Gabe Newell: Big companies won't stay relevant.

So what if it has 8 cores? 7 years after that quote, a huge number of games still barely use more than 2-3 cores.

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The challenges he's talking about are hardly a thing of the past. He was right.. again :P


These are not exactly the settings you'd use to see whether or not 1, 2, 3 or 4 cores help, because the GPU might limit the performance there.
 
People need to stop misquoting him on this. Its more than just the store.
The thing about Windows 8 wasn’t just [Microsoft's] distribution. As somebody who participates in the overall PC ecosystem, it’s totally great when faster wireless networks and standards come out, or when graphics get faster. Windows 8 was like this giant sadness. It just hurts everybody in the PC business. Rather than everybody being all excited to go buy a new PC, buying new software to run on it, we’ve had a 20+ percent decline in PC sales — it’s like "holy cow that’s not what the new generation of the operating system is supposed to do." There’s supposed to be a 40 percent uptake, not a 20 percent decline, so that’s what really scares me. When I started using it I was like "oh my god..." I find [Windows 8] unusable.

He doesn't even say a reason in that paragraph you quoted, it's a bunch of fluff.
 
my money is on platinum. most of their games, while they've been behind some of the defining games of this generation, they have been sales bombs. the two exclusives for nintendo might just push them over the edge if / when they bomb.
I wouldn't define Platinum "a big company" by any stretch of the imagination, though.
 
But do they require big budgets?

I feel like EA and Activision depend way too much on 2/3 big franchises and at some point one of those franchises isn't going to carries it weight anymore.

I'm not sure. with the reports of next gen costs due to rise, it could see them not having anyone take risks funding / publishing their games or being relegated to putting out wii u games.

I wouldn't define Platinum "a big company" by any stretch of the imagination, though.

true. maybe I should have qualified with sega and platinum.
 
Isn't he also in danger?
Valves main profit seems to be steam and hes scared of windows 8 store.

Kinda deluding himself on all of his fanbase switching to linux.

Almost everyone that's deployed out here that's purchased a laptop has reverted back to Windows 7. Also, seeing how it's possible to install Windows on these Steam PCs... I really don't think he is worried about Windows 8. It doesn't seem like they're trying to alienate anyone. Valve's platform is the Steam client itself. Not the box that it comes in.

Microsoft is already trying to get it's foot in the door with it's own store. This is definitely going to be their last console release in my opinion.

Also, Steam might not have as big as a concurrent user base as Microsoft or Sony, but they didn't sell consoles at a loss for years before actually making profit. Sony sold 77,000,000 units yet they are hurting financially. To add to that they've had to offer their online "premium" services at a price just to make up for their financial folly's. That's their real reason for their overpriced subscriptions... it's not because of server maintenance or maintaining their browser and services... it's because Microsoft knew they goofed up from the start and Sony tried to hold out longer until they realized they goofed up too.

Valve has given away it's client for free since the start of the century and the only thing they've put money into is R&D. In the GAMING playing field Valve probably towers over Sony and Microsoft financially.

But this is my opinion from what I've seen so far.
 
Sega. They're trying to turn it around with digital, but it's too late. Hopefully we get Yakuza before then.
Not going to happen. They've got money from pachinko to keep them afloat through transition and they've already cut down most of their weakly performing studios.
 
i like the twd. but episodic content sucks ass.

There is absolutely no benefit as far as i see it as a gamer.

It's kind of cool when a series becomes like a TV show where you talk about what will happen before the next episode airs. TWD was good for this since it was more serialized than Telltale's other stuff.

That's all I've got.
 
It's kind of cool when a series becomes like a TV show where you talk about what will happen before the next episode airs. TWD was good for this since it was more serialized than Telltale's other stuff.

That's all I've got.

Is it also cool when they suddenly cancel the show mid season?
 
Episode gaming isn't working yet, because it's no fun to wait a month for the next one. They need to come up with the tools that allows content to be delivered on a bi weekly basis.

Episode gaming sounds great, but there are still ways to go before it can become a thing.
 
These are not exactly the settings you'd use to see whether or not 1, 2, 3 or 4 cores help, because the GPU might limit the performance there.

Yeah, running games at maximum settings is the exact opposite of what one should be doing when the intention is to test CPU scalability.
 
For a different example, how about Assassin's Creed 3? Ubisoft makes a huge improvement with AC2, then sees dollar signs and churns out two unnecessary expansion pack sequels, then makes a third "main" game that's lacking in polish and tremendously disappointing to many.
It disappointed around 10 million people. What a monumental failure!
 
Large games corporations built on traditional production models will not remain relevant in the new age of gaming, Valve president Gabe Newell has warned.

I can't see why there is all the commotion about this.

This is true of every industry, not just games.

Large companies react very badly to disruptive innovations for several reasons:

  • They don't have the skills to adapt.
  • They can't adapt quick enough.
  • Attempting to adapt will cannibalise their existing business model(s).
  • Core values and processes already in place at the company are often in conflict with what must be done for a successful transition.

This is why large companies get their lunch eaten by small companies time and time again.

Like dinosaurs the large companies don't die out overnight. They basically starve themselves to death as revenues dry up when previous customers choose the new smaller better agile competitor's products. Brand allegiance only lasts so long when the product is clearly inferior.
 
Not true. You might want to read up on the tyrnanny of the clock (the change in how people experience time), the history of money, the history of language and writing (and how its developement fundamentally changes brain structure from birth), the development of civilization, etc. The idea that 'big company structure' is part of human nature is a scary thought.

Besides, the modern corporation has only been around for 150 years +/-, and companies in general since Roman times.



quote of the thread.

That does sound interesting.

In any case, I didn't mean modern corporations, I meant the model of large corporations has been around in various forms for a long time.

Mainstream desires that can be "produced" will most likely always be a constant in an ordered society, and will always attract groups of people that want to profit from from those desires, and the best and most logical way to succesfully do that is to join forces in order to deliver.

And since there are various "desires", the groups of people will most likely take advantage of as many as they can, since they are in it for the money/profit.

This is why I don't think large corporations will leave the gaming scene. As long as there is profit to be made, they won't leave or become less relevant. Gaming is currently going through a change due to the economy, mobile gaming, free2play (These are all related I think.). But despite all that, games like Call of Duty sold an extreme amount of copies and, most importantly, set a precedent.

And due to the precedents set by gaming, large corporations would only go away if it was very hard to gain a profit. That would not be good for gaming -- there'd be far, far fewer games, not to mention that consoles would most likely not be able to exist in such a scenario.
 
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