What I think Valve should do..

[Samuel]

It seems to me that Half-life 2's source engine is all but finished and the recent delays have been due to polishing the single player game. Kudos to them for the single player game, I'm sure it's going to be great but this is not where Valves greatest income is going to come from. It will come from the mod's that people are going to develop for the engine then use the pricing plans that have been mentioned through Steam (i.e. you may pay a one off $5 fee to play Natural Selection, or if someone develops a really good mod about Ninja's, it's free to play in beta but once it's released it will have a one off fee attached to it).

Now why aren't Valve releasing the mod tools and the standalone Source engine? People who want to play the single player game can buy it later if they want to play it, or are Valve so arrogent that they assume everyone want's to play the single player game rather then just develop with Source?

I understand that the rumored delays in the past few days are valid, they have to make changes to the network layer due to what was exposed in the source code leak, but if the delay at September was for language changes in the single player game, great, but why delay the SDK? And especially, why delay the tech demo movie for ****s sake?

Valve, your greatest strength comes from what people in the community do with the Source engine, not the single player game. Get the tools out their, get people developing, then release the single player game.

 

[Aknot]

Well lets see. Unless the MOD is "sucked" up by Valve how do they make money off it? Unless of course there is a stipulation in the SDK license. I feel their greatest strength woudl be first and foremost making some type of official statement. Sh!t happens and sometimes it happens like a morning after Taco Bell and a 12 pack of warm Corona. Then they need to get the game out the door. The first SDK and tools were released AFTER the game. NO reason it should be any different now. AND didnt they "release" the code to a select group?

 

[Samuel]

They make money off people buying the game to play the mod, ala Counterstrike.

Why do you think people are still buying Half Life today? It sure as hell isn't for the single player game, and the engine is a piece of shit. It's for the mods, like Counterstrike, Natural Selection or Day of Defeat.

 

[Aknot]

True, and at $20 (or less) a steal. But if it is like any other businees units sold are already sold and Valve made their money. Thats why the games do not sell at full price and you have things like remainder books. I for one want to play the single player game. Multiplayer is a great addition but playing in a game that will hopefully immerse you as much as this will is no contest.
I just dont see them (or any game company fo rthat matter) releasing tools before the product is finished and on HD.

 

[manny_c44]

No, I don't think they will make very much money in this way. The original counterstrike was succesful in part because it was free and available to everyone. If Valve makes or buys these multiplayer mods some other mod team will just fill the void with a free alternative, which, with a large community, will eventually be better than what VALVe offers.

Valve will make their money from licensing Source to real developers and selling the atcual game.

 

[Maskirovka]

yes...cs was free when it started, and that's why it spread so much. it's still free now...people that buy the retail either never owned hl1, or they're just ignorant to the fact that it's free to hl1 owners

if you make people pay for mods, they'll be less likely to try them out...it's a bad idea. that's the point of a mod...you buy the original game and get the mods for free.

 

[GhostValkyrie]

Let's not forget the Gunman Chronicles. This had started out as a detailed MOD, then after some mettings with VALVe they announced the retail release of it. For a MOD it was fantastic, but since it was released as a stand alone, it was terrible.