Gabe Newell Calls PlayStation 3 A Waste of Time

Valve big dog Gabe Newell doesn't like the PlayStation 3, and he doesn't care who knows it.

Speaking in an interview with Next-Gen.biz, Newell said that while he expects gamers will be happy with the PlayStation 3 version of the Orange Box being developed by an EA-led team, "I think it's harder to get it to the same standard as the 360 and PC versions."

Newell stood by comments he made earlier in the year, in which he called the PlayStation 3 a "disaster" and suggested Sony should cancel the entire project and start over. "I think (PlayStation 3 is) a waste of everybody's time," he said. "Investing in the Cell, investing in the SPE gives you no long-term benefits. There's nothing there that you're going to apply to anything else. You're not going to gain anything except a hatred of the architecture they've created."

"I don't think they're going to make money off their box," he added. "I don't think it's a good solution."

Newell also took the opportunity to discuss his thoughts on Microsoft's direction with the Xbox 360, standalone physics cards and the future of Steam. The full text of the interview is available here. Valve's Orange Box, featuring the Half-Life 2 collection, Team Fortress 2 and Portal, is now available via Steam and regular retail outlets.

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Yeah, he pretty much said all this stuff when he released a version of Source optimized for the Xbox360 and announced the PS3 wasn't going to get one.

When you buy Orange Box outside of the PC, you're buying TERRORISM!

I get what Newell is saying, and I don't entirely disagree, but what's the benefit in being such an outspoken critic of other's people's shit within your industry? Every week brings us a new "Gabe Newell Hates" headline. And the latest offerings from Valve, while impressive, aren't going to cure cancer or break barriers in any significant way. I'm starting to think Newell is just a jackass.

Not sure if I understand what you mean by "within your industry". Does that mean developers can't criticize developers?

If you read more full interviews of him, you see that usually when he criticizes something, he offers follow-up solutions. For example, he WANTED to put the Half-Life games on the mac. So he went to them and they said "Well, we're always happy to integrate the mac with more games." So Gabe replies "Well, I've worked out a few things you could try to do to help..." come back a year later, that list has long since been thrown in recycling.

When talking about the various problems caused by people not updating their drivers, he suggested Nvidia and ATI put auto-update on their drivers.

I don't know about you, but when someone is trying to fix the gaming world though much of it has no impact on them, it shows he's not a jackass at the least.

I think the man is just grumpy because he doesnt know how to fully utilize the power of the machine and isnt comfortable working with the development tools wich i bet are quite different from the PC/Xbox environment.

I recall a lot of game developers moaning about the complexity of the PS2's dev tools but at the end the console did well, had lots of great games and is still going pretty strong. But who knows, maybe he is right, maybe he is on to something, we'll see. Personally i think the guy has lost it :P

Katana314:
Not sure if I understand what you mean by "within your industry". Does that mean developers can't criticize developers?

I mean it's kind of silly to rag on a company you're doing business with.

I'm starting to think Newell is just a jackass.

Of course, he's just a very deep-pocketed jackass who uses jackass means to get some of the best games ever made, to market, including a pace that's so aggravatingly slow that it just makes the public demand more.

But, hey, John Carmack's too busy trying to make rocket ships to complain about ATI's drivers or nVidia's MX line of budget cards, so why not? And Valve isn't doing business with Sony, at least not directly. EA is, but Valve needs EA about as much as they needed Sierra, which is not much.

There is still no compelling reason to buy a PS3.

Repo Man:
I recall a lot of game developers moaning about the complexity of the PS2's dev tools but at the end the console did well, had lots of great games and is still going pretty strong.

PS2 wasn't the biggest consumer electronics disaster in history when it launched. It had a competitive price point, full backwards compatibility with the PS1 and far less competition for the games it was trying to make. Now there's the 360 on the high end and the Wii and portables on the low end, and there's nowhere for the PS3 to even get a foothold.

Sorry if I sound excessively defensive of Gabe; I'm just very supportive of Valve's persona in general; they don't overcharge for games, or charge extra for commentary, they freely give out all their personal E-mail addresses, and reply to each individual letter (I have several replies in my inbox directly from the man himself), and they're willing to make a joke once in a while. A guy noticed there's a texture in the Portal game files with a "THIS IS SPARTA!" joke. (though I'm not sure if it's seen ingame)

J.theYellow:
Valve isn't doing business with Sony, at least not directly.

That's a bit disingenuous. The PS3 version has his company's name on it, just like the other two. It may not have been his choice to market a PS3 version, or even his preference, but he signed off on it. We can discuss the syntax of "doing business" all day, but my point here is that he's going on record, calling a platform for which he is offering a product "a waste".

The dude's entitled to an opinion, and granted, his resume certainly lends weight to that opinion, but when all you hear form him is about how much he hates ... well, everything, it starts getting hard to take seriously.

What's most interesting about the interview is his backpedaling about his previous ire with Microsoft about how much of a waste their architecture was on the 360. I think the dude sees things in a very unique way, and often speaks his mind without thinking about whether he should or not, or about how he could phrase what he has to say in such a way as to not piss people off. Sounds like just about every software engineer I know, in that way.

And yes, I'm aware of the irony

If reporters are going to keep coming up to him, knowing full well he's going to spout whatever he thinks at the time, then we're going to keep hearing about what he's doing at the time. And yeah, Valve's logo is going to be on the PS3 version of the Orange Box, but EA's is going to be far more prominent (as it was in the Orange Box promo trailer) along with the company who is apparently being subcontracted to port it.

Whatever Newell might have said about the 360 tech, Valve hired programmers specifically to handle optimization for that platform, but they (apparently) didn't for the PS3. I think Sony ought to take that message especially seriously.

Some time back before Episode 1 launched Gabe did a couple of lengthy video interviews at 1up where he laid into both the X360 and the PS3, clearly what changed between then and now is that Microsoft must have listened to what he said and Sony didn't.

Maybe all such hatred enables him to consume some fat?

Otherwise, I don't see the point, nor the intelligence of his claims.

I'm a little disappointed that more Sony fanboys haven't taken the bait and squealed in outrage at this post, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Valve doesn't make their kind of game.

Phil Migrowen:
Gabe Newell must be right on that because if there's anyone who's an expert at wasting time it's Gabe Newell.

I have trouble imagining that Valve has ever wasted time on anything. I'm sure they have, because after all, they are a game company. However, every Valve release has been a major success and they remain on a short list of companies with an excellent track record.

They're just not out as soon as anyone would like.

Arbre:
Maybe all such hatred enables him to consume some fat?

lol gabe newell is fat lol