Valve's Half-Life dev hampered by Steam?

By Robert Purchese Published 13 April, 2011

Impulse maker Stardock draws parallels.

Steam today represents a billion-dollar operation staffed by hundreds. But has the platform's meteoric rise restricted Valve's capacity to actually create games?

We haven't had a proper Valve-bred IP since The Orange Box games Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 2 arrived more than three years ago.

Brad Wardell - leader of Stardock, the company behind Steam rival Impulse - drew on personal experience to argue that yes, Steam's success has "definitely had an effect" on Valve as a game maker.

"Even though Valve is in Seattle, where you can get developers everywhere, [Steam's] had an effect on their own development schedule. There's not been a new Half-Life in a long time; a lot of people have complained about that," Wardell explained to IndustryGamers.

"[Valve has] had their own challenges getting new titles out the door, and a big part of that I'm sure is the same problems we've had. When one of your groups is so ridiculously profitable, every business instinct you have is to throw all your best people at it, because that's what's making the money. That's just sound business. At the end of the day, again you have decide if that's what you want to do.

"Steam and Valve - of the companies out there I would say we're the most similar. Obviously they're bigger and far more successful than our games unit is, but culturally they're pretty similar. If you were to look at a time-line of games developed in-house by Valve – not developed externally and then acquired – and you look at before Steam and after Steam, it's definitely had an effect," he added.

"I don't argue that that's a good thing or bad thing, but I do know the effect that's had on us, where I've had to put some of my top developers over the years onto Impulse to make sure it was getting better and better."

Since the 2007 release of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Team Fortress 2, Valve has launched Portal, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2 and Alien Swarm. Portal 2 is imminent and DOTA2 (Defense of the Ancients 2) has been announced with a tentative 2011 date.

Look at those games again:

  • Portal was created by a group of students Valve went on to hire.
  • Left 4 Dead was created by a developer Valve went on to hire.
  • Alien Swarm was developed by a mod team Valve went on to hire.
  • DOTA2 (Defense of the Ancients) is being created by a modder Valve has hired.

What happened to Half-Life 2: Episode 3, Valve? And more importantly, is there a Half-Life 3? There are few announcement platforms on the scale E3 this summer. Is it Valve's turn this year? Maybe, just maybe.

Half-Life 2: Episode 2 - the last Valve thoroughbred.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (51) Latest comment 11 months ago

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  • woodnotes #1 1 year ago

    Perhaps Valve is just working on some incredible awesomeness that takes a long time to make.

  • Eraysor #2 1 year ago

    I really don't think Gabe's going to care. Even if Valve take a long time to make games, they're always practically flawless on release, and they're wading in money anyway.

  • cwk27 #3 1 year ago

    Put it this way. Even if it takes them 20 years to make the damn game. Would it stop you or countless others from buying it when it came out?

  • Gambit1977 #4 1 year ago

    What an amazing amount of speculation :D

    How long was it between Half Life and Half Life 2 again? ;)

  • Ryboy #5 1 year ago

    They don't need to hire more talent. They don't need to release more games. They are Valve, the greatest computer game developers on the planet and they can do whatever the fuck they want.

  • Schiraman #6 1 year ago

    Wait wait wait - exactly how many 'thoroughbred' Valve games were there before Steam anyway? As far as I can see there's really just Half-Life. Other than that, their catalogue was basically expansion packs (developed by Gearbox) and repackaged mods.

    So it's basically safe to say that Valve post-Steam works in pretty much exactly the same way as it did pre-Steam, it just has more money now (which it spends on making hats, promo videos and ARG puzzles, apparently).

  • Mister-Wario #7 1 year ago

    That doesn't make the wait, or complete lack of news, any more annoying though.

  • Liquidoodle #8 1 year ago

    Extra Extra Read All About It! Steam Rival Impulse After Free Advertising... who?

    What's actually hampering the team is all the bikini clad models romping around the office :)

  • PixelPirate #9 1 year ago

    speculative article is speculative.

  • roz123 #10 1 year ago

    I am pretty sure Valves output has increased over the last few years. No they are not always original ideas from Valve themselves but they have found some talented people and made some fantastic games. Portal 2 is coming out next week and it could easily be one of the funniest, clever and enjoyable games yet.
    Edited by roz123 at 13/04/11 @ 10:23

  • Ahskay #11 1 year ago

    For some reason i'm hoping half life 3 stays a pc-exclusive and remains that way till we see a new console release and half life 3 will be a launch game.
    Because if they have to port the pc version to ps3 or 360 it will be a technical nightmare. We don't want that. Portal gets away with it but half life is a gem that must be nurtured.

  • Spekingur #12 1 year ago

    So Valve has good business sense and aknowledges talent when they see it (and hire it if they can). His point?

  • rotmm #13 1 year ago

    I must admit that I'm upset with myself for buying into the "Episodic gaming" promise from Valve. My gaming taste has always been heavily slanted toward story-driven games and if I'd known all these years later I'd still only be two thirds into a story cycle I'd definately not bothered with Episode 1.

    Still, I guess it was an experiement worth trying for Valve, but in this instance I personally believe they could have put a little more effort into achieving those lofty promises made to us gamers.

    To be honest, I've kinda fallen out of love with them a little over this.

  • Spekingur #14 1 year ago

    @sven_vath: Steam is a service. Valve is the developer. Big diffirence there. I could also point out that Blizzard haven't exactly been expanding as developers either - that is, if judging of expanding is based on amount of titles released.

  • Subdominator #15 1 year ago

    I thought everyone knew by now that the team working on Episode 3 had to help finish development on Left 4 Dead (just compare the credits of Episode 2 with L4D, use Mobygames). When that game was a success they started work on the second game in the series. What happened then can only be guessed. They might be working on Episode 3, it might be Half-Life 3 (in that case what used to be Episode 3 will probably be given out as a freebie/demo close to the release of HL3) or it could be Left 4 Dead 3. In any case they have only been working on the game for a little over a year, so it will be out 2012 the earliest if it is indeed HL3.

    #14 Half-Life 2 was ported for the original Xbox and later for the 360. Seemed to work well with the exception of some framerate issues. I don't see why it would be a technical challenge with 360/PS3.
    Edited by Subdominator at 13/04/11 @ 10:32

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #16 1 year ago

    It was clearly going to be a long wait for Half-Life 3. But HL2: Episode 3? Arguably that should have been out long before now.

    To me it's entirely believable that Valve has been distracted by the runaway success of Steam. Valve's a business, after all, and Newell will do what's best for it.

  • Gnoupi #17 1 year ago

    We got it, Brad, Elemental sucked "because of".

    It sucked because of the deadlines,
    it sucked because the best devs were working on Impulse,
    it sucked because you were day on Elemental and night on Impulse.

    We got it, stop putting all your mistakes on Impulse's back.

    Because if Fallen Enchantress ends up being bad, who are you going to blame?

  • Toothball #18 1 year ago

    I think I spend more time on the Steam client itself than I do playing games through it. Can't stop checking for deals these days. Besides I've not even finished Half Life yet, so I've still got plenty of Valve to work though.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #19 1 year ago

    This argument is ridiculous.

    Valve clearly has a core team developing engine technology, and they keep being 'distracted' by side projects like Left 4 Dead, Portal and Team Fortress which their main development team supports, despite the fact that the genesis of the idea may have come from an initially external source. As a previous poster says, you only have to look at the credits.

    It was the same with Counterstrike and Day of Defeat in the years we were waiting for a sequel to Half Life, that's just the way Valve work.

    I'm happy with the prospect of an expanded Portal for this year in lieu of a conclusion to Half Life 2: Episodes. I do think they maybe should have avoided doing Left 4 Dead two years in a row though, especially with all the silly ructions that caused in the fanbase.
    Edited by MENTAL1ST at 13/04/11 @ 10:44

  • Chris Gardiner #20 1 year ago

    Hang. On. To people saying Valve need to grow as a developer:

    (From the article)

    Portal was created by a group of students Valve went on to hire.
    Left 4 Dead was created by a developer Valve went on to hire.
    Alien Swarm was developed by a mod team Valve went on to hire.
    DOTA2 (Defense of the Ancients) is being created by a modder Valve has hired.

    So Valve haven't been growing as a developer except for all that growth they've been doing. And they haven't been releasing any games...except for all those games they've been releasing.

    If the question's just "where's HL3?" it's not that unusual to have to wait a while between major franchise releases from responsible developers. I understand there was a wee gap before Starcraft 2, for example. And however often I look at my watch, Diablo 3's still not here. We got 2 episodes for HL2; maybe Valve found that model didn't fit their way of working too well.

    Anyway, we aren't equipped to deal with rapid release of that much awesome. Our FACES would EXPLODE.

  • ChthonicEcho #21 1 year ago

    Sounds like Impulse are a bit sore.

    "Portal was created by a group of students Valve went on to hire."

    It was a gesture of gratitude and goodwill, and it also conveniently meant proprietors of the concept were there. Level designers, dialogue writers, the butchers, the bakers and candle stick makers were all veterans of Valve. It takes place in HL's universe and Portal 2 continues that trend by including Borealis. It's a HL spin-off, essentially.

    This immense speculation assumes that the same people who could be working on games are maintaining the Steam platform, which is downright false. The team maintaining Steam is not the same as the people working on games. It took long torturous years for Half-Life 2 to arrive. Was Steam's success hindering Valve back then, too, then?
    Edited by ChthonicEcho at 13/04/11 @ 10:47

  • Trigga_Tybalt #22 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 15:43:01 23-02-2012

  • richardiox #23 1 year ago

    If they don't even mention HL2: Ep3 or Half-Life 3 at E3 this year it will be ridiculous. It was implied Ep3 would be out within 2 years of Ep2 but nearly 4 years later they havent even shown a screenshot let alone set a date.

    Almost two years ago Gabe said "There are very good reasons why we're not talking about Episode 3, which I cant talk about yet - but I will"

    And that comment itself was virtually two years after they had finished development on Episode 2.

    So in classic Valve fashion their plan to release annual or even bi-annual episodic (HL2) content was a failure. I'm still secretly hoping the last portal you fire in Portal 2 will somehow show a glimpse of Episode 3.

  • huckan #24 1 year ago

    Does it matters it's taking so long? They've been releasing brilliant innovative games in the mean time. Personally I quite like the long gaps between Half Life games, each one is an experience which I wouldn't want rushed out and thrown at me every year or two; i want to be wow'd by every one of them.

    Regardless of the above, hurry up with ep3 :)

  • Der_tolle_Emil #25 1 year ago

    Sorry, but I don't agree at all. I see Valve games and Steam as two completely different things and even though I have no idea how Valve or Steam is being run I would not be surprised if they in fact do operate quite independently from each other. After all they are two completely different businesses.

    Who cares if Valve hired developers for Portal or Left 4 Dead? The quality is certainly there. I'm sure that Valve was heavily involved in those titles. DotA 2 is on its way as well, which is not necessarily new IP in general but definitely new for Valve.

    Personally I'd wait 5 years for something like Episode 3 rather than have a copycat Call of Duty every 10 months.
    Edited by Der_tolle_Emil at 13/04/11 @ 11:36

  • LHH #26 1 year ago

    Lots of fanboys sucking on valves cock in this comments thread. Not to say they're shit, just overrated

  • Golgo #27 1 year ago

    Valve arse-lickers out in full force today ...

  • dartt! #28 1 year ago

    Is Steam really 'staffed by hundreds'? As far as I recall, Valve only has about 250 employees total. Do they have just 50 people working on the games programming, art, writing, design, sound, animation, etc?

  • JonFE #29 1 year ago

    To be honest, I kind of hoped that Valve would be close to release an Orange Box 2 by now, with HL2: ep3, Portal 2 and Black Mesa Source :( I'm excited about Portal 2 being around the corner, but I want to know what happens to Alyx, damnit!

  • Jester79 #30 1 year ago

    Well, the thing with Valve is they are pretty much independent, unlike most other developers who have the publishers breathing down their neck. Say they are making Ep3, and they come up with a lot of great ideas, instead of rushing to get them in or drop them, they can sit back and rethink stuff. For all we know, EP3 has grown to become more than just an episode in the series.

  • geeza2020 #31 1 year ago

    @LHH, Golgo - Sorry, trollfail.

  • Caimbeul #32 1 year ago

    "Perhaps Valve is just working on some incredible awesomeness that takes a long time to make. "

    Perhaps...perhaps not? who knows.

  • uknortherner2000 #33 1 year ago

    @LHH "Lots of fanboys sucking on valves cock in this comments thread. Not to say they're shit, just overrated"

    From LHH's own profile: "LHH has most recently played BioShock 2, FIFA 11, FIFA 10, and Mass Effect 2..."

    Wow, would you look at that? He plays some of the most overrated games in existence from two of the most overrated companies in existence (BioWare and EA).

  • Golgo #34 1 year ago

    @geeza2020: would just like to see some perspective in this thread, FFS. Article and commentator was very interesting, not least in noting Valve's brilliant opportunism in recruiting external modding talent time and time again, turning the Vivendi/publishing debacle to its benefit with innovation of Steam, etc. Comical to see fanboys pouncing on it as heresy. I enjoy Valve's games and I'm looking forward to Portal 2 (reviews, when?), but I find adoration for any business venture to be sad and ultimately ill-advised. But you keep on puckering up if it keeps you happy.

  • LHH #35 1 year ago

    @uknortherner2000

    You could always look further than those games. Also, check my Steam out, same as my gt.
    I just find the constant praise they receive is a bit much. Everyone in this thread is sucking on valves balls and hard, as if they're the be all and end all of gaming lol.

  • MojoDex #36 1 year ago

    portal is better than half life!

  • TitusCrow #37 1 year ago

    Valve release games: we buy them. For the most part I don't worry to much about where they go and how they roll, when valve release I get it, because they have never released a bad game. They are the best, who here can argue with this? If they can they are entitled to that opinion - they are just wrong :)

    Valve will release HL3 with a brand new version of the source engine, built from the ground up. Why did steam succeed? its good that's why. It works and you trust the people who run it, things that are rare as hen's teeth in this industry. You know if Valve release and something's wrong, it will get fixed and fast and they will keep updating it till it shines.

    I for one have loved L4D1&2 and have dove back into TF2 multiple times as well as loving portal. I can't wait to play the second one.This, Red Orchestra and BF3 are this years PC biggies for me; other platforms have some long awaited stuff too but that's another kettle of fish.

  • styles_dg #38 1 year ago

    Makes sense. It's a shame Impulse never really took off .....Steam could do with some decent competition

  • UncleLou #39 1 year ago

    Makes a lot of sense what he says.

    Perhaps Valve is just working on some incredible awesomeness that takes a long time to make.

    Yes, I don't think that's mutually exclusive, though. :)
    Edited by UncleLou at 13/04/11 @ 12:49

  • Ryboy #40 1 year ago

    If you're not a Valve fanboy then you clearly are a fucking retard.

  • Gecks #41 1 year ago

    I think it's a bit of a stretch to assume that valve have sent their animators, games designers, engine programmers and sound designers to work on Steam, a glorified database. What exactly would they do?

  • Jolly_Armadillo #42 1 year ago

    "There are very good reasons why we're not talking about Episode 3, which I cant talk about yet - but I will"

    Being developed for the next generation of consoles maybe?

  • mingster #43 1 year ago

    You forgot Counter-Strike was developed by a mod team Valve went on to hire.

  • CaptainQuint #44 1 year ago

    Valve are a brilliant developer, but they've never been state-of-the-art when it comes to A.I.

    I hope Half-Life 3 changes that, because the A.I. was the last game's only weakness.

    The fanboys will disagree, but I couldn't give a fuck about that.

  • Golgo #45 1 year ago

    @CaptainQuint: Agree. Valve enemy AI = move straight towards player with choice of slow, medium or fast.

  • subedii #46 1 year ago

    I agree, Steam DRASTICALLY reduced the number of titles Valve releases... which before... was... one... title?

    I mean um... yeah it takes far longer for them to put out new iterations on those titles since Steam took off. Just look at Team Fortress 2 which only took... ten... years...

    Hmmm.

    Valve have been putting out more titles in recent years than they have ever before. The delay in Ep3 doesn't have to do with freaking man-power. If that were the case we wouldn't have seen half the titles we have to date. The note that Valve bring in external developers is a pretty stupid one to be honest. Those people become part of Valve, and Valve as a company works on them. Portal wasn't JUST made by 7 Digipen students any more than Left 4 Dead 1 or 2 was just made by Turtle Rock. For that matter, outside of Half-Life, name me one title of theirs that didn't have a basis that other people put together, who then Valve hired because they liked them and the concept so much?

    Much like with TF2, I'd sooner go with the possibility that they're just trying to get the game right than this simply being an issue of Valve doing Steam now and nothing else (or possibly even just a lack of interest amongst the groups who want to work on other titles. Hey it's possible after over a decade of Half-Life work). The fact that they've been able to put out several games in that time alone shows that Steam hasn't somehow sucked Valve of the ability to release great games. So the question is: Are the games delayed because of Steam, or because they want to do them right?

    I mean at a time when most devs try to rush out sequels in a year or two (and even Valve did this with Left 4 Dead), Portal 2 is close to four years on from that.

    It could be argued that without Steam, Portal 2 would've come out in just 2 years or less (heck, even at double the time it's likely to be a short game). It would still be a bizarre and completely unquantifiable argument, but of course, one that is a handy direction for venting.

  • kuddles #47 1 year ago

    That ending is misleading. Valve hired the students who made Narbacular Drop. Portal was developed in-house entirely, as was Alien Swarm, as is DOTA 2. They may have hired a few people that started it but there's no doubt those projects include a huge portion of the company to work on at once. Likewise, they bought Turtle Rock Studios, but certainly made Left 4 Dead more of a polished and full-fledged game.

    To insuinate that they are just buying up completed works is incorrect. Especially since their entire output before Steam was literally Half-Life and some minor work on the original Counterstrike over the process of years. If anything, they are developing games faster than ever.

    If anything, it's the opposite. Steam is ensuring they are never hampered by lack of funds, resources, development time or have to cater to publisher demands. If anything is hampering them it's the fact that current games require much more manpower than before and they are trying to stay as a smaller company (most developers are about twice their size.)

    TL;DR - Wardell continues to be full of shit.
    Edited by kuddles at 13/04/11 @ 14:48

  • DAN.E.B #48 1 year ago

    New Left 4 dead DLC date?

  • Andeus #49 1 year ago

    Oh nice, a misleading article.

    The Steam team is different than the game dev team. A simple look on the employee list in Valve's site will show you that.

    So besides that, Valve have been actively working on TF2 and it's updates, L4D2 DLCs and Portal 2, not to mention that soon they are gonna release the Meet The Medic video (supposedly 90% done).
    Portal wasn't done by an outside team, the original idea behind the game came from 3-4 Digipen graduates and the game was made by the HL2 team.

    This whole thing is just Valve time. They take their time when they make a game, hell, they take their time when they make a game update. Just be patient.
    Edited by Andeus at 13/04/11 @ 19:30

  • SoulReaper319 #50 11 months ago

    Anyone think that they might be at disagreements for how game should go. I mean Episode 2 came out in 2007 in october then Call of duty 4 came out in november so maybe there dissagreeing about putting in Aimming down the sights or they want to wait til Call of duty calms down and then new consoles and come out on in a About the end of 2013

  • SoulReaper319 #51 11 months ago

    Allllsoooooo they probably want to wait for DirectX 12 n be the first game to use it so itll set the bar like Half life 2 did in 2004