Can Valve ever get rid of Vivendi?

[Adidajs]

I think with the availability of steam it may seem like Valve could one day "get rid of" their publisher Vivendi, but i don't see that happening any time soon.

Question: Who markets the games Valve makes? Isn't it Vivendi?

I suppose Valve could hire a company to market their games on the Internet, TV, Radio, and now before movies.

 

[Dougy]

why would they want to "get rid off" vivendi?

we have all seen Valves great attempts at marketing.....

23/09/03 Valve "yeah the games on track"

 

[63]

Agreed Dougy, Vivendi does not to be "gotten rid of".

 

[Apos]

The bottom line is that there are a LOT of potential buyers that don't have broadband. And there are a LOT of people that just want to have a physical CD. Remember, a lot of the free advertising a game gets is to see it in retail stores: see the release dates go up on the board, see the boxes on display... Online advertising just can't really beat that for drumming up sales. Somebody's grandma that looks for a Christmas gift isn't going to accidentally download steam and buy the game. She's going to go to a traditional retail outlet and look around.

 

[Alec_85]

I don't see why Valve would ever need a marketing partner (okay if they can arrange conferences with the press etc then alright) nowadays. Practically, the whole industry has their eyes fixed at them atm & as soon as they speak And they would love to be partners with Valve I bet.

But they should buy themselves out of the Vivendi deal. It seems they have trouble communicating on both fronts imo. Sierra made them visible at least

 

[PvtRyan]

AFAIK they have a deal with Activision for future games. I doubt they'll dump publishers altogether and completely rely on Steam though.

 

[slicktick]

Like everyone else said, there will still be a publisher for there games for years to come I suspect, because there will always be people weary of buying online, or dont have an internet connection. Too many sales would be lost if you could only buy it online. It would be like only being able to buy music online. PLus alot of people dont have credit cards and that is required to purchase online.

 

[PatPwnt]

I just hope vivendi doesnt delay it any further

 

[Apos]

there will always be people weary of buying online

I think you mean "wary" right?

 

[jonbob]

I think both are possible. It's very easy - even on broadband to get fed up of staring at a progress bar. There's a lot to be said of the satisfaction one gets when one gets a real live box on one's hands.

 

[Maxi]

Well if Valve got rid of Vivendi they wouldn't have anyone to publish the game retail in stores, and that would cut them out of the majority of the games market.

 

[Alec_85]

It's very easy - even on broadband to get fed up of staring at a progress bar.

If that happens, it's time to upgrade your d/l speed

 

[OCybrManO]

You won't have to worry about the progress bar if you have a decent connection because they will begin preloading HL2 "pretty far in advance" of when it hits store shelves. If they could keep my connection at 300KB/s (384 is my cap) I could download 1GB every hour (that would allow me to download all of HL2 in my sleep)... but I doubt the download rate will be that high with so many people preloading a huge game.

 

[Alec_85]

They have tons of servers though. I've never experienced any slowdowns in speeds whenever a big update have been released.

 

[Tarkus]

I think with the availability of steam it may seem like Valve could one day "get rid of" their publisher Vivendi, but i don't see that happening any time soon.

Question: Who markets the games Valve makes? Isn't it Vivendi?

I suppose Valve could hire a company to market their games on the Internet, TV, Radio, and now before movies.

i think the right question would be:
"can vivendi ever get rid of valve?"

 

[mortiz]

Vivendi will have a clause in some contract some where stating that they are the exclusive publisher HL-2, in fact when Vivendi (who owns Sierra) signed on to publish HL-1, Vivendi probably added the clause to state they would also publish the sequel (if there was one).

Anyway, VALVe aren't a fully fledged publisher, yet They still need someone to distribute their games (to the mass market). If HL-2 does exceedingly well, and provided their are no legal problems, also with the constant improvement of broadband etc HL-3 probably won't have a seperate publisher.

 

[Dougy]

I just hope vivendi doesnt delay it any further

at no point has vivendi ever delayed Hl2.

and at no point will vivendi delay HL2.

they only get money from the copies they sell, as soon as this game is finished VU will be raping the CD manufacturers to get it done ASAP.

wich is why HLR's "vivendi will release it in autumn even if its finsihed in summer" is complete and utter BS.

 

[wayne white]

valve is just a game company...vivendi got the BIG BUCKS.

 

[Alec_85]

Dude Valve cashed in on HL1 too you know. That's why we have HL2 & HL3 on the way.

 

[Apos]

I'm not sure how things were with Valve and HL1. We know that for HL2, they own every bit of the game (including holding usage liscences to code that they don't own). Stands to reason that they are going to make a bundle. Future looks bright for them as long as they aren't too in debt after this process.

 

[63]

valve is just a game company...vivendi got the BIG BUCKS.

nah, Valve is loaded.

 

[PatPwnt]

at no point has vivendi ever delayed Hl2.

and at no point will vivendi delay HL2.

they only get money from the copies they sell, as soon as this game is finished VU will be raping the CD manufacturers to get it done ASAP.

wich is why HLR's "vivendi will release it in autumn even if its finsihed in summer" is complete and utter BS.

That makes me feel better

 

[Bing_Oh]

Valve (supposedly) re-invested the profits from HL back into their own company...most likely in an attempt at self-sufficiency. If this is true, then it was, rather clearly, an attempt to cut their ties to any one publisher. A game developer like Valve, with a valuable property and self-sufficiency, can choose whatever publisher will give them the best deal...where as, now, Valve is stuck with the old agreements with Vivendi that came from their Sierra days.

 

[Kylebn]

Hahaha Lol, Me Downloading, Buying Over Steam

HAHAHA LOL, ME DOWNLOADING, BUYING OVER STEAM, NOT LIKELY

yep no way, i ony got 256k upsteam (32k download) rate and 128k upstream (16k upload) rate,

considering hl2 will be like 4 - 7 gigs noway, i have preordered my copy at a shop since 5th of september 2003, if only i had a full speed connection and anyways my line only supports 3.7mbs, and its adsl, and very expensive, $70.00 bucks for my connection per month, 10 gig internation traffic, and then capped to 64k.
i only get a ping of 60 - 120 ping depending on the server.
but my mate works for a new isp called connect net, i i might be able to get 3.5mb connection for like $70 only cuz he works there :cheese: :frog:


consider, i could get it over steam, if i have a week to download it, and poor 56ker well 2 months lol, sad for them ha, and me sort of

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Like everyone else said, there will still be a publisher for there games for years to come I suspect, because there will always be people weary of buying online, or dont have an internet connection.

not only that, but theres fanatics like me who want the boxed version with CD/DVD, manuels and anything else related to that..

after all, theres no feeling in the world that gives u after smelling a freshly printed manuel :dork:

 

[Scotchy]

Valve is in a distribution deal with Activision after HL2. I thought this was common knowledge?

 

[Apos]

Valve is in a distribution deal with Activision after HL2. I thought this was common knowledge?

Good point. They won't be able to replace retail sales with online sales anytime soon, no matter how cool or profitable it would be for them.

 

[Tlaloc]

i really doubt hl2 will be 4 to 7 gigs...
~4 gigs at most (1 dvd)
realistically though it will be like 2-3 gigs ( 4-5 cd's)

 

[Adidajs]

Good point. They won't be able to replace retail sales with online sales anytime soon, no matter how cool or profitable it would be for them.

yeah, but i think a significant portion of steam users will buy hl2 over steam. actually i think valve should do a poll and see with 900,000 unique users who will purchase it online.

 

[Cyanide]

I don't think Valve would benefit from breaking away from Vivendi. Vivendi is one of the better publishers out there. They don't seem to have the tendency to push developers to rush unfinished unpolished games out the door. For example, they've allowed Blizzard to delay their games many times. The results have always been spectacular, and unlike some other publishers, Vivendi seems to realize that a better quality product is more lucrative than several low quality products.

Yeah, i'm sick of waiting for HL2 just like everybody else. However, I'm sure that it's being delayed for a reason. When it comes out it will be a finished and polished game. Because if it's not, I will personally disembowel the "G-man". And he's got more than enough bowel to make it last a good long torturous time (much like the wait for HL2).

 

[neozero]

Can piblishers Delay the game? I thought that would only be possible if a developer is under a larger company. for example the people that are sbsidaries of EA, UBisoft, Atari, etc.

The way I saw it Valve is an autonomous company. they reap in all of their own sales (with some going to the publlisher), and then use the revenue to keep the company alive. So because they have no one to answer to they set their own release dates (and delays).

I mean Vivendi doesn't actually invest in Valve, Valve pays them for a service. Is that right?

I know that with other companies they get their sponshorship from a larger source and then they half to deal with BS like deadlines, budgets, etc. This is the reason their are so many mediocre games, many are 70% done or not made because the developer actually wants to ( movie tie-ins for example.

Is this all right? Could someone clear this up for me.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

As has been pointed out, Valve already signed with Activision for future game releases.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

neozero: that's pretty much correct, yes.