Valve On Being Acquired

The simple fact that Valve simply didn't say **** NO. Worries me. If they get bought out everyone in the company becomes even more rich! If they don't they stay rich.
 
I don't think there is anything to worry about here people.
 
Hello, this news worried me so much i signed up to this site!! being a simcity fan myself once maxis was bought up by EA this series was completely distroyed for good :( if half life goes the same way i will seriously wanna kill every EA employee

http://news.spong.com/article/15969/Would_EA_Buy_Valve?cb=55 another source for the news and it doesnt sound great :( i think there a lot to worry about! what someone said above with valve struggling with release dates is actally a serious issue for them, but EA would rush everything out half finished and release 10 addon packs to finish it and charge you more

prey they never get bought up by EA!

eaborgcubeag3.jpg
 
Blinxx said:
I understand why people might be worrying about even the possibility of a take-over. I have hundreds of pounds worth of games on my Steam account. What would happen to them? What would happen to Steam? I can't imagine that EA wouldn't be extremely interested in Steam.
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EA not happy to acquire a point of entry into over 15 million PC gamers lives? Sorry but the notion that EA if they acquired Valve would seek to shut Steam down isn't particularly well thought through. Steam is Valves biggest asset beyond it's IPs, and is a big point of attraction for a takeover. It's the most recognized, widely used and successful DD system going by far, with a proven track record of success. What on earth would be the reason they (EA, or anyone else for that matter), having bought Valve would decide to shut it down? What good purpose would that serve? Save to completely piss off and alienate the vast majority of PC gamers? The very people whose sales they would be pursuing. Valve might one day get taken over, but Steam is here for the long haul. :dozey:
 
I think a large part of valve's success came from their image as friendly to the community. It's hard to imagine valve feeling the same way under EA because we've seen EA ruin so many other developers.
 
Kadayi said:
EA not happy to acquire a point of entry into over 15 million PC gamers lives? Sorry but the notion that EA if they acquired Valve would seek to shut Steam down isn't particularly well thought through. Steam is Valves biggest asset beyond it's IPs, and is a big point of attraction for a takeover. It's the most recognized, widely used and successful DD system going by far, with a proven track record of success. What on earth would be the reason they (EA, or anyone else for that matter), having bought Valve would decide to shut it down? What good purpose would that serve? Save to completely piss off and alienate the vast majority of PC gamers? The very people whose sales they would be pursuing. Valve might one day get taken over, but Steam is here for the long haul. :dozey:
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There no doubt that Steam is here to stay. My only fear is what EA would do to it. Look at the EA digital distribution system they make you pay each time you download, there's no guarantee the game you bought will be there, there no backup function, Users in Europe still have to wait longer than everyone else, slow speeds, higher than retail costs. If EA got their grubby hands on Steam they can charge us for each download can make it subscription based and all these nice features like community,TF2 updates,Steamcloud would be finished we would get no more features or updates. EA's main focus is pleasing their shareholders,Valve haven't got any so they've been pleasing us. There's alot more money that can be squeezed outta Steam and i can bet you EA could find them.
 
Valve's the one doing the acquiring, and that's not gonna change anytime soon. They've been doing it since 1998, no reason to stop now.
 
2008, the year Valve Acquired EA.

Millions of gamers who misread things rejoice.
 
Great EA ruined westwood first, now my second favorite game company is to be next.
 
Do you think Valve would let EA buy them if they didn't stipulate in the contract somewhere that they get to maintain Steam and their games as they see fit? Valve seems to know video game business fairly well, and unless EA offered them enough money to basically buy them out of the video game industry entirely, I don't think they'll bite. If I owned Valve and I wanted to know what their offer was and the only way to legitimately find out would be to go to these talks (even if I had absolutely no intention of selling out), my response would be exactly the same.

Would EA be lame enough to try to acquire Valve and if successful, change their business practices in a negative manner? Count on it.
just_say_no.jpg
 
Samon said:
"happy to have that conversation," is not "Interested in being acquired".

Which Valve should not be. At all.
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I think Valve should be able to do whatever the damn hell they want. Valve doesn't owe us anything. It should be their choice if they want to cash out their hard work, God knows if I was running Valve I'd be selling my stake in the company and running off to some exotic island for the rest of my days.
 
Overclock said:
Great EA ruined westwood first, now my second favorite game company is to be next.
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...

Let's never post an article like this again, because apparently too many people here are too stupid to understand what's being said in them.
 
Absinthe said:
...

Let's never post an article like this again, because apparently too many people here are too stupid to understand what's being said in them.
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Wow, what a condescending answer. You make yourself look stupid pretty well too.
 
It would be stupid to jump to any conclusions, but this is certainly a change in tone from Valve. iirc, last time this issue came up Gabe joked "we have no intention of buying EA or Microsoft" and laughed at the idea. So this isn't the most comforting thing.
 
Kadayi said:
EA not happy to acquire a point of entry into over 15 million PC gamers lives? Sorry but the notion that EA if they acquired Valve would seek to shut Steam down isn't particularly well thought through. Steam is Valves biggest asset beyond it's IPs, and is a big point of attraction for a takeover. It's the most recognized, widely used and successful DD system going by far, with a proven track record of success. What on earth would be the reason they (EA, or anyone else for that matter), having bought Valve would decide to shut it down? What good purpose would that serve? Save to completely piss off and alienate the vast majority of PC gamers? The very people whose sales they would be pursuing. Valve might one day get taken over, but Steam is here for the long haul. :dozey:
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I never said that. Thank-you for misquoting me:

I can't imagine that EA wouldn't be extremely interested in Steam.
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It's a double negative. So, if you'd have read it then you'd realise I'd said basically that I can imagine that EA would be extremely interested in Steam. Which is an understatement. Why the hell wouldn't they be?
 
The next TF2 patch after EA buys out Valve

"Maps 2fort and Dustbowl now have a pilotable Chinook which you can carry several people towards victory."
 
The same people who are flying off the hook should read this, which was part of the same 2-part interview;

I think it's also fairly telling that the philosophy going into it was, "Well, in ten years it will mean something." That alone suggests that it was conceived in the long term. Most product decisions in the games industry are not created with "ten years in the future" in mind - everything seems more financial quarter-based.

DL: Yeah, I think that goes back, again, to having some of the early success of Half-Life, and selling unbelievable amounts there, and that allowed us to bank a lot of capital to be that patient. And also being privately held, right? I mean, we don't have to report to the Street; we're not beholden to the Street. We don't have to have a release this quarter, or this Christmas, or by the end of the financial year.

And that success from Half-Life, and Half-Life 2, has allowed us to be very independent from publishers. As you know, we finance our own development, we do our own QA, we do our own box art. We pretty much own everything except for replication and distribution at retail. So that gives you a certain freedom, and being privately held also gives you a certain freedom.
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blahblahblah said:
I think Valve should be able to do whatever the damn hell they want. Valve doesn't owe us anything. It should be their choice if they want to cash out their hard work, God knows if I was running Valve I'd be selling my stake in the company and running off to some exotic island for the rest of my days.
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That would suck! i would burn all my half life discs if that happened, Have no respect for sell outs and people who are just in it for the money, valve respectable game company still cause they dont rush games out for cash, EA does though! he can retire once valve has distroyed the EA Empire! EA becoming worse than Microsoft now! it would just be the end of gaming if EA own every dam game company out there
 
chimpmunk said:
Wow, what a condescending answer. You make yourself look stupid pretty well too.
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Feel free to jump to the most ridiculous of conclusions over an ambiguous blurb, if you want to.

In any case, Valve is a business like any other, and if they feel there's benefit in an acquisition, then don't expect them to relent on some feeble, standalone, principle of independence. It should be a matter of common sense, however, that they would stipulate terms they find agreeable and practical for their purposes. Valve has a pretty keen understanding of the industry, and it should be a natural assumption that if they were to agree to such an acquisition, they would seek to retain their flexibility, creativity, and generosity to their players. Furthermore, not every major publisher these days is looking to squeeze the life out of their developers. Valve would be a quality prize who make quality products. Like Bioware and a number of other top-notch developers, it would be overly cynical to think that EA or anybody else would simply rush in and trample all over their work.

Of course, I guess it's easier to assume this would just entail Valve bending over for a huge wad of cash. What insight you all have. As if the Half-Life universe would crumble to dust from the act alone.
 
Gabe Newell was one of the original Microsoft Millionaires, he could of just bought himself a nice plot of land and retired and never had to work another day in his life if he wanted to when his MS shares came through. Instead he decided to take that money and invest it in making games. Gabe had the opportunity to live the easy life, but passed it up. I'm not envisaging Gabe ever selling Valve, unless in doing so it provided him with enough capital to start up a bigger project.
 
lawl @ PHL's newspost.

No doubt the community's reaction to this news will be carefully considered and entirely reasonable.
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Valve has the chance to become bigger than EA with steam, it is very arrogant of EA not to use Steam though! every company is now
 
robsters said:
Valve has the chance to become bigger than EA with steam, it is very arrogant of EA not to use Steam though! every company is now
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No, it's called not paying 30% or whatever Valve charge for the service. Personally I'd love to see EA stuff on Steam, but they don't want to commit. Also, Valve = developer, EA = Publisher very different things entirely.
 
Noo! Valve can't be bought. EA could say "Oh no, don't worry we won't change much." And probably make steam cost money. Valve is doing very well by itself, and it will continue. EA could easily go behind Valve's back and do screwy thing. I really hope Valve doesn't get bough....by anyone!
 
robsters said:
Valve has the chance to become bigger than EA with steam, it is very arrogant of EA not to use Steam though! every company is now
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EA have their own service, so why would they shoot themselves in the foot by using Steam.
 
Kadayi said:
No, it's called not paying 30% or whatever Valve charge for the service. Personally I'd love to see EA stuff on Steam, but they don't want to commit. Also, Valve = developer, EA = Publisher very things entirely.
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I see, still EA download service i could imgine is a bit of a joke compared to steam.

I think people are right that valve would retain a lot of its right and freedoms if bought up, however this reminds me of Maxis when EA swallowed them up. They managed to retained there freedom to an certain extent and became a devison of EA.

However EA ended up having rights to there titles, example would be the recent simcity soceties...maxis was to busy making spores and not releasing until perfect, just like valve would. But! EA having the overall control gave the simcity franchise to another company to make a sequel because it was overdue for the simcity franchise! however maxis being so delayed on spores they were never going to get time to make another simcity for ages, so EA step in and fix the problem...however they just ended up distroying the simcity name instead and alienated every fan across the globe.

My point is if valve were to get bought up this is the sort of situation that would scare me with them, even if they retained there freedom....if they were to end up to bog down in a project such as left 4 dead i could see EA shipping half life to another team not upto the task to get episode 3 out on time and sooner... this is just as an example of what EA would be doing now if they had valve under there control because every simcity fan has had it already with MAXIS and EA

hopefully valve never end up like maxis but all im saying is even if they retain there freedom it means nothing with EA really.
 
yeah to be fair maxis was going bust so they had to accept EA offer which sucked, valve are doing well so cant see why they sell out now unless they all wanna retire, once they make episode 3 and half life 3 and finish the half life story then they can retire lol :)
 
Let's each chip in $10 and buy Valve before someone else does.
 
blahblahblah said:
Valve doesn't owe us anything.
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This is 100% true. However I think it should also be said we don't owe Valve a damn thing either.

I've only supported Valve this far because thier products aren't the same recycled garbage. If for any reason the good times stop rolling, so do the bucks.
 
Valve is out there for money, not idealism. Fact is, they know that making good games is the right way to gain respect and more money.
Now, come on, being acquired is not selling Valve's soul. A company is made up of people; same people = same ideas = same care = same games. EA may push to meet a deadline but in the end I think that the huge amount of money and resources would let Valve to develop better, not worse games.

PS: Maybe Valve and Steam could teach EA how to handle the DRM matter ;)
 
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