Gabe Newell Speaks on Porting Games to Consoles

[Polaris573]

The Orange Box released earlier this week, giving PC faithful and Xbox 360 gamers the best effort from Valve Software yet. Those who own only PlayStation 3s, however, will have to sit by the sidelines to watch other games rave over the innovations introduced in Portal, the fun of Team Fortress 2 and the sheer brilliance of Episode 2. If Valve Software could have had its way, the PlayStation 3 version of The Orange Box would be on stores shelves right now - but the version of the game for Sony's console is actually in the hands the title's publisher, Electronic Arts.



While Valve Software handled the development and porting of The Orange Box to the Xbox 360, the games developer specifically chose not to handle the PlayStation 3 version. When Gabe Newell, one of Valve's founders, was asked by Edge magazine whether or not he still had any issue with the PlayStation 3's design architecture, he replied, "Absolutely. I think [PS3 is] a waste of everybody's time. Investing in the Cell, investing in the SPE gives you no long-term benefits. There's nothing there that you're going to apply to anything else. You're not going to gain anything except a hatred of the architecture they've created. I don't think they're going to make money off their box. I don't think it's a good solution." Newell also pointed out that porting the PC game to the Xbox 360 wasn't an effortless experience either, but that Microsoft's system was far more receptive to the developer's technologies. "We've learned that you can create a framework where all you need to do is recompile for each of those three platforms. You know, that's a sort of abstraction of our goal. With The Orange Box we could do that, so getting Left 4 Dead up on the 360 was like a day's worth of work. It requires a big technology investment to be able to do that. I was pretty skeptical that we would; I thought there was going to be more work than that." Although the PlayStation 3 version of The Orange Box won't be handled by Valve, the developer likely would prefer to port all versions of its game in-house. "I think in the longer term we'll have the PS3 as well, but, to be honest, the biggest hole for us right now is the Wii," Newell added.

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[Helvetica]

HAHAHA!!!! Sony USERS got SCREWED!!!! They have to buy the EA VERSION! !HAHAHAHAWHELAOLLOOL! Mark my words, the sony version will be rated LOWER than the 360 and PC version!

EA ruins everything they can get their filthy hands on.

 

[ktr]

Meh, who cares, this orange box it meant for the PCs.

 

[wiak]

Meh, who cares, this orange box it meant for the PCs.

i agree, Half-Life was born on PC and shall be on PC
Half-Life 2 on PC with mouse and keyboard is what it was MADE for
most consoles gets owned by a midrange pc anyway

whats that cell thingy in PS3 used for?, just gathering dust?

you cant play games in 1920x1080 on a console
but you can do it with a midrange pc, you can even hock it up to a cinema screen and play it on a realy big screen in its native res, that cant be done with a console, but you need a highend gpu and sli/crossfire

 

[Sagan]

Now the only thing a 360 needs is that mouse thingy that pc users have.

 

[Helvetica]

Even though the PC is far superior to a console, Orange Box is still the best FPS ever released on a console. Since consoles are allowed to brainwash noobs into thinking Halo is original, I strongly believe we need more REAL games to be released on the consoles to have more cashflow to the PC game Developers and Publishers - that way, there's more incentive for companies to Develop for us who buy expensive PCs.

 

[kakazza]

you cant play games in 1920x1080 on a console
but you can do it with a midrange pc, you can even hock it up to a cinema screen and play it on a realy big screen in its native res, that cant be done with a console, but you need a highend gpu and sli/crossfire

I didn't know you could play things like GoW with a $350 PC, well the x360 can.

 

[i_dog_69@hotmail.com]

you cant play games in 1920x1080 on a console
but you can do it with a midrange pc, you can even hock it up to a cinema screen and play it on a realy big screen in its native res, that cant be done with a console, but you need a highend gpu and sli/crossfir

Uhh have you heard of HDMI? ive played lair at full 1080p on my PS3 and it looks great, more and more games are supporting it. I still think PC's are the way to go but you can certainly get full 1080p from a console if the games support it.

 

[FatForester]

Uhh have you heard of HDMI? ive played lair at full 1080p on my PS3 and it looks great, more and more games are supporting it. I still think PC's are the way to go but you can certainly get full 1080p from a console if the games support it.

Yea, to a point. It'll come down to where to be able to run at that resolution, the game will automatically crank down the settings to make it playable. So although you're running at a high res, you take a hit in image quality.

 

[KennyT772]

Are you ignorant? Consoles run one quality setting all the time. There is no difference in the quality settings on consoles just resolution. Go read and learn before you post ignorantly.

 

[Ravenas]

I would like to see Sony give a response

 

[ktr]

I would like to see Sony give a response

to Gabe...

You lazy fat fuck...

Sincerely,

Sony.

 

[panchoman]

to Gabe...

You lazy fat fuck...

Sincerely,

Sony.

 

[WarEagleAU]

Point and match for Kenny.
Im not a fan of anything valve related so I dont feel Im missing out on anything owning a ps3. Its not washed up useless architectures, its just more advanced and more of a headache.

 

[Ravenas]

Point and match for Kenny.
Im not a fan of anything valve related so I dont feel Im missing out on anything owning a ps3. Its not washed up useless architectures, its just more advanced and more of a headache.

Agreed. PS3 has a ton of long term potential.

 

[ktr]

I mean look at GT5...full fledged graphics running at 60fps @ 1080p. The cars are spectacularly photo realistic. On top of that, full fledged physics, and confirmed realistic damage. And on top of that, full fledged AI, where other opponent don't follow a common line, and are dynamically aggressive. And all of this on a PS3. Polyphony puts all game developers to shame! When EA says that the PS3 can't handle it, they are fucking bull shitting, and are lazy mofos.

That is my two cents, i get pissed when i hear the ps3 is not capable. Polyphony ftw!

 

[Helvetica]

Agreed. PS3 has a ton of long term potential.

This is a quote from some random guy on some internet forum, who has more credibility than the founder of the software dev that revolutionized and set the standards for all FPS games.

full fledged graphics running at 60fps @ 1080p.

yea, i'll believe that when I see it. Every 1080P game on the PS3 I've played runs at like 15 fps. The 720P games run at 30.

 

[wazzledoozle]

The 360 is more dev-friendly, its that simple.

You can whine and moan about dev's being lazy, but its a business, and the faster they get a game out the more money there is to be made. The 360 facilitates this, and look at the excellent games that have come out.

 

[AddSub]

Half-Life and anything from Valve in general is overrated. I did play the original Half-Life and beat it. Only because I wanted to see what all the noise was about. (This was almost a decade ago) I downloaded the "They Hunger" mods (this was way back) and they were okay. Story wise, they were better than the original at least. Valve games were never at the forefront, technology-wise. Certainly not as far as gameplay was concerned. Valve guys should write a book titled: "How to create and lead cults and manipulate the masses". Seriously, this is one corp that I wouldn't mind if it disappeared from the face of the earth, MicroProse style. They are probably single handedly responsible for creating the masses of twitch kiddies that populate internet cafes from Kansas to Cambodia.

 

[Helvetica]

LoL, AddSub, please post which game you think has a better Single Player Campaign than Half-Life 2. Or, did you even play it?

 

[Ravenas]

LoL, AddSub, please post which game you think has a better Single Player Campaign than Half-Life 2. Or, did you even play it?

I think Half-Life 1 has a better story. Way too many things go unanswered in Half-Life 2.

 

[Frick]

EA ruins everything they can get their filthy hands on.

No? They've made some nice games. Say something they've ruined.

 

[DaMulta]

I think Half-Life 1 has a better story. Way too many things go unanswered in Half-Life 2.

You could kill the good guys in the first one for ammo. They stopped you from doing that in the 2ed one:shadedshu

 

[Ravenas]

You could kill the good guys in the first one for ammo. They stopped you from doing that in the 2ed one:shadedshu

 

[ktr]

yea, i'll believe that when I see it. Every 1080P game on the PS3 I've played runs at like 15 fps. The 720P games run at 30.

If you were paying attention (which i doubt) to GT5 stuff going on at GC 2007, it was confirmed from both devs and the reporters that the game runs at 60fps @ 1080p.