Valve Cites "Obscure Architectural Decisions" For Its Lack Of PS3 Support

June 10, 2009 by admin
Filed under: PC Gaming 

Valve Criticizes the Architecture of the PS3

Yesterday, I posted a story about EA Games of Europe executive Patrick Soderlund’s comments about the Xbox 360 having been “maxed out” while the PlayStation 3 has not been. Vague and unsubstantiated claims aside, Soderlund is obviously discussing the architectural differences between the technologies that power each console, and what those architectures mean for developers going forward.

Interestingly enough, another major player in the game world also chimed in recently about this topic. During an E3 2009 interview, Valve designer Tom Leonard talked to Loot Ninja about why Valve does not develop games for the PS3. Leonard was quoted as saying:

“The PC and the 360 are just more straightforward. We can focus on what we want to do, which is make game experiences, instead of sweating bullets over obscure architectural decisions they make with their platform. [...] I didn’t come into this business in the 90s because of some technical fetish. I came in because I wanted to give people experiences that made them have fun.”
 
 
Now, this is far from an original complaint, and yet, a lot of developers out there have managed to pull off some spectacular things on the PS3, especially now that they’ve had a few years to get familiar with its technology. So what’s Valve’s problem?

Well, as Leonard said, for him (and assumingly the rest of Valve’s developers) it’s all about the quality of the game experience not the flashiness of the graphics. But again, there have been quite a few PS3 games, and even more upcoming, many gamers would classify as being technically stunning as well as being “fun experiences,” suggesting that the PS3 is obviously tamable.

So it seems that either Valve tried to make things work when the PS3 first came out, didn’t like what they saw, gave up and never looked back, or its developers have been continually trying to figure out the PS3 but just haven’t been able to break through for some reason. I’d hate to believe that Valve lacks the technological skill to bring their games to the PS3, so my money is on Valve wanting to maintain its PC roots (and save some money along the way) by focusing on a single, PC-esque console.

What do you think about Valve’s aversion to the PS3?
 
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Valve Cites "Obscure Architectural Decisions" For Its Lack Of PS3 Support

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