Valve blames 'bandwidth' for lack of PS3 support

by James Ransom-Wiley { Sep 23rd 2008 at 8:00PM }

"We don't have the bandwidth." That's the explanation Valve co-founder Gabe Newell offered up when poked by 1UP for answers regarding the company's lack of PlayStation 3 support. Put another way: "We don't have PlayStation developers," marketing director Doug Lombardi explained. While hardly a new revelation, Valve's dilemma continues to prevent the company from creating in-house PS3 content.

In the short term, this means -- for the last time -- no Left 4 Dead on PS3, and also, no Team Fortress 2 updates. But...? Uh-uh. "They're not doing ongoing development on The Orange Box for the PS3." They, of course, is EA, developer of the PS3 version of The Orange Box. To file a complaint, please contact the office of your local EA representative. Oprima el dos para continuar en español.

Tags: bandwidth, ea, left-4-dead, orange-box, team-fortress-2, tf2, valve

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

Vol @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:07PM

In before this:

OMG!!! THEY ARE F'ING LAZY!!! THEY SHOULD SUPPORT TEH PS3 NO MATTER WAHT.

/ sarcasm

That guy @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:15PM

Also the: Gabe is such a fanboy! He worked at 'M$' and he loves them crap.

Temple @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:41PM

If anything they're stupid. They should at least get paid to make titles exclusive this generation. Nobody whores themselves out for this cheap anymore.

Dan @ Sep 24th 2008 7:29AM

If you aren't playing tf2 on the PC, you obviously don't care anyway.

Sheppy (of the Fidlious Clan of Wong) @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:11PM

Oh don't you worry your little gravy stained head over us none, Gabe. We have games. Would have been nice to play Left 4 Dead on PS3 but if that means the shit job done last time, I think I'll be about the Resistance 2 instead. Have a nice life though. Hopefully by next generation you won't still be stamping your foot around like a spoiled child.

T3kNi9e @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:18PM

I don't think that's insulting to Gabe at all, seeing as they did not do that "shit job" with The Orange Box... EA did...

Sheppy (of the Fidlious Clan of Wong) @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:34PM

ZOMG! There's a Newell Defense Force?

Look, Newell tore the PS3 a new asshole without even touching the thing (fact: Valve does NOT have a PS3 dev kit), handed off development stating the game would be crap, and when it famously turned out to be true, pointed at poor PS3 sales of Orange Box as vidication of his point while Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty 4 were both surpassing 3 million sales in the same timeframe.

So once again, Newell may not have personally been responsible for Orange Box on PS3, but just because his studio refused to touch the console.

AK @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:51PM

Calm down Sheppers,

It's not like Gabe Newell killed your mother, and raped your dog...

syrik zero @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:56PM

That reminds me... Back in high school one of my friend's caught his older brother raping their male dogs... Pretty fucked up

syrik zero @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:56PM

dog* not dogs... sorry

Hala Madrid!! (PSWii60 Defense Force) @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:58PM

Sheppy, Just blame EA, they were the ones that mede the shitty game.
Clearly Valve doesn't like the PS3 so why you keep complaining for something they didn't do?

Hala Madrid!! (PSWii60 Defense Force) @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:02PM

*made ^

Immortal Technique PSN: johnnynumber5 @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:39PM

The PS3 version wasn't that bad. If you actually played it you might know. I own the 360 version but also played the PS3 version at my brothers house and it was pretty much the exact same experience.

nojak @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:57PM

And you know for a surety they don't have a PS3 devkit HOW?

Poisoned Al @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:39PM

Comparing the console versions of the Orange box is like asking if you'd rather eat shit or vomit. Nether have the support of the Steam backed PC version, and probably never will.

(Oh, and before some knob-end says they like using a pad over keyboard and mouse, you can use a pad on the PC version)

el serpiente @ Sep 24th 2008 12:47AM

Don't worry PoisonedAl, you were the first 'knob-end' to mention it.

Jimiisama @ Sep 24th 2008 10:56AM

You have to realize that Valve is a small company, and doesn't necessarily have the resources to do everything they want. Plus, porting games from PC to Xbox is much easier than the PS3 since Xbox uses a known platform while PS3 uses a brand new one.

Zeus.:God @ Sep 24th 2008 12:22PM

Jesus- El Serpiente is still here? I figured he would have learned his lesson and just headed back to PS3 Fanboy.

Negativecool @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:13PM

What the hell, I will bite on the bait...
Do they seriously think they won't turn a profit off the PS3 if they put money and resources into developing for it?

I realize the PS3 isn't as successful as the 360 (yet), but they can turn a decent profit off developing for it, plane and simple; and the fact that they refuse to put forth the resources to develope for it is ridiculous to me.

Sheppy (of the Fidlious Clan of Wong) @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:25PM

Gabe Newell said the PS3 was a waste of everyone's time. He's not backing down from that statement. Companies are making bank off PS3, if he chooses not to be among them, that's fine.

WhoMe @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:38PM

You know, we have a saying around where I live. I don't know how to properly translate it into English though, but here goes: he's gonna have to "retract his shit".

Rest assured that although this is a piss poor direct translation, it loses nothing of it's visual flavor.

Jimiisama @ Sep 24th 2008 10:55AM

It's a small company, and they don't necessarily have the resources to do everything. Plus it's easier to port PC games to Xbox than it is to PS3.

Popfrogs @ Sep 24th 2008 1:14PM

@whome: In America we say one is going to have to "eat crow", in the UK they say one is going to be eating "humble pie". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_crow

Sentiment is the same either way.

syrik zero @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:17PM

What is the point of this story?

Just to make PS3 owners upset?

Unneeded story if you ask me

Lone Starr @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:30PM

It's ad money! Heck, every time I see the WoW:WotLK ad on here I click it because I think the trailer is really, really cool. And clicking ads is more fun than actually dl'ing the trailer. :)

Mr Khan @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:25PM

All claims of "it's a blog, not a news site" aside, they do like to dredge up a few recurring negative stories, like the inevitable "Why Valve hates PS3" or "Why Epic hates Wii" stories that seem to come around with regularity

Though its the fault of the collective media, who keep bringing up that issue after Valve and Epic made their views perfectly clear, not just joystiq

WhoMe @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:44PM

A] AFAIK Joystiq gets paid "by the post".

B] Joystiq hates the PS3. Many of them even don't own a PS3. Which, even considering the fact that this is a blog and not a proper professional site, is just plain embarrassing. If you pay a even modicum of attention, you'll see that they will take every opportunity to post stories like this, but will not report on stuff like the RRoD nearly as much (not even the recent revelations about it).

Of course, you will not notice this if you rely on Joystiq as your only source of news.

Negativecool @ Sep 24th 2008 12:06AM

I don't get that at all. Every fan of one singular console always says that Joystiq is bias this way or that...it's just frickin old. Have you SEEN all of the coverage they, and everyone else for that matter, are giving to LBP??

I do think, that the COMMENTERS are primarily Wii60ers, not the Joystiq staff. And even the Wii60ers will complain about Joystiq bias against their console of choice.

Just....game on dammit, play games!

Sora @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:18PM

OMG!!! THEY ARE F'ING LAZY!!! THEY SHOULD SUPPORT TEH PS3 NO MATTER WAHT.

VelociRapido @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:38PM

I don't think they are lazy, they're probably just not smrt.

Hala Madrid!! (PSWii60 Defense Force) @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:08PM

OR, they probably just don't care.

philmcphail (Free Mr.ESC!) @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:17PM

WAHT INDEED.

Poisoned Al @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:23PM

Clearly not as "smrt" as you VelociRapido.

Sora @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:29PM

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH.

See Vol's post (The first comment on the page).

Geist @ Sep 24th 2008 2:34AM

I know rite? Gabe is such a fanboy! He worked at 'M$' and he loves them!

koehler83 @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:19PM

Valve and EA are not welcome to the likely thousands I spend on video games each year.

They can do whatever the fuck they wish. Its none of my concern.

syrik zero @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:33PM

I can see hundreds maybe... I don't see anyone spending $2000 or more a year on games. That's ridiculous

TzakShrike @ Sep 25th 2008 5:12PM

Um... I easily spend $2000 on games a year... :\
(excluding hardware, of course)

AoE @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:50PM

@syrik zero,

Actually that's not *that* crazy, that's less than 3 games at full retail price a month.

finnith @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:07PM

I wish I could afford to do that >.>

syrik zero @ Sep 24th 2008 12:12AM

That is true. I can't argue facts =P I guess in my opinion there isn't that many good games worth paying full price for. I can see maybe 10 games a year? That gives enough time to actually play the games and enjoy them. But, this is all opinion... I guess koehler83 must think it worth while to waste that much money

dark_inchworm @ Sep 24th 2008 10:37AM

Between social security benefits and humongous college refund checks, I easily spent *at least* $5000 for the sake of gaming from early 2006 to mid-2007. Built a new PC, picked up a 360 and Wii, picked up several of the big releases at launch and snapped up literally two or three hundred titles on clearance.

Then my car died in June of last year and I'm still struggling to move beyond borrowing my sister's car.

Yeah.........

Jimiisama @ Sep 24th 2008 11:02AM

Then why post? Posting that you don't care really means you do care, but wanna seem too cool to care.

Blazur @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:41PM

I hate to say it, but anybody who bought a VALVe game for a console is a sucker. Their games shine on the PC where the modding community embraces them, and which they're clearly targeting with their generous free content updates and patches.

For the price you paid for a launch PS3 with all peripherals, you could have got a decent gaming PC rig.

j.howlett @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:50PM

i agree that the PC is the best choice for valve and alot of other games but if you bought or built a PC at the time and the price of ps3 you'd likely need an update by now

Meta @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:20PM

for valve games? not really.

j.howlett @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:50PM

i said alot of other games

j.howlett @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:45PM

why couldn't they just be honest like mr. horse, "no sir, i don't like it"

Killjebus @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:47PM

Thanks but no thanks Gabe. Don't try to Palin your way out of the crap you said about the PS3...it just makes you look McSame.

L4D would have been nice...but I will live with many other games that WILL come out for the PS3.

Obama Biden REAL leadership that does not Palin to America.