News Valve wants community-funded games

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2009/07/21/valve-wants-community-funded-games/1

Valve's Gabe Newell has suggested the idea of community-funded games as a possible way of offsetting rising development costs.

 

whats going on over at valve these days.........I say they do a monthly subcription all you can eat model on Steam

 

I hope they don't charge a monthly fee on Steam... :O They are becoming EA... Slowly, but they are...

 

interesting... its like investing in stocks...

 

Gabe Newell is a genius. I wonder how much I would have made if I'd have invested £100 in Half Life.

 

Concept sounds superb!!

It would effectively make the whole industry more accurately representative of what consumers within it actually want.

Another way of looking at how the existing setup fails consumers/gamers is the existence and practises of publishers like EA.

Let's get the guitar out and have a good ol' pow-wow...

... HIPPIE VIEWS Cheesecake!!!!!!

 

Gamers DO fund games. It's called buying one.

 

I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have seen a penny had HL been "community-funded". I also cannot see the incentive for developers to produce top-notch titles with "community funding". Actually, I think it would bring DNF-style development to the mainstream. Nothing to show for years, yet the money keeps on rolling.

 

If a developer doesn't have enough money to make a new game, it's because their previous game didn't make enough money.

Stop making crap games, then life will be better.

 

How so?

This radical suggestion by Gabe Newell, effectively does away with the current setup of large publishers (EA et all) who are just accountants out to bleed as much as they can, with the best interests of their consumers a distant second from their own bottom line interests.

 

Exactly why it likely won't take off.

 

I don't see it working, may as well just buy stocks in the company.

It's a nice idea, but what happens if the game gets shelved? Then consumers are taking the risks, not the companies.

 

So they want to copy the guys over at Natural Selection 2 - Havent they made enough money off their steam platform and numerous best selling games to fund their games development for ever !! GREED !

 

A lot. But would you really have invested in a start-up company like Valve who, at the time were very small and focusing on several projects at once after leaving MS - all but one of which were abandoned? You'd kick yourself if you invested in Valve's (cancelled) game Aleph and not Quiver (which went on to become HL).

 

Don't we invest by... buying the games?

 

Would certainly make more gamers take a stand against piracy...

I like the idea in theory but how would you make the devs accountable to millions of small investors?

Kinda reminds me of that football team that was bought by the fans.
What ever happened with that?

 

I would have taken one look at Mr Newell and knew I was in safe, yet flabby hands.

This'll never work, but it's still a sound idea. The fact is, the majority of consumers (which they'd need to fund the game at the levels they are today) are morons and for that reason alone it would never work. They'd rather leave the situation as it is and then pirate the game or pick it up a month later at £15 from Play or wherever.

 

So this is basicly like a really really early pre-order sort of deal? I like it! Where can i sign up, Gabe?

 

Football team owned by its fans - that'll be Barcelona then, they kinda do OK!

I like the idea of allowing investors to buy a share in the development of a game but the risk is high so the share of profits also needs to be high. You would be best to invest in a portfolio of games to allow for the cancelled ones.

 

It's a nice "idea", but I wouldn't wish it to become anything other than one.