Valve not looking to leave EA (4 Dead)

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Aug 28th 2007 at 6:57PM }

After enjoying a healthy relationship with EA during development of The Orange Box, Valve will likely stay in partnership with the publishing giant for 2008's zombie apocalypse epic, Left 4 Dead. Valve MD Gabe Newell told Eurogamer that it would only be a "natural consequence" of the time spent on October's orange offering. "Everybody always tells us what a horrible monster EA is supposed to be and we keep waiting for the hair to sprout out and the fangs to grow."

Newell, who's obviously never seen the ending to Michael Jackson's "Thriller," now shares a tree with Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli, who earlier this month praised EA for the "freedom" (see: money) it provided throughout the creation of Crysis. Such freedom may hopefully and helpfully extend to Left 4 Dead, with Newell considering a free launch weekend for the first-person, undead person shooter. "It's definitely a game that requires you to play it - you can describe it until you're blue in the face, but five minutes of playing it is definitely better than watching a 30-second spot on MTV to try to get you to understand why Left 4 Dead is going to be worth your time and money."

Tags: EA, Half-Life2, Left4Dead, OrangeBox, Valve

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

copa @ Aug 28th 2007 7:26PM

"Everybody always tells us what a horrible monster EA is supposed to be and we keep waiting for the hair to sprout out and the fangs to grow."

I think what everyone is saying is that EA is a publishing monster, which is why you see less-than-stellar output from the studios under their umbrella.

As a distribution partner, I am sure that EA is quite useful. There is no way that Harmonix could handle the logistics of getting Rock Band out to retail without EA's help.

LegendarySyko @ Aug 29th 2007 2:53PM

I agree with Copa. Also, I PRAISE Valve for possible doing a free weekend of the game. THAT is advertising my friends! Let the masses download and play the game for a weekend. If they love it they ll buy it, if they don't, well free advertising! Valve is fun, they are one of the only developers I know to give they games away free for a weekend. (DoD:Source and Red Orchestra!)

Psaakyrn @ Aug 28th 2007 7:47PM

It's more common than you think... MMO's have been offering X day trails, limited trials and FtP (micropayment) deals from long ago. Of which many of these concepts came from a time where shareware and demoware is commonplace...

sully @ Aug 28th 2007 7:48PM

I lol'ed at the picture used. Bravo.

p-diddy @ Aug 28th 2007 8:51PM

I tried to find valve on FB. Me == Sucker.

DeltaOps101 @ Aug 28th 2007 7:53PM

As long as EA stays completely out of the development process I'll be happy. No shitty EA multiplayer, no sticking their logo in every imaginable place. I really hope Valve doesn't get stuck in the death trap that is EA and maintains their freedom.

modified @ Aug 28th 2007 8:01PM

I'll give you one example of how the monster bites. The way they shut down older games in order to push people into buying this years version of madden or whatever.

modified @ Aug 28th 2007 8:03PM

*shut down servers for older games

Neebs @ Aug 28th 2007 8:09PM

Yeah it totally sucked when I had to buy Half-Life 2 2K7 because the 2K4 servers went down.

Oh wait.

Baked Pigeon @ Aug 28th 2007 8:25PM

Honestly when is valve going to release a counter strike source for the ps3 and 360?

I know that everyone and their brother has probably played and has it for PC but I would still like to see a console version.

JDizzle @ Aug 28th 2007 9:24PM

I believe there are console versions of CS, don't think they're for the PS3 or 360 though. They were never really much of a hit and CS on consoles just doesn't seem right. You look at the successful console shooters such as Halo and GoW, and they're just different games. They rely more on tactics (not really the right word) to win, while in CS the individual needs to be able to aim, shoot, and kill. You just don't get that kind of precision from a console controller.

Dan @ Aug 28th 2007 11:16PM

I had cs on the xbox, old xbox that is. It was OK, but its just one of those games which plays so much better on the PC.

Adam @ Aug 28th 2007 8:36PM

I want to friend Valve so I can poke it

Chainblast @ Aug 28th 2007 11:27PM

That's probably because Valve doesn't work for EA, they just have a distributive agreement with them. The monster most-everyone speaks of is the one that buys up studios left, right and centre and puts-out rehashed crap over and over and over again.

But yeah, as far as distributing a game for you I don't there is a better company to do so.