Kotaku
Riding high from their success with The Orange Box, Valve today announced the acquisition of Turtle Rock Studios, the Orange County-based development studio behind co-op zombie-fest Left 4 Dead.
"We have been seeing very strong growth with Steam and Source, our content distribution and development platforms, up over 150% over the last 12 months. Given our expectations for Left 4 Dead and our long-standing relationships with members of the Turtle Rock team, this was an easy decision. It also gives us a base from which to expand our development activities in the Los Angeles area," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve."Left 4 Dead fills a long-standing demand gamers have had for a coop first-person action experience, and it will also help Valve's expansion into the console market," added Doug Lombardi, Valve's VP of marketing.
"Valve has had great success bringing in projects and teams such as Team Fortress and Portal. As I spent time working and talking with the creators of those products over the past several years, it became clear that this was the right next step for myself, my colleagues at Turtle Rock, our customers, and our products," said Michael Booth, founder and CEO of Turtle Rock Studios. "We are excited to be a part of such a visionary and forward-thinking company."
VALVE ACQUIRES TURTLE ROCK STUDIOS
Leading Content and Technology Company Adds California Studio
January 10, 2008 - Fresh off the success of The Orange Box, the 2007 game of the year award-winning collection of new games heralded as "the best value in gaming history," Valve Corporation announces the acquisition of Turtle Rock Studios, the Orange County-based development house behind one of 2008's most anticipated games, Left 4 Dead.
Valve was founded in 1996 and has grown to become one of the game industry's leading technology and content creators, with a portfolio of over 20 million games sold worldwide. The merger of the two companies extends Valve's development team and provides the company with a new studio in southern California.
Turtle Rock Studios' Left 4 Dead joins a growing list of Valve's game properties which includes the Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress and Day of Defeat series of games as well as Portal, introduced as part of The Orange Box.
"We have been seeing very strong growth with Steam and Source, our content distribution and development platforms, up over 150% over the last 12 months. Given our expectations for Left 4 Dead and our long-standing relationships with members of the Turtle Rock team, this was an easy decision. It also gives us a base from which to expand our development activities in the Los Angeles area," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve.
"Left 4 Dead fills a long-standing demand gamers have had for a coop first-person action experience, and it will also help Valve's expansion into the console market," added Doug Lombardi, Valve's VP of marketing.
"Valve has had great success bringing in projects and teams such as Team Fortress and Portal. As I spent time working and talking with the creators of those products over the past several years, it became clear that this was the right next step for myself, my colleagues at Turtle Rock, our customers, and our products," said Michael Booth, founder and CEO of Turtle Rock Studios. "We are excited to be a part of such a visionary and forward-thinking company."
Founded in 2002 by Michael Booth, Turtle Rock Studios is the creator of Left 4 Dead, named one 2008's most wanted titles by many of today's leading game-enthusiast publications and Web sites.
For more information on Valve, its games, or the Steam platform, please visit www.steamgames.com
Comments
BRING ON THE DELAYS! ;D
Actually its great to see them getting picked up like this, since for the amount of work they seemed to have put into the project they deserve it!
I'm really looking forward to this game. It will probably be the first online game I really get into. I hope I don't get oh so addicted...
@Witzbold: NOOOOOOOO! LA LA LA LA LA, I don't hear you!
This one of my MOST anticipated titles of 08!
@Moonchilde: Heh, good luck. If Valve is involved, you know it's going to be addictive as hell. ZOMBIE HELL! Wait, do zombies go to hell? They just stay on Earth I guess... unless killed by a shotgun. Hmmm...
Hm, Valve, huh? I guess PC/360 only is confirmed, then. Guess I'll be skipping it. I'm not touching a Valve product for any system until they staple Newell's mouth shut and learn the value of proper multiplatform development.
@Witzbold: That's exactly what I thought. Oh by the way does anyone know when it's supposed to be coming out. I heard Q2?
@SAKY: You mean 09. Bwahahahaha!
I'm seriously looking forward to it too.
I cant wait for this one. we need more zombies in games!
@NotAZombie: june if you believe EBgames.com
@greeneggsnsam: Remember the end of Shaun of the Dead?
Zombie Hell.
This is awesome!
But this means the game might be released with the next valve "box" and that could delay it in order to release it with Ep 3. Hard to decide if it's good or bad news... *hopes for good*
@Witzbold: Release Dates are trivial these days anyways. Until I actually have the game in my hand I no longer worry about getting my hopes up with getting my games when promised (See: smashbros).
Given how Valve tends to like multi system releases, expect a xbox port within 6 months. Just intime for the Q4 08 season
very nice snag Valve, you just caught what could be a sleep hit
Great, just when I had weaned myself off TF2.
I cannot wait for the Ep. 3 "colour" box.
Every time I see "Co-op" written as "coop" I laugh.
I think of chickens and such.
@Archaotic: dont worry im sure he will give it to EA to redevelop for the PS3 since he hates it so much... and with its hardware who can blame him?
@Witzbold: At least we know the game will be properly done and polished.
The race is on! Who will be the first to the finish: Left 4 Dead, Dead Island, Dead Rising 2, or Grim Fandago 2?!
Please let it be Grim Fandago 2: Meche's Revenge!
Hah, they finally managed to find a way to employ Mike Booth - just buy his company!
@2K Ghede: I've seen that movie, but I don't remember that bit...
Maybe turtlerock can make some new maps for cs source now please
Gabe is my hero. My hopes now are that they pour some extra effort now that it is an inhouse game. It wouldn't be Valve it isn't triple A, is it?
When I played it at QuakeCon '07, only the humans were playable with the Devs playing as the zombies. We all wanted to play zombies more than the humans but it was still a fun. The game looked great which was surprising given it's using the Source engine. It was the hit of QuakeCon. I should have tried to get more Left 4 Dead shirts.
@Cruz:
The PS3 version of Orange Box begs to differ there.
@Archaotic: Valve is fantastic in my opinion. I have a PS3 and wouldn't dream of buying the Orange Box for it no matter how well it ran. PC me. Also, EA is as much to blame as Valve. Sorry you hate Gabe so much. I don't care for him personaly but most of the games are fantastic.
@STARSBarry:
Is that really fair though? It's not the PS3's fault the game runs badly on it, it's Gabe's laziness and EA's incompetence. Nothing more, nothing less.
Ripping on an entire console's hardware because one specific developer, who used to work for Micrsoft, has a hard-on for Microsoft architecture is just plain not right.
Yeah, didn't Turtle Rock have some role in the CS:S bots? I'm always stunned that Valve didn't bring them on board to make bots for their other titles, like TF2 or HL2:DM.
Valve's been pumping out nonstop.
I like it being source, my pc being able to run it and all.
@Archaotic: that was all EA's doing. Send em a nice letter.
@homernoy:
I just don't think it's right for a development leader to be able to speak out so negatively about platforms HIS COMPANY IS DEVELOPING A GAME FOR, and get no flak for it when the version comes out and ends up being a sub-par port. It's blatant favoritism and the industry is supposed to have more integrity than that.
Honestly, I don't care about the quality of the games. I won't play them unless the developers show some humility. I don't buy Itagaki games for the same reason.
@SAKY:
But if Newell had, y'know, actually not been a douche and had his own team work on the PS3 version instead of outsourcing it, the game would've been fine.
You can't put all the blame on EA when it was Gabe's decision to outsource the port job. Both are equally to blame. But we're getting off-topic here, I suppose. Bleh.
@Archaotic:I completely understand. That is why I don't care for Gabe personally. You have to remember though, that almost no one has escaped his negative comments. Here is a quote
" I spoke to some people at Microsoft, and as I said, I can't point to a single feature in Vista that I care about that solves problems for us. At all. And I had the same conversation with the Xbox 360 guys. It's like Xbox 360 doesn't make my life any better, and in fact, it makes it a lot worse, as you're telling me I can't count on having a hard drive,"
At least Valve has the deep pockets to afford to porperly finish a project like this. Companies like EA make me cringe at times due to having to take shortcuts in order to push a project out of the door earlier than intended. Good news for Turtle Rock, bad news for Bioware. Even Bungie in its pre-MS (and current) days would never confirm a release date until they were ready that a project was finished. They would only respond that it would be available soon(tm).
@Archaotic: The PS3 isn't the easiest console for a company with over 10 years of PC developing to work on.
@homernoy:
Yeah, I don't really know what his problem is. It's like he hates everything but Windows XP, but his Microsoft ties still force him to give a full effort on the 360 and half-ass it for Sony.
Can you imagine how Orange Box would've run if Gabe had actually handled the PS3 version himself, though? That's what makes me angry. He completely ignored the system's potential due to his Hatorade addiction, and just passed it off to die in EA's offices.
But back to the point at hand; I'm still not going to consider paying for this game until Valve learns to work with non-DirectX architecture. I probably wouldn't play it too much anyways, I've really started to get sick of shooters these days...
@moshakirby:
True, true. But does that really make it alright for them to not even try? If they had done the port and done it well, it could've been a huge selling point, that Valve was such a good developer that they delivered a perfect experience on a platform they've never worked with before.
Instead they acted like spoiled children and threw it to another company who they knew would half-ass it, because they were too scared to try.
This was an obvious step.
There are only a handful of games using the source engine, and it's more than likely any game company using said engine will be acquired by Valve provided their product is any cop...
@Archaotic: Well, I guess that he has learned his lesson. VALVe's reputation is on the line, and I doubt that they will challenge it again...
BUT if a PS3 version delays the date for the others, I will personally cross the ocean and deliver the content to EA london, after caving-in their collective faces due to the OB port.
@Archaotic:
And I'm sure you have sources inside Valve who confirmed all your statements as the reason they had EA handle the port. You know, maybe the company just isnt that big and dealing with getting The Orange Box released on hardware they were familiar with was a huge undertaking in itself and there was no way they had the manpower to port it to architecture they have no experience with what so ever. Just a thought.
so what this boils down to is we will not see Left 4 Dead until 2012, or until "its done".
@gray665:
If they didn't have the manpower, then maybe they shouldn't have made the PS3 version at all. It's worse to make a sub-par port of a game than it is to not make it in the first place. They got people's hopes up and then screwed them over. It's bad form, and they should be held accountable for it.
@Archaotic: Really? Because I'm enjoying the hell out of The Orange Box on my PS3. Portal, Half Life 2, and Team Fortress 2 are spectacular.
Now, given, I haven't played through the portions of the game that got the most complaints, but... I'm really enjoying the game.
@Archaotic:
It's not really his company though. EA published the Orange Box and Valve didn't do the PS3 port. I'm sure if Valve was self-publishing their games wouldn't even be on PS3.
And what good would it have done to have his team work on the PS3 port also? Then instead of focusing on the 360 version they'd be split, diminishing the quality of both. At least the PS3 version had a separate team dedicated to it, otherwise it may have ended up being worse.
I love how most people have either no love for Sony or for Microsoft but when Gabe Newell makes negative comments about both (over legitimate gripes that most people have), he's a douche. Guess what? Neither company is perfect. It WAS stupid for MS not to have an HDD in every 360(and even stupider that they still have a core system available), especially coming off a system that did. It WAS stupid for Sony to make the PS3 architecture so damn complicated. Between the two of them you have an ideal system (or a REALLY bad one).
I own a 360 and a PS3 so I'll just get whatever version of a game is better. I'd much rather a developer focus on one version and make it excellent than be split and have both versions be "just OK".
Left 4 dead is one of those titles i have an almost sexual urge to play. The feeling is downright creepy, like survival instinct related almost.
Last time it happened was Bioshock. Before that it was Guitar hero.
I can't wait. If Valve lets me pre-purchase now, i will.
@Witzbold:
Hush Witzy!
I saw this move coming. But why in the hell haven't they offered the Black Mesa Source guys a job? That project is seriously ambitious too. No offense to Left 4 Dead, which I bet will be the best zombie game EVER.
Really not sure what all the Gabe-hate is about. As far as I'm concerned, seeing as he (and his company) develops games for whatever platform, he can say whatever he likes about said platforms. I'm sure developers are entitled to opinions about what is good (and bad) about any particular platform they develop for. I might develop for Windows but I don't have to like it as a platform.
I heart Valve.
IMO one of the best devs in gaming history; at worst their titles are hard to even nitpick, being solid games through and through. At best they're innovative in more than one respect and highly replayable. I think it's rare to experience a studio with such a consistently good portfolio, I'm glad they got Turtle Rock Studios.
You may be asking, if I love Valve so much why don't I marry them? Well, I would if I could.
Bring me Episode 3 packaged with Left 4 Dead...wishful thinking.
This couldn't happen at a better time. I'm really starting to like Steam despite there lackluster and primitive community setup. I just tried out the Half-life 2 Deathmatch mod w/ 2 friends last night and i have to say it was incredibly fun. I haven't had this much fun since i played Unreal Co-op w/ the same friends so many years ago. And the modders are just doing this for fun on the weekends. I'm really lookin' forward to zombie-killin' co-op and to the future of Steam in general.
@gstaff:
Maybe not. If their schedule holds true, we should be well into 2009 before we see either.