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Old 17-09-08, 12:10   #1
tlr online
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Exclamation Google to acquire Valve?!

Online reports emerge suggesting that the search engine giant could be about to pounce on Valve...

Movie studios, music TV channels - it seems like everyone want a piece of the videogames industry today, and online reports are today suggesting that search engine giant, Google, could be about to enter the market too.

According to The Inquirer and 'well placed sources', Google is on the verge of acquiring Half-Life and Left 4 Dead developers, Valve Software, with an potential announcement at this week's Game Developers Conference in Austin, Texas.

Google's main interest in the firm apparently rests with Valve's Steam content distribution system, which has become increasing popular with publishers in the last couple of years as a way to digitally distribute their titles. So far, the likes of 2K Games, Eidos, and Activision have all signed up to Steam, alongside indie studios such as Introversion (Darwinia) and Media Molecule (Rag Doll Kung Fu).

Neither Google nor Valve has issued a statement on the reports, but the acquisition would certainly give Google a leg up in the ongoing battle for online supremacy against Microsoft.

http://www.totalvideogames.com/news/...773_7214_0.htm
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Old 17-09-08, 12:59   #2
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VALVE? That shocks me. Not that I'd mind much, if I can get future Valve games for free in exchange for Google ads I'll certainly still be happy (and if not, I hope there'll be a chance to still buy the game over Steam for money, but without ads). Still, of all people Valve is about the last one I'd expected to be owned by Google, especially as the rumors before were all about a flash game site or similar things.

Thinking about it, if Google were to get into large-scale video game production, obviously Steam would be a good match, as Google will probably try to avoid the problems that are associated with normal stores, and of all online distributors, Steam is the one with by far the biggest userbase. Steam's lack of support for both Mac OS X and Linux, two platforms Google seems to like to support, will be a problem, but not one that Google couldn't solve by purchasing Valve.

Talking about the game developer, Valve appears odd again, since they don't really have any family-friendly titles in their portfolio. On the other hand, their development strategy, focusing on many (internal) betas, significant changes right until release and extreme programming techniques will probably match much better with Google's own philosophy than most other studios (most notably, at least in this forum, Crystal Dynamics, who have, according to an article on Gamasutra, an own department focused on creativity so that those nasty creative people won't interrupt the development process). Still, Google might yet completely ignore that and let them do games as they want, or just buy steam (or sell off the rest of Valve that isn't steam, which is nearly the same).

A significant question, though, is whether Valve is up for sale actually. Last I heard, they were quite comfortable being one of the few remaining independent triple-A game developers.

My guess about the rumor: It's unlikely, and I don't think it'll happen, but there have been worse things before.
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Old 17-09-08, 14:42   #3
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No. No. Nonono. No. o_O
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Old 17-09-08, 15:37   #4
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Please no!
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Old 17-09-08, 15:51   #5
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I do NOT want this to happen. Steam is a favorite of mine, and Google is far from something I want anything to do with. If this were to happen, it would make it impossible for me to continue avoiding Google, as I own several games through Steam.
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Old 17-09-08, 16:17   #6
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Some of you will like this, some of you won't... more of you will love it though.

Just hurry up with Half-Life 2: Episode 3!!
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Old 17-09-08, 16:19   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dingaling View Post
YAY!!!

and DAMN RIGHT!! I want it now.
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Old 17-09-08, 17:58   #8
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I'm not a fan of Valve.
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Old 17-09-08, 18:07   #9
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No! Google should f**k themselfs.
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Old 17-09-08, 18:20   #10
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What exactly would be the drawbacks if this were to happen (however unlikely it seems from Dingaling's post)? So many of the replies in this thread are strongly opposed to this.. What am I missing?
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