Valve 'up' on idea of PS3 development, waiting to build talented PS3 team

by Jem Alexander on Jul 2nd 2009 7:30PM

Valve isn't quite as against the idea of developing games for the PS3 as we previously thought. Speaking to Valve's Doug Lombardi at the Left 4 Dead 2 event in London today (look out for the full interview soon), we discovered that the company is still "up on the idea" of developing for the PS3 -- it's just waiting until it has hired some decent PS3 coders. "If you look at The Orange Box -- PC: 96 on Metacritic, 360: 96 on Metacritic, PS3 like... 84 or something. That's not even close to where we are right now with the 360 and PC and the reason is people."

Lombardi went on to say that "we have to get people under our roof who are dedicated, talented PS3 guys and then all bets are off. We can take the same sort of strides and get the quality out of the box and offer the same support post-launch on that platform, as well." Sounds like Valve-developed PS3 games are more a case of "when" than "if," nowadays.

When asked whether Valve is actively seeking to hire PS3 developers, he noted that "Valve is always looking to hire people. So yeah, definitely." Are you a dedicated PS3 coder who wants to make Left 4 Dead 3 for the system? You know what to do. We look forward to seeing your handiwork in late 2010.

Tags: Doug-Lombardi, L4D2, Left-4-Dead-2, Valve

Reader Comments (92)

You know... I still keep looking for her....

DSG... where did you go!?

give it up already!!!

I was actually depressed when I checked Joystiq for the first time today and she wasn't there.

DSG still had a few days of value left... bring her back

Personally, I think this is absolutely wonderful for gamer's everywhere. Hopefully this post doesn't bring about too much pro/anti sony/microsoft comments. Both are great systems and deserve quality multiplatform gaming experiences.

as long as the PC versions don't suffer i'm all for Valve stepping up its ports.

I think Valve will still develop for the PC first and then develop for the consoles, I think more developers should do this.

L4D 2 on PS3 CONFIRMED!

Valve wouldn't do that to us again(L4D3). Well not unless Activision bought them and i did not know about it.

Don't hire the clowns who did Ghostbusters for the PS3 and then claimed it was their lead platform and they had lots of developmental experience on it.

Actually they didn't. Ghostbuster's was Terminal Reality's first PS3 game.

Its hilarious how Terminal Reality stated they preferred working with the PS3 yet the the PS3 version behind the 360 version in several aspects, especially in resolution?

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/05/02/ghostbusters-developer-prefers-working-on-ps3-first/

Like I said. First PS3 game. Why do you think the PS3 sucked so hard during its first 2 years.

Judging by their interviews, they seemed very confident in the PS3 and developing for it, even for their first PS3 game. They should not have been so confident in the interviews.

Actually they should just tempt some guys out of either Sucker Punch or Naughty Dog and give them enough lead time to start developing tech for Valve.

Sorry, I wanted to reply to a comment you made earlier. The reason I think why most developers don't make games for PCs first and then port to consoles is because of piracy. What's the point of spending money, time, and resources on a platform when you are not make a profit? It doesn't make sense.

I don't understand PC pirates, they pirates games and eventually will have no games to pirate and play on their favorite platform. : (

At least if its developed first on the PC and then ported to consoles, the game is not scaled down for PC and we still get a version. Aren't games basically produced on a PC first anyways?

"Aren't games basically produced on a PC first anyways?"

Yeah I mean they are done on PC's and Mac's depending on the studio and what applications they fancy. But, if they are optimizing the games for consoles it doesn't really matter that it's made on a PC.

I did computer animation in college and we worked on both PC and Mac's for different stuff. Our animating, modeling and rigging (maya) was done in a PC lab and our compositing (shake) was done in a Mac lab. You can cross platform on both, though. This was a few years back so I'm sure things have changed as my experience is pretty much used doing web, print and photography work now.

About damn time

Finally!!! you should make a)left 4 dead or b) something innovative like portal.

Wholly crap. I never thought Valve would budge on this.

Finally, thats all I wanted to hear
Why dont they give Sony a call? oh wait I forgot how lazy they are

Valve lazy? Are you fucking retarded?

Take a good look at Gabe Newell. Does he look lazy?

oh, ha ha. I see what you did there. He's fat so he must be lazy. That's hilarious. You probably hurt his feelings. He's probably going to drive to his mansion in his sports car and cry over his pile of money, see what you did ?

You say Valve's lazy, I say you picked the wrong console to buy Valve games for.

They are still PLENTY busy with TF2 on the PC. I feel sorry for all my friends who bought Orange Box for 360 since they can't have fun with the sniper's bow and arrow like I just did for the last 3 hours.

Even though I own a 360, Ps3, Wii and 2 high end gaming PC's - I STILL buy Valve's games for PC over everything else. Keyboard + mouse controls for one, free updates over Steam for two.

Valve IS lazy...Do you not know of the infamous "Valve time"?

That's not laziness though. Valve Time is a result of their perfectionism.

meh. lets hear what gabe newell has to say about this.

G4: So, last time we talked at Leipzig, I had asked you why there would be no Left 4 Dead on PS3 and you said because Valve, itself, wasn’t big enough to yet support PS3 development in-house. Is that still the case why Left 4 Dead 2 is not announced for the PS3?

Newell: Yes. We haven’t done a good job of taking care of our PS3 customers at all for the existing Orange Box customers, and that is very frustrating to me personally. Until we can do a better job than we have, I’m sort of hesitant to go back and screw them again. So, I want to make sure when we have customers on the PS3 they don’t end up in the sort of second class citizen that I feel that they’ve been by what we did originally with the Orange Box.

http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/696431/Opening-The-Valve-The-Gabe-Newell-Interview.html

Yeah, good ol' Gabe has pretty much done a complete 360 (no pun intended) on his views of the PS3. It is hard to stay true to your values (in his case, loyalty to Microsoft) when, as they say, money talks.

dont you mean a 180

silly Valve fanboy

Damn! I knew that joke didn't sound right somehow.

I'm not really a Valve fanboy though. They are one of my favorite video game companies, yes, but I'm more of a Steam/Team Fortress 2 fanboy than I am a Valve fanboy.

I'm also an Elder Scrolls fanboy, but that's about it for me and fanboyism.

marius, you say valve fanboy like its a bad thing.

Left 4 Dead 3, 2010? Ohhhhh!!!! BURN!

Nice one Jem.

I'm starting the L4D3 Boycott at this very moment.

PS3 must have the numbers now!

I was wondering how long they could cling to their blind fanboyism with over 27 million PS3 owners worldwide.

Maybe Valve will actually have to learn how to code multicore/multithreaded software now. I know it's hard guys, but people have been doing it for years already. InFamous is the latest proof that it can be done, and done well, by a 3rd party.

It's not about multicore and multithreading (well, it is) as much as it is about OpenGL. Source is built for DirectX and its buddies. No arguments. Getting Source/Valve games on the PS3 requires porting ALL of Source to OpenGL, or hackily writing an OpenGL wrapper.

They must be hoping to gain new gamers after screwing the 360 ones over and losing some people on that platform.

To be fair, all the stuff that happened with TF2 on the Xbox 360 is entirely Microsoft's fault.

Bah....whats sad is TF2 still has a good bit of people playing it on PS3....

You got buffed man, BUFFED! Also if they're actually going to port it themselves and support it (Not like the Orange Box(more towards TF2)) Than yes please, if not DO NOT WANT.

i've never stopped playing TF2 for PS3 since i got it in 07.... BEST GAME EVER!!!
but every time i see "Sniper vs. Spy" or "Scout Update" i feel so depressed and then during the game i get into all these situations where im like "only if i had ___ weapon from the ___ update i wouldnt hav died."

I RLY hope valve suddenly updates TF2 rather than make me buy a new one* or even abandon it altogether.

*if i could buy it for $20 with all the updates, then yes i would buy a new one tho :P

You a Demoman? LMAO

I'd rather start my own company that work for Jabba the Hutt.

Oh yeah, fat jokes! How original.

If there is anything you should make fun of Gabe Newell for, it is for his WoW rig: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2081/2444960854_da6817c638.jpg

yeah, gabe newell fat jokes are old. and yeah, that WoW rig is kinda sad. i feel bad for gabe. his company is one of the best in the world, can't we just look at that?

Impressive how your attempt at being funny fails by simply switching an 'n' for a 't'.

Sweet Rig.

Honestly he should lose some weight not for his physical appeareance but for his own health,I don't want him to die early on us.Is like D&D creator,the man should have lived way more than 65 years.

Gabe Newell should hire a physical trainner so he can live more than 60 years.The man is a genius.

Just because you're fat doesn't mean you're going to die early. Plenty of fat people live to be very old just like plenty of skinny people die early.

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Valve 'up' on idea of PS3 development, waiting to build talented PS3 team

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