He doesn’t complain about the differences in developing for one console, or PC, over another, but does say the PS3 versions of Valve products have been inferior to the original releases, and so the company’s not interested in doing anything on that console again unless and until they can put something out that gives Sony players the same experience as PC and 360 users.

We look at it as if we were customers of this product, how would we want to be treated and what sort of product would we want out of it?

We’ve run a couple of experiments over the years of PlayStation in general; we did Half-Life on PS2 with an outside company and then we did Orange Box PS3 with an outside company. We weren’t able to deliver the same type of product on PS3 and PS2 for that matter that we were on the 360 and PC.

[...]

Until we have the ability to get a PS3 team together, until we find the people who want to come to Valve or who are at Valve who want to work on that, I don’t really see us moving to that platform.

We’ve kind of learned a lesson in that again, if we were customers of that product on PlayStation, we’d feel like we sort of got the stepchild version of the product while the guys on the PC and the 360 got the sweet version of it.

Translated, what it really means is there is no one inside Valve with any interest in PS3 development, and the company on the whole isn’t interested in outsourcing any more ports after the experience with The Orange Box on PS3, which suffered some bad load times and framerate issues.

Still No PS3 Interest From Valve [CVG via TheSavePoints, thanks Meredith B.]

We’re certainly sad with the results for Flagship and what’s happened with Hellgate, because at the time we signed it, we were trying to get involved in a very complicated relationship between Namco and Flagship. We were coming late to the party, and trying to do whatever we could to sprinkle the game magic on the project and get it headed in the right direction.

I think that’s an example where all three parties had the best interest of the game in mind, and sometimes the game doesn’t work out. Hellgate is still an incredible concept. The guys who worked on it spent thousands of hours trying to make that concept work, and sometimes we just don’t see something. Sometimes, we just didn’t take enough time. Sometimes, things don’t work out the way you expect.

It’s kind of like a film with all big stars — on the script, it should be successful, but the movie doesn’t turn out as good as everybody hoped. That’s why EAP takes a portfolio approach with its games. You have to place a lot of bets, and hope for a lot of hits.

Certainly worth a read through — I always enjoy reading interviews that cover a lot of ground, and this certainly satisfies in that respect.

David DeMartini on the Renaissance of EA Partners [Gamasutra]

Exactly why most teammates are polite, patient, and helpful in a game that is violent and wildly popular is not easily answered, but I have some good ideas. The players seem older, and this may be because of its predecessor, Team Fortress Classic, which predates TF 2 by 10 years. Someone who is 24 may remember TFC, but someone who is 15 will not. I’m not saying it’s devoid of teenagers–but there are a lot more people in their 20s and there are a lot more women on voice chat online as well, signs of a more mature audience and community.

Or maybe it’s the medic class. Or the critical hits? Or the team atmosphere ….

Steve at PlayNoEvil had an interesting take on the article, pulling out the critical issue as “the topic of griefing and how Valve’s Team Fortress 2 seems to have less ‘annoying griefing’ because the game provides structured ‘official griefing’”.

Since a lot of griefing and abuse on Xbox Live and elsewhere comes from the rather inarticulate swearing of teenagers, perhaps the simple fact of giving players powerful, fun, but non-obscene, racially insensitive, or other insults makes the need to swear … less.

Perhaps there’s something to the idea. Hopefully there will be more interesting ‘anthropological’ explorations of games from this relatively new column in the future.

The Game Anthropologist: Team Fortress 2: Radical Departures [GameSetWatch via PlayNoEvil]

The bad news is that new content for the PlayStation 3 version of TF2 sounds like it’s up in the air. Maps like “Goldrush” and new Achievements sound inevitable for the Xbox 360, but Valve’s Doug Lombardi told Shack “unfortunately I don’t know that any of that will make it to the PS3.” Hopefully, Mr. Lombardi is just playing it safe and EA is working diligently to support the PS3 base, but we’ll refrain from breath holding.

Team Fortress 2 360 DLC Details Due ‘Pretty Soon,’ Fate of PlayStation 3 Content Uncertain [Shacknews]

How long can you tolerate this monologue without cringing or fast forwarding? I lasted about 8 seconds before my by-proxy embarrassment got the better of me. That’s better than my mechanical bull record! Okay, without the crusty old curmudgeon attitude, this is some solid Portal cosplay, with some fantastic touches. Gotta give kudos for the ability to lug a massive cake around a convention hall all day, too. Anyone seen better pics from SakuraCon 2008 that might show this off better?

Thanks for the tip, Rebecca!

Given Valve’s propensity for abstracting the typical storytelling structure out of the game experience, it wouldn’t surprise us one bit if GlaDOS were conditioning Chell as a sort of suicide machine. Thoughts?

Still Alive? She’s Free. [Game-Ism]

In even better news that fans of achievements in awesomeness will appreciate, the “Meet The Scout” cinematic is confirmed for an April release. Shacknews says it will arrive on or about the April 20 game update, but we’ve heard previously that it will arrive some time next week. Given Valve’s well known tardiness, we would put our money on it debuting later. But we’re keeping hope alive.

New Team Fortress 2 Content Scheduled for Mid-April; Includes Goldrush, New Weapons, Meet The Scout [Shacknews]

During my initial play time with the new version, testing out Team Fortress 2, Portal and Half-Life 2: Episode Two, nothing was immediately noticeable, although connecting to a TF2 game did seem to be rather speedy.

We contacted Valve to clarify and their VP of marketing Doug Lombardi informed us that, “The platform holder owns the final call.” So just as we’d suspected, whether or not we see these maps for free is indeed up to Sony and Microsoft.