Valve: Delaying Portal 2 Was the Right Thing to Do

Gabe Newell doesn’t mind delays, as long as there’s a good reason for them.

Portal 2’s project leader Josh Weier says that not only Valve boss Gabe Newell been OK with the idea of pushing back Portal 2’s launch back from February to April – a delay the studio jokingly, although truthfully, referred to as its shortest ever – he was actually one of its biggest supporters.

Weier said that there wasn’t a lot of controversy or consternation surrounding the decision to delay the game. Instead, Newell asked what the team wanted to do with the extra time, and after the team had told him, he gave them the thumbs up. Weier added that Newell said that there was no evidence that a delay would hurt the game in any way, and said that what the team was proposing sounded a lot of fun. Portal 2’s writer Erik Wolpaw has similar memories of the meetings, saying that the only negative aspect that anyone really raised was to ask if the team could handle working on the game for another two months.

Weier said that, unlike other studios, Valve didn’t have to rush to get games out in order to satisfy and/or appease stockholders. “Our fans are our stockholders, really,” Weier said. “What really would have been a controversy would have been to get a game out early and it not being very fun.” The delay seems to have paid off, as the game has received nearly universal acclaim amongst critics and has topped numerous sales charts.

Source: Develop