Huge Gabe Newell Interview at Rock, Paper, Shotgun

There’s no such thing as a shortage of Gabe Newell interviews, but that’s a good thing. Gabe is not your typical development studio head-honcho who is bound into ultra-strict deadlines by those who require a great financial quarter. Like it should be, he believes games should be well-polished and enjoyable to play. Because of this, we’ve seen delays with Half-Life episodes in the past, and it’s good to know that it’s not all for nothing.

One thing I can respect is that he doesn’t look just to the future, but reflects on PC gaming of the past. He brings up a few notable games, including Quake 1, which he played on the launch day of Team Fortress 2. This once again brings me back to the point that games do not have to be system boggers in order to be fun. I’m stoked to see other classic PC games that might head on to Steam. Descent, Star Wars: Dark Forces and Duke Nukem are a few I wouldn’t mind seeing on there.

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Now it’s the opposite extreme: we can put something up on Steam, deliver it to people all around the world, make changes. We can take more interesting risks. Retail has a kind of filter function: people hate to send boxes back, and if the boxes go back you’re wasting all this money. If someone doesn’t download something on Steam, we don’t lose any money. If someone sends back a box, you’re throwing money away. In this new world we can do things that weren’t previously possible.

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun