This morning, Valve head and co-founder Gabe Newell gave one of several keynotes at New York's Games for Change Festival, speaking to a variety of topics surrounding education and gaming. And while we'll have a full breakdown of that keynote in the coming hours, we thought you might like to know what Newell had to say about Nintendo's Wii U and his studio when we put the question to him.
"Wii U seems to be a lot more powerful than the previous generation," he told Joystiq. "It sort of fits better into the scalability in terms of graphics performance and CPU performance, so I think it'll be a lot easier for us to fit it into our scalability model." Valve has yet to release any of its games on a Nintendo console, though Gabe told us, "We've always loved Nintendo." He also pointed out that Valve has been slowly transitioning from the PC to console counterparts, starting with Xbox 360 and more recently moving to the PlayStation 3 in a major way with Steam getting ported to Sony's console.
And it looks like Nintendo may be next, as Newell restated, "Now it's a lot easier to look at Wii U and have it fit within that framework." As for us, we're most excited to see what Valve might do with the WiiPad.
Reader Comments (69)
Posted: Jun 22nd 2011 4:32PM The Aquacharger said
@kmcroc
Because when L4D was being made Valve was anti-sony because they didn't know how to work the console.
Reply
Because when L4D was being made Valve was anti-sony because they didn't know how to work the console.
Posted: Jun 22nd 2011 4:02PM PN04 said
Calling it:
Hat store GUI on your controller. Boom.
Hat store GUI on your controller. Boom.
Posted: Jun 22nd 2011 4:04PM kmcroc said
Love the fact that third party developers are warming up to Nintendo & vice verse, but a Waring to 3rd parties this is still the same Nintendo whose only concern will be their first party games . remember how 3rd parties were treated last time keep that in mind .
Posted: Jun 22nd 2011 4:39PM Marshillboy said
Translation: We might be interested because this is the first console without crapass ancient hardware inside
Posted: Jun 22nd 2011 4:52PM RetroGamer said
@Marshillboy
"First console without crapass ancient hardware inside"
First of all, that was a really weird sentance.
Second, The WiiU doesn't seem to have any good hardware at all. Maybe a bit more powerfull than 360/PS3, but not alot. And did you forgot that the current consoles were released 5-6 years ago? They were atleast as powerfull in their time that the WiiU is now.
Reply
"First console without crapass ancient hardware inside"
First of all, that was a really weird sentance.
Second, The WiiU doesn't seem to have any good hardware at all. Maybe a bit more powerfull than 360/PS3, but not alot. And did you forgot that the current consoles were released 5-6 years ago? They were atleast as powerfull in their time that the WiiU is now.
Posted: Jun 22nd 2011 5:04PM Marshillboy said
@RetroGamer
They weren't interested in developing for consoles 5-6 years ago.
Reply
They weren't interested in developing for consoles 5-6 years ago.
Posted: Jun 22nd 2011 5:22PM Red Runner said
Valve isn't my personal favorite company ( I like Portal and that's about it), but hopefully they don't abandon the system after one game.
And to the people saying "LOL durp consoles are inferior durp": seriously? Do we still have to go through this BS? Stop acting so superior when all you have over us is higher resolutions and an unintuitive control setup.
And to the people saying "LOL durp consoles are inferior durp": seriously? Do we still have to go through this BS? Stop acting so superior when all you have over us is higher resolutions and an unintuitive control setup.
Posted: Jun 22nd 2011 5:44PM blahblah55 said
@Red Runner
Well technically they have every control set up except for The Move, Kinect, and the Wii controls.
They already have 360 and PS3 controls.
All they don't have are console exclusives, well-supported motion controls, and most motion control game exclusives.
...it's one of the reasons why I tend to love my Wii: It's doing something PC can't/doesn't want to do. PS3s and 360s are basically underpowered PCs with exclusive networks and games - which makes me worry what future Microsoft and Sony consoles will be like (we already have a PC, why aim for more PCs? I just buy them for their exclusives).
Reply
Well technically they have every control set up except for The Move, Kinect, and the Wii controls.
They already have 360 and PS3 controls.
All they don't have are console exclusives, well-supported motion controls, and most motion control game exclusives.
...it's one of the reasons why I tend to love my Wii: It's doing something PC can't/doesn't want to do. PS3s and 360s are basically underpowered PCs with exclusive networks and games - which makes me worry what future Microsoft and Sony consoles will be like (we already have a PC, why aim for more PCs? I just buy them for their exclusives).
Posted: Jun 22nd 2011 5:55PM Tihn said
@Red Runner
Stop being such a pariah.
PC's can have all those control options. Kinect, Wii. I think the only controller setup I haven't tried on my PC is Move.
They also have...
+ No online subscriptions beyond MMOs, though there is a healthy selection that are free too.
+ Cheaper games as standard.
+ Longevity of titles. Steam's most played game is from 2000 or 2004 (depending on which day you check)
+ Better graphics. Not just high resolutions but more shaders, smoother frame rates, graphic options.
+ Faster load times. DNF on my PC loads in seconds. DNF on my Xbox takes 4x as long. This is mirrored across all my multiplatform games.
+ Can use any controller I want. Keyboard and mouse? Xbox controller? PS3 controller? Midi drum kit? Wii controller? Multitouch tablets? Touchscreens?
+ No locked system OS so I can play any video I want, connect to any chat client I want, download and buy games from any site I want.
+ Connect to a TV, connect to a monitor, stream my games over the internet to an audience.
+ Biggest game library in the world ever, bar none.
And if you were a PC fanboy I'd list you reasons why consoles can be better too. So, you, stop it.
Reply
Stop being such a pariah.
PC's can have all those control options. Kinect, Wii. I think the only controller setup I haven't tried on my PC is Move.
They also have...
+ No online subscriptions beyond MMOs, though there is a healthy selection that are free too.
+ Cheaper games as standard.
+ Longevity of titles. Steam's most played game is from 2000 or 2004 (depending on which day you check)
+ Better graphics. Not just high resolutions but more shaders, smoother frame rates, graphic options.
+ Faster load times. DNF on my PC loads in seconds. DNF on my Xbox takes 4x as long. This is mirrored across all my multiplatform games.
+ Can use any controller I want. Keyboard and mouse? Xbox controller? PS3 controller? Midi drum kit? Wii controller? Multitouch tablets? Touchscreens?
+ No locked system OS so I can play any video I want, connect to any chat client I want, download and buy games from any site I want.
+ Connect to a TV, connect to a monitor, stream my games over the internet to an audience.
+ Biggest game library in the world ever, bar none.
And if you were a PC fanboy I'd list you reasons why consoles can be better too. So, you, stop it.
Posted: Jun 22nd 2011 5:47PM Prboi said
I guess he doesn't want to bash the thing too early so he won't kick himself in the ass later
Posted: Jun 22nd 2011 5:51PM TwEE said
Picking your zombie spawn points in a Left 4 Dead type WiiU game with the controller screen would be great.
Posted: Jun 22nd 2011 7:24PM LittleMofreaky said
Portal Collection anyone?
Posted: Jun 22nd 2011 9:00PM religiousjedi said
You read my mind! :O
Posted: Jun 22nd 2011 9:12PM Tihn said
@kgoo867
I'm calling you crazy and too future based!
I'm calling you crazy and too future based!
Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 12:53AM gatotsu911 said
AR-compatible Portal, Valve. PUH-LEEZ.
Posted: Jun 23rd 2011 1:49AM Soiden said
Nintendo and Valve...
Anyone else thinks that the Universe could explode because of this?
Anyone else thinks that the Universe could explode because of this?







