By John Walker on September 17th, 2008 at 12:37 pm.
We asked Valve to comment on the rumour, and received a succinct reply:
“Which is all it is… a rumor.”
Can it really be true that Google are about to buy Valve? So goes the rumour that’s currently setting the internet alight. A rumour we look on with dubiously raised eyebrows and possible scorn. Yeah, right. Very happy to be proved wrong. But we’ll see.
The Inquirer cite “well placed sources”, who say the purchase will happen any moment now. All other stories link back to that one. The Inquirer seems pretty confident, but then also pretty vague. But it does sound like a special kind of nonsense. Never mind that it’s a little early in the morning US time for a deal to be happening. It’s currently 4.30am in Seattle, where both companies reside.
Last year we had the following exchange with Valve boss/owner Gabe Newell:
RPS: I have a friend (an idiot) who is determined that in six months Valve will be owned by either Microsoft or EA…
Gabe: Tell him that I’m not interested in buying either one of them.
17/09/2008 at 12:39 MetalCircus says:
Yes I also just read this. If it’s true i’m wondering if it’s a good thing…
17/09/2008 at 12:43 Masterdog says:
Worries me. I’ve no reason to suspect Google of wanting to interfere in Valve’s activities (unless they plan to sell the fact I prefer a pulse rifle to an RPG launcher to munitions companies). However, Valve seem to be getting on just fine on their own. As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke…
17/09/2008 at 12:43 araczynski says:
i don’t think it would be good or bad, or really matter (to me), unless the new overlords happen to remove the retarded restrictions on steam (and i think every other online game downloading service) purchases (i’m assuming that’s all they really care about buying, steam).
retarded restriction being: pay retail prices, don’t get retail product, and lose rights to resell it.
17/09/2008 at 12:44 Freelancepolice says:
Google OS in 2 years time, you heard it here first
17/09/2008 at 12:44 Naurgul says:
First of all, if I may, let me express that I have many doubts there is any truth in this story. Supposing that it’s true, though, I think it’s the best Valve buyout scenario possible. Still, that doesn’t mean I don’t have my reservations for such a prospect. I fear two things in that case: a) ads, b) Valve games being eaten by the Google black hole effect.
17/09/2008 at 12:45 delfino furioso says:
“google to buy steam”
that’s more likely
17/09/2008 at 12:48 piphil says:
Google OS? In two years? I’m typing this on Chrome, which from the sounds of it is basically the first beta of Google OS. :-P
17/09/2008 at 12:48 Mogs says:
This is surely a load of bunk.
But a bizarre rumour regardless.
Oh, and Valve being eaten by ANYONE would unquestionably be a bad and wholely unnecessary thing.
17/09/2008 at 12:50 Heliocentric says:
I’d rather google than either ea or microsoft.
Google hasnt proven themselves to be anti-trust consumer abusers.
And who can realy buy google, If gabe is gonna sell out google isnt a bad choice.
Edit: if this is an intercepted email of one of the google owners trying to get a copy of hl2 over steam and his credit card not going through.
i’ll lol
17/09/2008 at 12:50 cHeal says:
“google to buy steam?”
more likely
Yeah it seems like the primary asset which they would be interested in.
17/09/2008 at 12:51 John Walker says:
Freelancepolice – I think we in fact heard that about 20 billion times previously. But we heard it from YOU here first, and that’s still special.
17/09/2008 at 12:55 The Sombrero Kid says:
this is click harvesting imo
17/09/2008 at 12:57 Heliocentric says:
Kid, i didnt click through, what do i win?
17/09/2008 at 13:01 Mogs says:
Google OS, now that’s something I’d like to see. Get them to back some version of Linux & release it for FREE.
MS would shrivel.
17/09/2008 at 13:06 Flint says:
This is so absurdly random.
17/09/2008 at 13:07 Nick says:
Ok, here’s an out-there theory – Google buys Valve as a way to get a hold of a digital publisher, who can help enormously with the task of preparing the new Google OS to run games, which have previously been largely restricted to Windows operating systems.
17/09/2008 at 13:15 faelnor says:
Love both companies’ products, but if Google buys Valve, I swear I’m uninstalling Chrome, switching to Altavista and never buying anything off Steam again :(
Valve certainly don’t need Google or anyone for that matter, and Google have to learn to consolidate what they already have before thinking about more acquisitions.
Google buying the Steam distribution system would be a different matter, though. I can definitely see something good coming out of that.
17/09/2008 at 13:19 Naurgul says:
There’s another point to be made about this: Steam right now it the top dog as far as PC gaming digital distribution goes. However, they don’t have the manpower other companies do. EA or Microsoft or whatever could take the lead if they put their mind into it.
So, perhaps this is the only way that the effort they put into Steam wouldn’t be a waste.
17/09/2008 at 13:24 Ben Hazell says:
But does anyone know what Valve is actually worth now?
17/09/2008 at 13:27 Gladman says:
I like steam and think that the conveniences of it (access from anywhere, patches, server browser etc etc) more than make up for the retail prices.
Don’t ruin my steam, google.
17/09/2008 at 13:27 Downloads_Plz says:
First thought: Why?
Second thought: At least it’s Google and not Microsoft or EA.
17/09/2008 at 13:31 Meat Circus says:
Google has infrastructure that Gabe can only dream of.
Google buying Valve? I wouldn’t have thought so. What I could see, however, was Steam being spun off into a joint venture co-owned by Google and Valve, run through Google’s vast server-and-tubes backbone.
17/09/2008 at 13:33 Masterdog says:
One thing I can think of that Google and Valve have in common is an attempt to speed up (or increase the efficiency of) the Internet. Google, I seem to remember, have been laying various cables between some countries under the ocean. Valve, of course, had their abortive PowerPlay initiative, which was supposed to decrease pings (or at least minimalise lag) until they realised they didn’t know how to do it. Maybe they’ve decided to join forces and get something done.
I’m just wildly speculating here of course. But it’s fun.
17/09/2008 at 13:33 kadayi says:
I could see this happening, though I suspect not much would actually change at Valve as a result in terms of operation. Google would probably be principally interested in Steam and developing the platform/principle into other areas.
17/09/2008 at 13:52 Nimic says:
Well, I know Gabe Newell doesn’t need the money as far as personal wealth goes, so I trust him not to put Valve in a situation where they won’t be able to do what they’ve done so well. For that reason I wouldn’t be immediately skeptical if a deal was struck.
17/09/2008 at 13:54 Vandercanal says:
The Inq may claim to have a credible source but they’re not particularly credible themselves.
Partnership would make some sense though – google ads on Steam in exchange for faster downloads. Steam is also just a tweaked IE at this point, Valve would probably be better served basing it on Chrome (since MS also want to get into digital game distribution and could effectively hold them hostage) and Google could provide some engineering talent to do that. They’d be wiser still to stay independent and base on Firefox IMO.
17/09/2008 at 14:05 Monkfish says:
Google’s core business is advertising. Here in Internet-land, Google practically are advertising.
I suppose the question is, how exactly would Valve fit into the Google machine? I can see that Steam would be an attractive addition to Google’s core business, but the game development angle would be quite a deviation. Unless there’s a games-meets-advertising angle, of course.
Hmm.
17/09/2008 at 14:13 nakke says:
Counter-Strike 1.6 already has advertising (in some maps). Maybe google is about to take care of that?
17/09/2008 at 14:27 Dag says:
Google Adwords in all of Steams 440 games, with over 15 million active user accounts worldwide this has to be what Google is looking for.
It looks like I will be uninstalling when the out of control ingame advertising starts.
17/09/2008 at 14:27 The Kins says:
“The Inquirer”
“Well-Placed Sources”
17/09/2008 at 14:28 phuzz says:
First thought:
ahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Second thought:
There’s already adverts for Valve/Steam on their download servers, but I’ve never seen any others, perhaps this is a way to speed up steam and drop their server costs?
but a buyout? Nahh, I’ll eat my mouse if that happens.
17/09/2008 at 14:28 The Sombrero Kid says:
valve are all about making the customers happy, that doesn’t include loading up their service that’s already been paid for with ad’s people wouldn’t like that and gabe wouldn’t like the customers not liking that, valves in a stupidly dominant position with steam, it is literally priceless since you can’t hostile valve and valve stand to make more money than google’s ever seen for the de facto internet media distribution service it’s more likely google would be asking polity to stick some ads in the service for a special free game distribution component and valve agreeing or google publishing other peoples games for free though steam riddled with ad’s either way the inq is doing what the inq does best evangelising and over exaggerating and on this one i all but guarantee they’re talking out their ass.
17/09/2008 at 14:30 Velt says:
Has anyone ever actually read a completely legit article from the inquirer?
The day Steam is colored in flare, is the day I quit gaming. I love google, but honestly? no. I highly doubt Valve will ever sell out. They are the only gaming company that does things the right way, every time.
17/09/2008 at 14:39 Shadowmancer says:
@ Ben Hazell “But does anyone know what Valve is actually worth now?”
They are worth $50 million (£100 million), personally I think this acquisition is good theres nothing much that Google has done that has ever made me rage, at least its better than EA buying it.
17/09/2008 at 14:41 nakke says:
What about the ingame ads placed in counter-strike 1.6 after no real updates (although there are some major bugs, still) for years? They just did it because they noticed people still play that game, but they can’t really sell new copies to all those people.
But is that making customers happy? Of course it is! Who wouldn’t want to know about the new hot stuff while shooting some terrorists?!
17/09/2008 at 14:46 PsyW says:
Valve being bought out would be a very bad thing. However, them being bought out by Google would probably be the least worst option.
Note least worst as opposed to best, there. A buyout by EA or MS would be catastrophic. Valve are quite possibly the best developer/publisher in the world so far as consistently high-quality games are concerned, and any fusion with a publishing megacorp is likely to spoil the magic. Maybe Google would do better, but I’d worry that they’d meddle with the way things are done and accidentally ruin everything.
For an acquisition of Valve to be successful (from the gamers perspective, at least), the parent company would have to essentially leave everything as it is. I don’t think that’s terribly likely, no matter who does the buying.
17/09/2008 at 14:46 Reverend Speed says:
Steam.
On Chrome.
Linux?
17/09/2008 at 14:48 dhex says:
$50 million USD is about 27 million uk pounds.
i’ll add some wood to the fire – this really doesn’t make any sense.
17/09/2008 at 14:49 kadayi says:
If they have an interest its undoubtably beyond selling games and using it for advertising, more acquiring Steam and turning Steam into the de facto digital distribution platform for music, films, TV shows etc. Downloads that are saved to an account and can being redownloaded being the hook and advantage over itunes for example.
17/09/2008 at 14:52 Shadowmancer says:
@ dhex
Cheers, sorry about the wrong number I’ll see if i can edit it, i was typing an email to my uni at the time.
edit: looks like i cant edit the post :(
17/09/2008 at 14:52 The Sombrero Kid says:
@nakke
that’s a good point but putting ads on cs 1.6 is no where near the same as allowing google to trample the steam platform with ads the fact is most people said ‘i don’t give a fuck, that games ancient and i don’t play it anymore’ with cs 1.6 (which is why they didn’t do it with cs source)
@Reverend Speed
very unlikely the whole concept of steam is completly tied to microsoft tech and it would need to be rewritten from scratch to run on linux without wine or some alternative, not to mention most of the games, on linux steam will always need a directx translator
17/09/2008 at 14:54 dhex says:
naw man i got all excited for a second and then worried because it meant that the usd had experienced super deflation and milk would be like nine bucks a gallon. i like cereal so i panicked a bit. :)
17/09/2008 at 15:01 Monkfish says:
While the Inquirer is a pretty dubious source of information (to say the least!), there has been a fair amount of speculation over the last week or so that goes some way towards validating this rumour. A bit.
And the Grauniad had an interesting article that I found whilst Googling (natch!) around.
Also, MCV have something about Google throwing some gaming-related patents into the mix late last year.
In any case, the Inquirer really should learn to put question marks on speculative article titles. Like John has here. Well done John.
17/09/2008 at 15:02 Sam says:
@The Sombrero Kid:
Who told you that nonsense about “the whole concept of Steam” being tied to Microsoft technology? You can already download a cut-down Linux Steam that just does the installation of packages etc (it’s for installing the Linux servers for Valve stuff).
Now, the shiny GUI uses a lot of embedded IE, but I don’t think it should be that hard to make it embedded Gecko or Webkit instead (indeed, that’s basically what Wine does to it). The meat of the thing, however, has never been inherently Microsoft-based.
I accept your point about the games though – it’s a bit sad that Half Life had an OpenGL renderer, but Source-games (except on PS3) only do DirectX.
17/09/2008 at 15:03 Half Broken Glass says:
And nothing of value was lost.
17/09/2008 at 15:05 The Sombrero Kid says:
i meant the shift tab for directx hooks thing though btw in game^ which on retrospect could easy get cut and tbh on consideration apart from the games and the snazzy shift tab directx hooks there’s no reason it couldn’t run on linux with another browser tech quickly and better
17/09/2008 at 15:08 aiusepsi says:
@The Sombrero Kid
How is Steam completely tied to Microsoft tech? The only bit of Microsoft-specific tech they use (in Steam) is an IE control for web browsing, and they’re thinking of replacing it with an open-source one anyway (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=723466).
Everything else is fairly easily portable. They use their own UI toolkit for instance, so porting the UI to Linux or whatever would be fairly trivial.
The shift+tab thing (the overlay) also works with OpenGL, for compatibility with GoldSrc games and things like Quake.
17/09/2008 at 15:09 Sam says:
I am going to have to ask what the shift-tab directx hooks do.
I don’t remember ever pressing shift-tab in a Steam managed game.
17/09/2008 at 15:09 The Sombrero Kid says:
@aiusepsi a little known api called directx
17/09/2008 at 15:17 Ian Dorsch says:
Steam makes Valve an awful lot of money. I can’t imagine they’d really be interested in selling it off.
17/09/2008 at 15:19 Taxman says:
Seems unlikely plus Valve are bit pro-Microsoft, founded by ex-MS folk, there (in-house) games are for Microsoft platforms and they have dissed competing platforms publicly (Sony,Apple).
Valve would be useful to Google only for the purpose of the pre-established steam marketplace plus the contacts and more importantly the contracts they have in place.
But does Google really think they can grow steam to be a major/global marketplace, I dunno seems a little too ambitious. Google by no means has a golden touch lots of little side projects of theirs have failed.
Sam – PS3 games don’t use OpenGL (they can but no-one does) they use a custom API so even the PS3 Orange Box isnt OpenGL.
17/09/2008 at 15:22 The Sombrero Kid says:
that’s not what he said he said source games use directx except on the ps3, that’s not the same as saying it uses open gl
17/09/2008 at 15:25 Stuk says:
@The Sombrero Kid: please, please use some punctuation. Your paragraph of dense text above was almost impossible to read.
As others have mentioned, the only Valve property in which Google (currently) would have an interest in is Steam. There are already adverts for the sponsors of the distribution servers. I could see couple more ads there.
However that kind of thing would lend itself more to a “deal” rather that an buyout!
17/09/2008 at 15:26 Sam says:
And, indeed, the effort spend on programming to the custom API for PS3 was presumably comparable to the effort you’d need to port to OpenGL, if you wanted to support a wider range of non-Microsoft platforms.
I suspect, though, that they’d just package it with Cyder, like EA seem to be doing nowadays, if they ever wanted to make Apple (Orange) Box, for example.
17/09/2008 at 15:36 aiusepsi says:
I have to say, Steam and Google are an interesting fit.
Right now, Google are the world leaders in distributed computing and data storage. Their in-house tech for this kind of stuff is amazing, and their expertise in things like data centres is unparalleled.
On that score, the best bet for growing out Steam in a really major way the fastest way possible is to tie up with Google.
Although, to be honest I can’t see Valve selling out wholesale – something like spinning out Steam as a Valve-Google joint venture is much more likely. IMHO.
17/09/2008 at 15:38 The Sombrero Kid says:
@Stuk
sorry I’m at work and my boss sits behind me, lol, so sometimes I don’t get the time to proof read my terrible spelling and punctuation before I post.
ohh and acording to eurogamer google says it’s speculation, but they’d probably say that either way.
17/09/2008 at 15:44 Mike says:
Oh, Inquirer. What calamitous mischief will you get up to next! Who knows!
In a way, I’m sad that it’s not true. I think this would be A Great Thing for gaming, if for no other reason than Steam can be guaranteed funding for at least another half century. I don’t want my stockpile of games to disappear. But I doubt it is. Google are quite forward thinking, but heading into entertainment would be a little left field for them, surely?
17/09/2008 at 15:46 JonFitt says:
This doesn’t make any sense, but is expected:
For every popular company there is a rumour that Google will buy it.
But Google peddles ads. That’s their business. It wouldn’t make any sense to buy Valve.
It would make more sense to partner with Valve to bring ads to Steam, or to buy a company that positions ads in games like Massive Inc.
17/09/2008 at 15:48 The Sombrero Kid says:
@Mike
well they are doing that, according to the eurogamer article, it sounds more like they’re trying a steam competitor, an ‘online world’ called Lively.
17/09/2008 at 15:50 Shawn says:
No!!!!!!!!!!!! This now means that Valve would become part of a publicly traded company, which is exactly what F’d up EA, 2K , and all the rest. The great thing about STEAM/Valve is that they don’t have to answer to shareholders or CEO’s(Parent Board Members). I wonder if this is going to affect the EULA’s for our downloads at STEAM, you know, being able to download as many times and wherever we want. That’s the sort of thing that others frown upon. I just hope Google knows why STEAM works, especially over retail. I’m not sure how much of a hands-off approach Google will have on them. Google scares me a bit, but if it had to be someone, and open source friendly company like Google is going to have to suffice…
17/09/2008 at 15:57 terry says:
I find it hard to give much credence to this rumour. How many users are there on Steam that would register as even a blip against their (Google’s) search customers?
EDIT: about a million according to steam, so like I said.
17/09/2008 at 15:58 Nahual says:
Valve is privately owned by Gabe Newell, there’s no way Google or anyone in the world can do a hostile takeover on them, if Valve ever gets bought by anyone, it will be a personal decision by Gabe himself, and i doubt he hasn’t rejected hundred million dollar offers several times by now simply because of Steam alone, so unless this “well placed sources” are the voices on Mr. Newell’s head they’re pretty much thin air.
17/09/2008 at 16:00 JonFitt says:
@Shawn
I don’t think we have to worry about Google forcing changes on a purchased company to increase market value, just look at YouTube!
17/09/2008 at 16:00 The Sombrero Kid says:
@Nahual
the staff all have share options, him and doug lombardi own the lions share though as far as i can tell.
17/09/2008 at 16:06 Monkfish says:
@JonFitt
It makes sense because Steam is a veritable mine of information. Google would be able to better understand the online habits and psychology of gamers, which will allow them to price and target their advertising accordingly.
17/09/2008 at 16:13 yutt says:
@Sam and The Sombrero Kid:
Valve already said they plan on dropping the IE embeds in Steam for a different rendering engine as soon as it is practical. They said the IE hooks are far too limiting.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=723466
17/09/2008 at 16:25 Shawn says:
@yutt: So we can drop the IE hooks for Chrome scripts? That’s an upgrade in my eyes
17/09/2008 at 16:40 The Sombrero Kid says:
lol they don’t hook ie
17/09/2008 at 16:55 schizoslayer says:
To Valve: Just because it’s a rumour doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
17/09/2008 at 16:56 Mike says:
@ The Sombrero Kid
Lively isn’t really a game, and it’s certainly nothing close to Steam as a digital distribution platform. Lively comes close to Second Life, and that’s as near as it gets to online gaming, but in reality Lively is an attempt to make social interaction like IM more visual.
Interesting that people are quoting Google’s remit as ads-only. Their mission statement is actually about information access and organisation. To me, Steam is all about archiving every game every made in a single, unified platform. Sounds right up Google’s street.
17/09/2008 at 17:01 The Sombrero Kid says:
@ Mike
their GDC announcement says it’s also a distro platform
17/09/2008 at 17:09 Cigol says:
They want video on there as well I believe. At least, I’m sure I’ve heard them mention something to that effect.
17/09/2008 at 17:09 Monkfish says:
So does Valve’s response mean we can all point and laugh at Charlie Demerjian and his “well placed sources”?
:D
17/09/2008 at 17:19 Mike says:
It’s never going to be distro on the same level as Steam, though, is it? Because of the divide between utility and game, which the two sides represent. Plus, Google’s market is a subset of Steam’s.
I dunno. It just seems very dissimilar, is what I’m saying. Lively is a much more different venture, more comparable to PlayStation Home. Steam should, if it goes anywhere, become an OS.
Which, the more we think about and joke about it, the more sensible an idea it becomes.
17/09/2008 at 17:20 Fumarole says:
Google is based in Mountain View, California, not Seattle, Washington. Same time zone though. Carry on.
17/09/2008 at 17:23 Theory says:
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/09/17/valve-on-rumors-of-google-buy-out/
17/09/2008 at 17:24 JonFitt says:
@Monkfish
That’s probably an overestimation of the usefulness of knowing how much time you spend playing Peggle.
The system specs results could be useful, but only really for game developers or hardware manufacturers.
They know a heck of a lot more about people’s gaming interest from their own Google searches.
Don’t you think that buying a game developer is an expensive way of finding out a small amount of information? They could just buy the information.
Anyone who eventually manages to buy out Gabe and Doug will have to pay huge amount of money based on Valves potential earnings for them, and won’t immediately make a profit.
Anyone who does this would have to be primarily interested in making games and or (depending on if which arm of the company you bought) being an online games publisher.
Google has shown no interest in being either of those.
17/09/2008 at 17:36 yutt says:
@The Sombrero Kid
Yes… they do hook IE. Did you even bother looking at the link I provided before making such a blatantly uninformed comment? In it you can read John McCaskey (one of the Steam developers) say the following;
“Steam won’t always use IE, because the IE embedding API is very limiting and prevents us from having a browser that does everything we want it to in-game and in-overlay.
We’ve looked at lots of other options and webkit is one of them. We’ll probably replace IE with a different browser where we have full access to the source and can make more customizations ourselves in the future.”
17/09/2008 at 17:49 JonFitt says:
@Mike
“Interesting that people are quoting Google’s remit as ads-only. Their mission statement is actually about information access and organisation.”
But for the sole business purpose of giving people a useful program/service with content scraped from the web, or provided by someone else, and then making sure that they are advertised to relevantly.
“As a business, Google generates revenue by providing advertisers with the opportunity to deliver measurable, cost-effective online advertising that is relevant to the information displayed on any given page.”
Not by negotiating publishing deals and selling games. It would make much more sense to maybe partner with Steam to deliver AdSense ads relevant to the games you own or are viewing.
17/09/2008 at 17:54 Monkfish says:
@JonFitt
There’s more than 700 games by 15 publishers currently available through Steam and over 13 million Steam accounts out there. There’s a pretty tasty ready meal of information to be had that Google couldn’t get through their own search services. Besides, Google wouldn’t buy this kind of information – they’d much rather be in a position where they can sell it to others.
Have a quick read of the Guardian article I linked to a bit further up – you’ll see they’ve already shown interest in the habits of gamers and patented ideas about how they could integrate context-sensitive advertising into games. Steam/Steamworks would be the perfect platform to build this kind of stuff into games in the future.
17/09/2008 at 18:15 Esha says:
I can’t see an Ouroboros Scenario stemming from this, as much as I’d like to. I’m all for trans-corps sucking each other from the inside out with monetary probosci, slurping each other up like so many fiscal-flavoured milkshakes as they expeditiously thrust themselves towards the ever inevitable presence of industrial entropy (I’m having fun with this!) … but I don’t see that happening here.
I’m more inclined to agree with the theory that they’re throwing together some form of mutual Buddy-Buddy system. Google would benefit by being able to offer Funding & Services to Valve in exchange for Format Support. In other words; “We gives ya fat pipes and monies’n youse makes yer games compatible with our stuff. Capiche?” They’d both have a lot to benefit from this, of course. What would you and I have to benefit from this? Faster Steam downloads for the Everyman, and possibly more games for the Nix-heads amongst us who really dislike having to dual-boot.
All in all, that could work out well. Or it could all go circular. Either way, I’ll either get faster downloads or something entertaining to watch.
(Edit: Thank you editing system for saving me from my typos.)
17/09/2008 at 18:22 Mike says:
@JonFitt
I see what you mean – certainly, from a financial perspective that would be good sense from them. But I see, in thirty years say, Google literally being a gigantic archive for Things. I know you say that this archiving leads to advertising, but I sort of see it the other way around – the advertising FUNDS the archiving. Maps, for instance, is really public service first, and revenue generator second.
So yeah, I’d see a Google Steam project as a fresh start, and a real archive-scraping exercise of putting entire platforms, emulated, available online. But this is… ahm… I mean, we may have got a little carried away.
How ’bout that Starcraft 2?
17/09/2008 at 19:02 Shawn says:
this is some very tasty dialogue from you all. It’s always entertaining hearing from Europeans, always elegant and very intellectual sounding…many good points all around
17/09/2008 at 19:09 Crispy says:
Sombrero kid wins.
Inquirer make a ludicrous accusation.
Accusation is so out of the blue they are sole source of info.
Accusation is carefully prepared to ensure there’s just enough plausibility for it to get the clicks.
Inquirer gets lots of page hits and generates a good chunk of ad revenue.
Rumour is shown up to be complete bullcrap.
Inquirer refuse to reveal sources but assure its readers they were thought to be genuine.
Inquirer counts dosh and plans its next gimmick for click harvesting.
Lots of people on the Internet are slightly dumbfounded.
A small percentage cotton onto the fact that media news stories aren’t always what they seem to be.
A smaller percentage remember that lesson in History class about first-hand and second-hand sources and their reliability.
A religious cult in sleepy town North America convinces a 100 followers that incest breeds stronger babies, and the balance is restored.
17/09/2008 at 19:21 Kadayi says:
Steam is a very attractive Digital Distribution platform, and certainly a superior model to public favourite Itunes, because it allows you to re download content you’ve paid for. Even with Dougs denial I could understand Google having an interest and given some of the talk Gabe has made recently about extending Steam into application distribution I can understand that Valve might be interested in such a partnership.
17/09/2008 at 19:44 RichPowers says:
Partnership, perhaps. Out-right sale? Why?
Unless Gabe and Co. want more money, I don’t see the benefit of selling to a publicly-traded conglomerate. Privately-held companies have significant competitive advantages and freedom from shareholders who only care about next quarter’s results. Can you imagine how the stock market would react to “Valve time”?
17/09/2008 at 20:30 Kadayi says:
@RichPowers
Google don’t exactly have to chase for profits, a lot of stuff they buy up they just give away for free (Google Earth, Docs, Picasa & sketchup were all acquisitions). However I think their interest in Valve would be purely in acquiring Steam rather than taking over the gaming operation and it’s day to day management.
If you consider a version of Steam as a system that manages ‘applications’ rather than ‘games’ it does become an attractive proposition. Firstly you can keep a handle on user Hardware, secondly it keeps users applications up to date, thirdly it can be used as a central conduit for a user to push/pull personal data/documentation too and from the cloud. Offline google docs that are automatically distributed to all collaborators as well as real time notice of changes, coupled with easy to use voice com. Bung in a couple of interactive screen apps and you’ve something to worry Mr Jobs as well as Mr Gates.
All speculation, but speculation can be fun.
17/09/2008 at 20:41 Bema says:
Haha – who thinks of this crap!?
17/09/2008 at 20:48 scopie says:
Google’s mission and business model are completely orthogonal to Steam’s at this point.
Steam is a method of selling software from the cloud and installing it on PCs. Google’s whole deal is moving away from that and running everything in the cloud driven by ad sales.
Also, unless Google is intending on creating some 3D application through the browser or enhancing the Google Earth interface somehow (buying one of the best game development shops in the world would be a little overkill) they have no reason to do this.
Malarkey of the first order.
17/09/2008 at 21:22 Vexor says:
Well if Google did buy Valve that would pretty much assure EA would never ever touch em. I wonder if any of the new generation of gamers even knows why we older gamers hate EA….
17/09/2008 at 21:45 Kadayi says:
@scopie
We are a long long way away from being able to work purely in the cloud. Maybe if all you do is write text, but if your doing anything else forget it. Upload/download speeds are mare and very few businesses are ever going to jump into the cloud with both feet because of practicalities. The Cloud is a consumer space, not a commercial space. The opportunity and ability to generate advertising money is still there. A steam acquisition would allow them to complement their online activities with centralised offline models, which would be no bad thing esp when it comes to expanding markets.
Right now when I start up my computer I’ve probably maybe 20 separate applications that are capable of looking for updates of one kind or another, some try automatically, some require me to authorise them. All of them want to use up my machines memory. Personally if I had one central background application that manages all of that garbage and used less memory doing so, I’d be a much happier man. An apps based version of Steam could easily fulfill that role.
17/09/2008 at 21:51 Schodinger's Lolcat says:
@Crispy
You forgot two crucial steps:
???
Profit!!!
(seriously though, awesome post)
17/09/2008 at 22:06 Monkfish says:
Scopie said:
Steam’s much more than just a digital distribution platform. Games are played through Steam. Achievements and stats are recorded by Steam. Multiplayer games servers are talking to Steam. People chat with each other through Steam. Steam is now very much a community and that’s something that’s of great interest to advertisers. Just ask Facebook.
17/09/2008 at 23:37 Dr_demento says:
The idea of a Steam OS is the one thing that gives me hope for PC gaming; since neither Apple nor Microsoft seem to be interested in games, the space is there for Valve to step in.
Valve, wielding Steam, have the necessary clout to make ASUS, Gigabyte, nVidia, ATi and the rest write proper drivers for Linux, and then they just have to port Steamworks and the Source engine over and I would already be dual-booting. Your OS would be able to tell you whether or not your rig could run any game, no messing around; with only a stripped-down ultrafast Linux kernel running, you could use lower system specs; and with matchmaking, netcode, voice chat, friends, and clan support at the OS level, PC gamers could finally have the uniformity of quality that systems like Xbox Live have offered for years.
Valve could do this by themselves. Google could do this by themselves, but they’d make it ad-supported and suitable for home leisure use and all the rest. A buyout, or a partnership, would only spread out the focus and risk making it less perfect.
17/09/2008 at 23:43 Kadayi says:
@Dr_demento
Valve have a staff of about 160 people most of whom are games orientated, not OS developers (save the Gabus himself). The idea that they alone could write an entire OS that challenged MS, and one that every software developer would readily write applications for is a tad optimistic, esp given ‘Valve Time’ on delivery issues. Google with thousands of websavvy software engineers and innumerable billions in the bank writing an OS is more likely.
18/09/2008 at 00:50 Alex says:
About half of Valve’s employees are dedicated to working on Steam.
http://steamreview.org/posts/75staff/
18/09/2008 at 01:59 Kadayi says:
@Alex
All the more reason to offload it onto someone else with a ready supply of engineers and a blue sky budget (though that figure seems based on conjecture rather than actual stated fact from reading the article).
18/09/2008 at 06:34 Razor says:
The Inquirer sucks as a source of information, and should be largely ignored.
18/09/2008 at 07:03 Evangel says:
Dr_Demento, I shudder at that vision of an OS that is unable to run if it was downloading an update when you went offline.
I really think they should just start coding for multiple platforms, not just DirectX based systems.
18/09/2008 at 09:06 The Sombrero Kid says:
@yutt they use an API to embed IE, they use a hook to force the game exe to run their version of direct x functions which add overlay functionality, these are VERY different things, they don’t hook IE.
18/09/2008 at 12:57 grumpy says:
Oh come on, something tells me you’re new to The Inquirer. Anyone who’s read them for more than a month knows that their “well-placed sources” are what the rest of us call “voices in my head”.
Especially Charlie who wrote that little gem. According to him, NVidia should have gone bankrupt half a dozen times so far.
20/09/2008 at 18:15 emosridols says:
I bet the only reason Google was even remotely interested in Valve was for Steam