Interview with Gabe Newell at Next-Gen
Around 2000, just a year or so after the release of the original Half-Life, I had the great good fortune to have lunch with Gabe Newell, the head honcho at Valve Software, and I distinctly remember leaving with the impression that this was a man who really looked into the future.
That feeling has been borne out again and again with the subsequent release of Steam, and Half-Life 2, and Valve’s investment in Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, and now Portal.
It’s the main reason I think that his interviews are some of the most interesting in the industry, and I’d like to point you to an interview he did with Next-Gen.biz. Now, he says a lot of cool stuff, but this one blows me away:
Edge: Do you feel that maybe this has come too late ââ¬â that you missed the point at which you could have monopolised the digital distribution market?
GN: Iââ¬â¢m far more concerned about the fact that you canââ¬â¢t mod Steam ââ¬â that worries me a lot more than other companies doing digital distribution.
Did I read that correctly? Did Gabe Newell just say that what worries him most about his market position in Digital Distribution is that his system isn’t open enough? Yes, he did.
Time and time again, Valve has set the bar with throwing their doors open to the incredibly active mod community, and every time they’ve seen nothing but good things happen. It’s mind boggling to me that other software companies (and hardware companies *ahemappleahem*, but that’s easier to understand) refuse to open the kimono.
Not only has this consistently added a lot of value to the Source engine (and the Half-Life engine before that), but it creates an environment where you can play as a developer. Valve has provided, with Source, a platform that developers can build on top of, which re-opens doors to a lot of people who, in today’s market, would not otherwise be able to innovate on their own. And if you do really well, Valve just might buy you - it’s certainly happened before.
In other words, Gabe has figured out how to outsource the lion’s share of his creative development and keep his fans happy at the same time. All he has to do is provide the technical infrastructure.
But enough of listening to me ramble. Gabe has a lot of good stuff to say about how crappy the PS3 is (seriously, he trashes it), where multi-core tech is going, and of course, Half-Life 2 Episode 2.