• 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️
    link
    fedilink
    English
    184 months ago

    They operate wildly different from most other companies. While they have a few tasks assigned to them, they can also just start, move to, or end projects at will. The games they have made were basically made just for fun because enough staff wanted to do them. The reason there hasn’t been a new Half Life entry since Alyx is because only like 2 guys want to do something with it, and that’s not enough.

    There’s been a ton of interviews and tour details of their offices (both their current and previous ones) that always made it sound like a pretty dope place to work. But they also have claimed they don’t hire people that haven’t done something. They don’t care if you’ve gone to school and got a degree; you’re more valuable if you have something tangible to show that you’ve actually got some talent.

    • @misk@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      -64 months ago

      They wouldn’t operate this way if they didn’t have Steam. These days it’s just a bunch of people taking care of a money printing machine. They get bored and try other stuff sometimes. The problem is that this other stuff won’t make anywhere near what Steam does. The only real work at Valve these days is ensuring they have plan B for when Windows becomes less viable as a platform for them.

        • @misk@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          -1
          edit-2
          4 months ago

          That’s not that long in the grand scheme of things. It’s been almost 20 years now since Steam was opened to third parties. Valve stopped most of the game development once Steam got into dominant position.

          • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️
            link
            fedilink
            English
            4
            edit-2
            4 months ago
            1. Steam was always open to 3rd parties.
            2. Valve never stopped game development. They just haven’t released any new games in a long time unless you counter Counter-Strike 2 as a “new” game or don’t consider any maintenance, changes, additions, or other continued support as part of development.
      • @Socsa@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        44 months ago

        I mean this is kind of true, but taking care of the money printing machine is kind of what every profitable company does. They definitely still innovate, even if nothing comes close to being as profitable as Steam.

        Right now they are making more upstream contributions to the Linux ecosystem than anyone else as well, which is awesome.