Remember when Valve's Gabe Newell said that the "PS3 is a waste of everybody's time"? Well, it looks like people can have a change of heart too. Valve admits that they're lacking in-house resources for PS3 development (which means... Team Fortress 2 won't be getting an update, even though it's already heading to the 360 and PC versions), however, they're still committed in trying to get a strong in-house team of PS3 developers. Also, unless EA has any say on it, it looks like Left 4 Dead will be staying on the Xbox 360 and PC.

We all know how Valve doesn't dig Sony's PlayStation 3. We've all heard Gabe Newell bash the console public on more than one occasion, after all. But what's this going on? Valve Corporation is having a change of heart? No less than Doug Lombardi confirms as much.

We all know that Valve's Half-Life 2: Episode 2 kicked some serious booty last year, and it's still among today's favorites because of its superior gameplay. The only downside in this scenario is that fans are asking for more, and they've started looking at E3 2008 as the possible birthplace of the next episode. Valve says "not yet", but they've got another thing for itchy trigger fingers. More after the jump.

If you've hummed to the tune of Still Alive one too many times, or fantasized going into war with the invigorating sounds of Team Fortress 2 (Xbox 360, PC, PS3), then you might want to consider buying the original soundtrack of The Orange Box.

This disc full of unique audio goodness can be yours for the paltry sum of US$ 9.95. Check out the newly-released product in the full article.

After passing the buck to the gamers themselves on Half-Life's (could be last) episodic content, Gabe Newell is confidently saying that Valve is far from losing steam on the said franchise. Especially not when they're inching closer to the grand finale in the form of Episode Three.

In fact, there's still so many possible angles and universes for them to cover. Says Newell:

We'd certainly love to be working in other universes because any time you get two Valve people together they come up with five game ideas and thirteen universes that they would like to tell and play them in. So there's a lot of Half-Life left at Valve.

Portal was also mentioned as one of those carrying the interesting stories, such as those on Aperture Science, even before the team came up with the idea that it could be host to other stories in other Half-life universes. It certainly sounds like the spirit of Half-Life will live on even after Episode Three. Stay tuned for more clues, hints, and news on the matter.

Depending on gamer feedback, Half-Life 2: Episode Three's release may be the last episodic update for the Half-Life franchise, or so Valve's Gabe Newell said.

"OK, so what do you want?" is the question that Newell wants to pose to Half-Life fans regarding the continuation of it's current episodic method of updating the franchise.

Newell said that doling out episodic releases lets Valve update their games much faster than building full-scale game sequels. However, they're going to have a chat with gamers once the third episode is out, and letting them decide to either keep or junk the episodic scheme based on how they liked the three Half Life 2 episodes. Newell asked:

Do you want us to do more episodes? Do you want us to really tighten down the time frames and look at the scope of what we're doing so that that's possible, for us to go back to the large monolithic projects?

Valve is also working on their episodic approach, and that they would want to get some tips from Telltale Games (creator of Sam and Max) as well as World of Warcraft's Blizzard.

Given the sporadic negative impression on publisher Electronic Arts, it might be a surprise to some that game developers would remain under its wings. But Valve Software, oft advocates of the PC gaming platform, has developed a good relationship with the international publisher and will stick with Electronic Arts even after The Orange Box (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows PC over DVD) finally ships.

"Everybody always tells us what a horrible monster EA is supposed to be and we keep waiting for the hair to sprout out and the fangs to grow," said Gabe Newell of Valve Corporation. Valve and Turtle Rock Studios' Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360, Windows PC over DVD), offered back in QuakeCon 07, will also be published by EA.

"We've had a great relationship with them so far, and bringing more titles to that like Left 4 Dead seems to be a natural consequence of that," he added. Whether or not another Left 4 Dead demonstration will be offered freely is definitely in Valve's hands, but they'd like to think there's a good chance it would happen again. Newell told Eurogamer:

What we're finding is any time that we remind ourselves that we're in collaboration with the community, we benefit, whether it's guest passes to help introduce new people to our franchises, or free weekends or whatever, it's easily the best way we have of getting people to be excited about the games that we have, so we're going to pull out all the stops with Left 4 Dead.

Developing a single game for three consoles helps in increasing awareness of the pros and cons of each platforms, and Valve's Gabe Newell of Half Life 2: Orange Box (for the PC, PS3, Xbox 360) is no exception.

Newell has beef against all the three consoles that he worked on for the great-looking Half Life 2 installment, and even his preferred platform, the PC, is not spared. Games for Windows Live is one of his pet peeves towards Microsoft, saying that the software mogul still continues to neglect gaming on PC despite the innovations Vista had presented. "I don't even know what it is," said Newell about Games for Windows Live.

He does acknowledge that Microsoft is still way over its head with its current Red Ring of Death issues, which he supposed is the reason why there is a lack of marketing for the PC at the moment. Nevertheless, he prefers developing games for the PC than any other platform. "It's a great platform. The Internet capabilities are much more mature and the graphics you find on consoles are essentially derivative of the PC and sales on the PC are great."

On the other hand, Newell didn't have a more enjoyable experience with developing a game for the PS3, saying that Sony's console was not developer-friendly. He supposed that Sony didn't get enough developer input before putting out their console in the market, and that certain flaw hampered the PS3's hardware potential despite the powerful Cell Processors.

Despite the flaws of each console, Valve's Half Life 2: Orange Box will be out for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 in October. Stay tuned for more updates!

 

She may be too much to be contented remaining in the shadows of Freeman; Valve's Gabe Newell revealed to IGN that they might be thinking about a Half-Life spin-off revolving around Half-Life 2 (PS3, PC, Xbox 360) sidekick Alyx Vance. And Dog.

We'd like to do games that are about Alyx. We'd like to do games that are about Dog. I don't think we've made this decision that it's always going to be you playing Gordon in the first-person with Alyx as a companion...

Obviously having Alyx as the player character breaks the "silent protagonist" mold of Half-Life - unless Valve mutes her, of course - but it does allow the devs to explore other parts of the Half-Life universe. A lot of the Half-Life universe. Like, what the heck really happened in that Seven-Hour War?

Of course, this might still be in the future; Valve's just begun with Episode Three after all.

A company without managers might sound pretty chaotic, but according to Valve Corporation co-founder and managing director Gabe Newell, it works like a charm for his company.

"Titles are not particularly helpful to us in terms of getting people to be more successful," said Newell in a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz. "People change roles a lot inside of the company."

The same interview also touches on Valve's distribution deal with Electronic Arts. Although some people might have seen the deal as a prelude to something bigger like acquisition, Newell says that Valve would rather remain independent.

"I think something that contributes to our ability to be successful is that we don't have external financing on our projects," said Newell. "There's no venture capitalists breathing down our neck, and I think that helps us make decisions that are more focused on what customers will like than what a third party has an opinion about."

And what about customer feedback? "It's hugely valuable to us how articulate and thoughtful the community is, because any game developer is going to benefit enormously from paying attention to what people have to say," said Newell. "You read the reviews and you pay attention and it's going to help you understand what you're doing right and what you need to work harder at."

For the full interview, click on the read link below.