. I mean, I certainly wouldn't play their games over and over again ad infinitum until their next release several years later, especially since I don't like almost all multiplayer games, and that includes all the ones Valve and Blizzard make.

And yeah, I think I could survive knowing there will never be a Black Ops 2. And by "survive" I of course mean I would take a shit on Bobby Kotick's doorstep, ring the doorbell, kick him in the nuts and then face slam him into my shitpile, all the while remarking on how bright and glorious the day was. I would do this every single day that I wake up and realize that the series is dead.
 
Krynn72 said:
Wait, do we have to subsist on their current games, and just get more and more sequels? Because Valve comes up with great ideas for new games in addition to their current IPs.

If we only get new games in established series then I would probably just stop gaming so much, and find something else to do. Probably kick up tabletop wargaming a notch. I mean, I certainly wouldn't play their games over and over again ad infinitum until their next release several years later, especially since I don't like almost all multiplayer games, and that includes all the ones Valve and Blizzard make.
Click to expand...

Valve eats up indie companies and then re-sells their ideas. Valve can't come up with anything other than an FPS if their life depended on it.
 
No, I wouldn't survive. Shooters and MP games from Valve are not the games I like the most. Blizzard never exicted me.
I need role playing games, adventures and free roaming open world experiences, so add BioWare, Bethesda, CD Projekt (and Frictional, Telltale, and.....) to that list.
 
If I had to narrow it down to two studios, I'd say keep Valve, but instead of Blizzard, bring back Troika.
 
In this scenario can we play older games that came out from all other developers? cuz if so i'd be set for a long time
 
I can't live without Rockstar Games. Not one day.
 
For me the answer is NO. The more game developers, big and small, the better.
 
If EA sports weren't around I would kill myself.

I cant wait for FIFA 2012.

Herp derp.

In all seriousness, I could probably survive on Valve games. I have SC2 but i'm massively unimpressed by Blizzard (WOW can suck a dick).

I think would be happy with 2 devs, with Valve being one.

Also, lol at whoever thinks this would lead to better games...
 
I'd be happy with the two. Diablo 2 would be a better place.
 
I would probably be even less interested in gaming than I am now.

Valve can't make video games on time and Blizzard have turned into a giant, bloated, flesh-and-sinew-eating mega money machine with Activision, it's evil wizard, standing atop it's mighty shoulders, cackling madly with it's fists in the air.
 
A gaming future devoid of party games, sports games, fighting games, platform games, racing games, action/advenuture games ... and Nintendo!!

Yeah, that would be great :rolling:
 
no i couldn't because blizzard games don't interest me and we get one game from valve a year if we're lucky usually.

Plus I'd miss games like:
deus ex
mass effect
uncharted
assassin's creed
battlefield
and indie offerings aswell like super meat boy or vvvvvv
 
Valve and Firaxis, thanks. Blizzard have been doing downhill rapidly since WC3.
 
I'm only really interested in Diablo 3 (maybe, I've never played Diablo) and Half-Life 3 (I would like a big leap forward in technology).

So, no way. I like Rockstar, Bethesda, Codemasters, Capcom, id Software, etc.

I wish I could resurrect companies from 1980, like Free Fall Associates and FTL Games. I'd want the same people working there, at the age they were then.

EDIT: Free Fall Associates... OH, HELL YES

Apparently, there has been no news since the date it was announced. It seems not one word on all of the web spoken from anybody. WTF :(
 
Hectic Glenn said:
I was discussing this with a friend earlier tonight and wondered what people thought. Imagine this crazy scenario of all game developers vanishing leaving you with just Valve & Blizzard titles of present and future.

Without factoring the boring concepts of monopolisation & industry collapse...could you survive on a staple diet of titles from these two industry leading companies? Could you game on with the missing genres? Would you go insane with the cavernous interludes between title releases? Could you get up in the morning knowing there will never be a Black Ops 2?
Click to expand...

god no. games released every 5 years or so would not be fun
 
No. Especially since Valves last few games with the exception of Portal haven't been that great.
 
Nah. I love them both as developers, but there are far too many other great devs out there, and Valve and Blizz are very stuck in their own style/aesthetic. I don't think their games would be nearly as enjoyable without others to offset it, as the similarities would become far too noticeable.

Also, think of the release dates if they had no competition but each other. I mean. JESUS.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

MFL
Fascinating look at the ongoing psychological evolution of flat hieirarchies.
Replies
2
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
B
Who's left or joined Valve in recent history
Replies
4
Views
32K
MFL
MFL
-smash-
Valve and The Road to GDC 2015
Replies
10
Views
44K
Engineer123
E
Hectic Glenn
Valve and Blizzard Settle Dota 2 Claim, Valve to keep Dota Name
Replies
3
Views
4K
Edeslash
Edeslash
T-6000
Steam and MS Rivalry is 'hurting PC industry', according to Gearbox Marketing boss.
Replies
34
Views
2K
Matorbogl
M
Back
Top