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Gabe Newell: Valve has always been a 'bit jealous' of companies like Nintendo

Valve CEO Gabe Newell has spoken about how the company's time in the trenches of hardware development has changed its approach to making games.

Chris Kerr, News Editor

March 9, 2018

1 Min Read
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During a recent presentation for Valve's next title, Artifact, company president and CEO Gabe Newell reiterated the Portal creator's return to the frontlines of game development, and spoke about how its time in the trenches of hardware development has changed its approach to making games.

As reported by PC Gamer, Newell suggested that Valve has always been "a bit jealous" of companies like Nintendo that have the ability to simultaneously create new software and hardware, giving them the power to reshape entire game experiences as they see fit. 

"When Miyamoto is sitting down and thinking about the next version of Zelda or Mario, he's thinking what is the controller going to look like, what sort of graphics and other capabilities," explained Newell. 

"He can introduce new capabilities like motion input because he controls both of those things. And he can make the hardware look as good as possible because he's designing the software at the same time. So that is something we've been jealous of, and that's something that you'll see us taking advantage of subsequently."

Newell went on to confirm that Valve currently has "several" new titles in development, presumably including Artifact itself, and the three new VR projects it unveiled last year. 

It's unclear whether "several" means the studio has any more in development beyond those, but either way, it'll be interesting to see how Valve applies its newfound dev mantra going forward.

About the Author

Chris Kerr

News Editor, GameDeveloper.com

Game Developer news editor Chris Kerr is an award-winning journalist and reporter with over a decade of experience in the game industry. His byline has appeared in notable print and digital publications including Edge, Stuff, Wireframe, International Business Times, and PocketGamer.biz. Throughout his career, Chris has covered major industry events including GDC, PAX Australia, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and Develop Brighton. He has featured on the judging panel at The Develop Star Awards on multiple occasions and appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss breaking news.

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