Once Again, Gabe Newell Says Why PCs Are Great

13 years ago

October 7, 2011 at 8:00 pm

PC owners, you probably already know this. Valve boss Gabe Newell sure does and lets everyone know for the umpteenth time that PCs matter. Why? Because certain people think they don’t.

In the latest issue of PC Gamer UK (via website CVG), Newell said that PCs are “great value for money”.

“People like their PCs,” said Newell. “There are huge numbers of them and each person gets to have the one that they like rather than the one that someone else has defined for them.”

PCs allow gamers to have it their way. Like Burger King.

“There were 350 million PCs sold last year so the economies of scale are tremendous so you get great value for money,” added Newell.

Yet, people continue to say PC gaming doesn’t matter. When they do, Newell will swoop (again) and let them know why PCs do matter (again). Bet he gets tired of doing that.

PC News: Gabe Newell explains why PC games still matter [ComputerAndVideoGames.com]

Comments

46 responses to “Once Again, Gabe Newell Says Why PCs Are Great”

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Lazarus

October 7, 2011 at 8:09 pm

Cheers, Gabe. Now make sure the next Valve game doesn’t have as many loading screens as Portal 2 did.

Reply
Chazz

October 7, 2011 at 8:25 pm

That’s why I love Valve. They stick with the PC crowd.

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1. Pariah
  
  October 7, 2011 at 9:00 pm
  
  They know where the true fans are.
  
  Reply
thxultra

October 7, 2011 at 8:31 pm

Gabe is the Buddha of Western gaming (and free pizza if you picket outside Valve)

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1. TheJokerDies
  
  October 7, 2011 at 8:49 pm
  
  Because he’s fat?
  
  Reply
  1. Randomini
    
    October 7, 2011 at 9:58 pm
    
    If you rub his belly he buys 5000 copies of your Indie game.
    
    Reply
AussieSniper

October 7, 2011 at 8:36 pm

Valve should have been a console developer first and foremost. Them reusing the same tired game engine for nearly a decade would have fit perfectly into the life cycle of a console. Doesn’t work quite so well in the fast-changing market of PC hardware.

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1. Chazz
  
  October 7, 2011 at 8:44 pm
  
  Considering what they’ve done with the source engine AND the prices of their games how about you stfu.
  
  Reply
2. Pariah
  
  October 7, 2011 at 8:59 pm
  
  The way you look at game engines shows that you’d just go and develop another entire game engine for the sake of it. What you need to understand is that Valve have no reason to make a new game engine, especially when current Source titles still look as good as most of the AAA titles today.
  
  If you just want graphics for the hell of it, get out of this article and go play Crysis. You’ll get all the graphics you want with shallow gameplay to match while the rest of us play good-looking and not-shallow titles from Valve.
  
  Reply
  1. markd
    
    October 7, 2011 at 9:39 pm
    
    +1 Exactly
    
    Reply
  2. spizzaza
    
    October 7, 2011 at 10:28 pm
    
    whilst im a big fan of valve and their work the source engine could use a bit of a graphics overhaul. they do look pretty dated these days
    
    Reply
    1. Chazz
      
      October 7, 2011 at 10:37 pm
      
      They look dated but then again, they aren’t charging full price for their titles that have delivered just as many, if not way more, hours of fun than most AAA titles.
      
      Reply
    2. peter
      
      October 7, 2011 at 11:03 pm
      
      uhmm so im guessing u havent seen the latest.source engine then.im.guessing if.ur whinging its insane particle engines nad massive overhauled rendering is bonkers this is why hl2ep3 taking so long as its a new engine v5.7 whereas ep2 was 4.9
      
      Reply
  3. matt
    
    October 7, 2011 at 11:48 pm
    
    I think the Source engine is amazing, and just fyi, a LOT of corporations use old computer systems and do programming in older languages, simply because they are reliable, and they know the ins and outs of the tech, so its a much more stable situation. Source engine has been incrementally updated since it came out basically, so the guys at Valve know it pretty well i would say. This is why Portal 2 kicks so much ass, and i bet if they came up with a whole new engine for it it would have had more bugs and it might have been smaller to compensate for textures or any of that. Gameplay>Graphics. Sorry rambling a bit.
    
    Reply
3. Merus
  
  October 7, 2011 at 9:23 pm
  
  The Portal 2 engine is the Half-Life 1 engine. Skyward Sword’s engine is the one that powered Mario 64. While the Source engine has some structural weaknesses – particularly in that its level format can’t support streaming, hence why Portal 2 had loading times – there’s no reason why they have to be married to that, and knowing Valve, if the techs get guilty enough about it they’ll make it happen. Meanwhile, they have a pretty good engine that they understand and can leverage to do neat-ass things.
  
  Reply
  1. Pariah
    
    October 7, 2011 at 9:44 pm
    
    Wrong. Portal 2 uses the Source engine. Source was used for Portal 1, HL2, Hl2E1, HL2E2, L4D, L4D2, CS:S, CS:GO, TF2, Alien Swarm, and HL:Source (a remake of HL1).
    
    Half Life 1 uses the GldSrc engine, which was a heavily modified Quake 1 engine.
    
    whilst I don’t keep up with Nintendo dev stuff, I HIGHLY doubt that is the case.
    
    Reply
    1. RedDrgn
      
      October 7, 2011 at 9:55 pm
      
      wrong.
      
      Source is an evolution of the GoldSrc engine. They originally had a folder called src (for source), and when they released HL1, they renamed the codebase for HL1 to “goldsrc”, for “gold source” – essentially, it’s release. they then continued developing the “src” tree, which they referred to as “source”… and it stuck.
      
      Source (hurr): quotes from Valve devs at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_%28game_engine%29#Origins .
      
      Reply
      1. Pariah
        
        October 8, 2011 at 3:16 am
        
        I already knew that, mate. I’m not an idiot.
      2. Pariah
        
        October 8, 2011 at 3:21 am
        
        Actually, where was I wrong?
        
        What first guy said: “The Portal 2 engine is the Half-Life 1 engine”
        
        All I said was that the Source engine was used in the majorty (if not all) of Valve’s games post-HL2, and that the engine used for Half-Life 1 was called GldSrc and was essentially a heavily-modified Quake 1 engine.
        
        Hell, your source even SAYS that. “…from the GoldSrc engine, itself a heavily modified version of John D. Carmack’s Quake engine”
        
        I was not wrong in the slightest. Please read.
    2. Average
      
      October 7, 2011 at 10:36 pm
      
      What he means is that the engine stems from technology made a decade and a half ago. He’s saying it started with GoldSrc and evolved into Source over time.
      
      Reply
  2. N0NEoftheAB0VE
    
    October 8, 2011 at 7:18 am
    
    Who knows what they’re using to build Skyward Sword but it’s tech that existed back in 2001 I’m guessing.
    
    I don’t get why people hang sh!t on the Source Engine, Valve’s games look great and they seem to improve greatly in appearance each year (Portal 2 looks streets ahead of Half Life 2 and Team Fortress still looks amazing to me)
    
    I think the engine’s only issue is the loading – which is frankly a minor issue when the games are so good.
    
    Reply
    1. Pariah
      
      October 8, 2011 at 3:40 pm
      
      Loading issues are dependant on the computer in use :\ If they’re complaining, their PC sucks.
      
      Reply
4. Chazef
  
  October 7, 2011 at 11:25 pm
  
  ‘Doesn’t work quite so well in the fast-changing market of PC hardware.’. Good sir, the market may change quickly, but valve has pretty much chosen the best platform to use for their games. Firstly, they are pretty much all fps games, so a mouse and keyboard work really well. Secondly, not everyone upgrades their PC to the latest and greatest rig every year or two, so valve are getting all the money from those guys who want to play great games that don’t require a pimpin’ computer. And valve do make multiplatform games, but they get lots of moneys from steam which is why pc gaming is so important, because they are owning the pc market at the moment. the Newell-dawg knows what he is talking ’bout yo
  
  Reply
  1. Pariah
    
    October 8, 2011 at 3:51 pm
    
    Expanding on that, the Source engine manages to produce great looking games that don’t require bank-breaking rigs that were bought and assembled on launch of their latest titles (Crysis).
    
    That being said, everyone with a semi-decent gaming machine can enjoy Valve’s titles, which means more people can buy and play, meaning Valve makes more money from it. Everybody wins.
    
    Reply
5. WiseHacker
  
  October 8, 2011 at 10:58 pm
  
  Do you research – when Half-Life 2 came out on the XBox, a new feature it had was streaming to compensate the the lack of hardware support. This later got added to the PC version which had (then) rediculous loading times.
  
  Reply
Lucas

October 7, 2011 at 8:38 pm

What…. aren’t PCs the OPPOSITE of Burger King? Consoles are like Burger King, PCs are like Subway.

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1. N0NEoftheAB0VE
  
  October 8, 2011 at 7:21 am
  
  Hey its Gabe we’re talking about not Jared!
  
  (I think Burger King’s slogan in the US is “Have it your way” cuz they’ll let you chop and change on the ingredients – which means nothing because Maccas will too if you ask em)
  
  Reply
2. thxultra
  
  October 8, 2011 at 12:09 pm
  
  Consoles are from Mars, PC’s are from Venus. And Call of Duty players are from arsecrack
  
  Reply
  1. Pariah
    
    October 8, 2011 at 3:43 pm
    
    By that logic, if consoles had s**ual orientation they would be homos**ual, bar the few cross-platform titles.
    
    Reply
TheJokerDies

October 7, 2011 at 8:53 pm

Heh, Gabe will swoop? I’d like to see him try.

Reply
Pariah

October 7, 2011 at 8:56 pm

It’s just him: Gabe Newell.

Reply
Robert Timecock

October 7, 2011 at 9:48 pm

Valve games are awesome. All Valve games are better on PC. This is true of many companies.

Reply
Prashy

October 7, 2011 at 11:32 pm

I think Portal 2 on PC looks fantastic, I don’t know why people in this thread have been saying the Source engine looks bad.
I’m suspicious they’re working on a new engine for HL3, if that will ever get released, and it’ll have the same awesomeness the original Source engine did when it was first shown to the world.

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1. matt
  
  October 7, 2011 at 11:54 pm
  
  Source engine does look great, it just doesn’t look AS polished as some other engines out atm. IMO so fucking what, but a lot of people seem to be put off by older graphics, which doesn’t make much sense because when those games first came out, they were the shit, and nobody cared then? When I’m playing an older game i just try focus on what everything represents in the game, not the actual pixels.. so screw the people who say older graphics suck, they are OLD that’s the whole deal, you gotta love it for what it is.
  
  Reply
matt

October 7, 2011 at 11:42 pm

just wondering how accurate that number is (350 million PC’s) because it can’t take into account the people building PC’s from parts bought seperately, which is like every PC gamer i know.

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1. matt
  
  October 7, 2011 at 11:43 pm
  
  bah separately*
  
  Reply
  1. thxultra
    
    October 8, 2011 at 12:11 pm
    
    My PC can run Thief 2. My console can run Skyrim…
    
    Reply
2. Kid
  
  October 9, 2011 at 2:20 am
  
  Its called an estimate which can roughly be done from parts like motherboards sold. Would only be accurate to the nearest 10-20 million too.(The nice round 350 gives that away.)
  
  Reply
Jake

October 8, 2011 at 12:13 am

Steam is a fantastic service. It’s amazing, blows XBLA and PSN completely out of the water. Huge sales, huge value for money, awesome community integration. 10/10

Source is getting a bit dated though :s Portal 2 looked good, but I’m hoping L4D3 and HL2EP3 will be in a better engine.

Reply
1. TheJokerDies
  
  October 8, 2011 at 12:41 am
  
  LOL hey everyone, this guy actually thinks ep3 will come out.
  
  Reply
2. Pariah
  
  October 8, 2011 at 3:18 am
  
  Silly Jake, Valve can’t count to three.
  
  Reply
  1. Virus__
    
    October 8, 2011 at 11:21 am
    
    Actually they released part 3 to the Portal 2 soundtrack just the other day, I still have hope!!!
    
    Reply
Reoh

October 8, 2011 at 9:17 am

Checkout the counterstrike: global agenda screenies using the latest source version. looks comparable to the likes of bf3 or mw3. Bonus points though because they charge half as much for their games and yet still put out a good quality of game.

Reply
carter

October 8, 2011 at 9:23 am

Pc gaming is dead, hasn’t gabe realized that yet?

Reply
1. WiseHacker
  
  October 8, 2011 at 11:01 pm
  
  What’s the weather like on Mars then, Carter?
  
  If you think PC gaming is dead, then you really are off this planet.
  
  Reply
Paul

October 8, 2011 at 8:14 pm

PC gaming is not dead, don’t be so naive. I’ll support PC gaming until i’m either decrepit , senile, or plain dead.

Reply

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Once Again, Gabe Newell Says Why PCs Are Great

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46 responses to “Once Again, Gabe Newell Says Why PCs Are Great”

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