14 DAY TRIAL // Valve isn't any ordinary video game developer, as it tends to follow its own strategy when creating new titles and deciding on which platforms it will bring them. With the most recent one, Left 4 Dead, the company didn't bother to bring it on the PlayStation 3, instead focusing on two platforms dominated by Microsoft, the PC and Xbox 360.
Speaking with VideoGamer, Valve's Chet Faliszek has revealed that this decision was made because the two platforms are the ones the team has the best grips on and because they have the best online services, which are very important to any title made by the company. He has also unveiled the special relationship that the two corporations share and that it doesn't see a big, bad, evil side to Microsoft, as others might say.
“Microsoft didn’t know about L4D at first,” he explains. “Then they saw it last year and they just started coming to our offices to play. I think it had little to do with actual work, they just wanted to play. And actually we had them out to come take a look at L4D2 before the announcement and everything. Talking with those guys, their marketing guys, they’re like, oh we play every Friday. And they do. They’re hardcore players. They all knew how to play. I didn’t have to give them any instruction. I thought we’d have to put it on easy for you guys. Let me tell you, you guys are good. This is a really good relationship and they’re really supportive, they’ve been really helpful, super great. I know they’re supposed to be big, bad and evil but that’s not the side we see of them.”
So, it seems that things are very nice between the two companies these days, and that we might get to see many more future titles on the PC and on the Xbox 360 platforms, largely because of their great services. “Right now it’s PC and 360. That’s definitely what we’re going to do. It’s just the platform that lends itself to it. And Xbox LIVE just makes it an easy thing to do. If you think about it, ten years ago we could have made L4D, but you wouldn’t have been able to hook up to your friends and it just wouldn’t have gained online as it did. And it’s really because of Steam and Xbox LIVE that we can make L4D.”
Hopefully, though, for the sake of many PlayStation 3 owners, the company will eventually release more titles for it.