Gabe Newell shares his thoughts on hot topics like the Cyberpunk 2077 controversy, the future of Valve, and Miyamoto’s games.
Gabe Newell thinks about the current industry situation in an interview with One News, New Zealand Television. During the conversation, he does not shy away from the hottest topics, such as the controversy around Cyberpunk 2077, the medium-term future of Valve and what figures like Shigeru Miyamoto arouse in him.
Gabe Newell, on Cyberpunk 2077: “I think they will be very good at making their customers happy over time.”
The head of Valve has played the latest CD Projekt RED album. On the quality disparity between the full spectrum of platforms that Cyberpunk 2077 reached, Newell says that all developers end up making trade-offs in quality between systems.
Cyberpunk 2077
“All I know is that there are a lot of happy gamers within the PC space, which are the ones that are most visible to us. There are aspects of the game that are just brilliant, and they show the tremendous quality of work – it’s unfair to throw stones at any developer, because achieving something that is so complex and ambitious is really amazing, ”he says.
On Sony’s decision to cease the sale of the game and offer refunds to players who were unhappy with the state of the game, he says that Steam was “not part” of those talks, and that the move was “unusual.” “When people have those kinds of reactions, my first thought is that this may be an opportunity for us, and I assume that the developers of Cyberpunk 2077 will use it to make improvements that are beneficial to their customers,” he says. As for the Poles, he underlines that “they have a long history of great jobs” and that he believes that “they will be very good at making their clients happy over time.”
Shigeru Miyamoto, influential figure in Gabe Newell’s career
What is Gabe Newell playing today? Among that catalog of games are those led by Shigeru Miyamoto, a key figure for his personal growth. “Playing Miyamoto’s games is like, first, they’re a lot of fun, but I don’t remember any of his games that I’ve played that haven’t made me better as a video game developer.” The influence of Japanese is firm.
Shigeru Miyamoto, in Super Nintendo World.
On the other hand, Apex Legends is another of his headline titles, especially since several Valve workers are very into it. “I enjoy playing, which is good, but I also think that there are several things that I learn as a developer by playing it,” he explains.
What does the future hold for Valve?
As is usual in a long period at Valve, it does not fall before the question about a supposed Half-Life 3, Portal or any game. “The good thing is that by not answering those questions, I prevent the community from coming up with new questions that are equally difficult to answer,” he says. The interviewer, when telling Citadel, Newell asks if he means a code name. “To be clear: we have a handful of codenames internally and they change over time.” Of course, it confirms that there are several projects on the way. “We definitely have games in development that are going to be announced – it’s fun to release games,” he says.
