Wondering got us to asking, so we asked around. And people like Ken Levine, Sid Meier, Gabe Newell, David Jaffe and Aaron Greenberg were kind enough to provide us with answers. Some wanted world peace. Others money. One wants to hear less Wham. Not sure Santa's the right person to be asking that of.

Anyway, without further ado, here's what some of the video game industries biggest names (and, uh...us) hope to find under the Christmas tree come December 25.

Pete Hines, Bethesda
"I'd like to see the USA make it to the semifinals of the World Cup, or Wake Forest make it to the Final Four. Or both. And I'd like enough time to get through the pile of new games I need to play and haven't gotten to yet. And money. And world peace. But mostly money."

Gabe Newell, Valve
"I decided I needed a hobby, so I started teaching myself how to be a machinist. I've got a CNC mill, surface grinder, heat treat furnace, and lots of other devices designed to launch various body parts across my garage at high velocity while on fire. Once you start going down this path, it makes putting together a Christmas list pretty easy as there's a near infinite amount of stuff that you can convince yourself you need. For example a year ago I'd never heard of Harvey Tool's 270 degree undercutting end mill (#23204-C3), and now I can't imagine how I'll be able to make it through Christmas day if I don't get it in my stocking. Band-Aids would also be nice..."

Sid Meier, Firaxis
"A Rickenbacker guitar! Playing and composing music is my second most favorite thing to do – next to making games of course! I've wanted one of these guitars for a while – hope Santa is reading this article."

Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft
"The Wire box set. Because you can never have too much knowledge about the how the game is played."

Hideki Kamiya, Platinum Games
"I would like lots of cute girlfriends for Christmas because I don't really have any cute girlfriends right now."

Todd Howard, Bethesda
"I'd like more time to sit in my basement and play video games. I don't know that I've been nice enough to my family to deserve that though, because I'm usually in my basement playing video games."

David Jaffe, EatSleepPlay
"As an agnostic who celebrates BOTH Christmas and Chanukah, my wish list includes: tickets to the Jay-Z concert at Staples center in March (I THINK my ex is getting them for me, but don't tell her I know, cool?!?), a fantastic time with friends and family over the holiday, for the spirit of God/the Universe/whatever you choose to call it to continue to flow thru me and the amazing team at Eat Sleep Play so we can provide fans a great deal of joy and happiness in the new year; great jobs for all my gaming colleagues who are out of work right now; and finally and most importantly: health, understanding, love, and much peace to us all, especially to those who are suffering. Much love, ya'll! Have a great holiday!"

Ken Levine, 2K Boston
"I'd like to get a working internet connection, Comcast! My guildmates need me! And damnit, I've been good enough to deserve a trip to the Scarlet Monastery."

Randy Pitchford, Gearbox
"All I want for the holidays is for single vendor DRM to die and be replaced by a global/universal identity and credential system that is loved and adopted by all. If that can happen, I guess it would also be cool to get one of those Taun Taun sleeping bags :)"

Frank O'Connor, 343 Studios
"Is it too much to ask Santa for a 50 inch Samsung LED TV? It's not because of the picture so much as it's the absolute, wafer-thin flatness of it. I have already been cheated, by life, out of a flying car. I just want a TV that looks like it would melt in your mouth. And then I could watch a documentary about world peace on it."

Ben Judd, Capcom
"If I could get anything for Christmas it would be a reduction in the amount of times I had to hear "Last Christmas" by Wham! in the various convenience stores, department stores, even the local pork cutlet shop. All of those not living in Japan, thank your lucky stars you this song doesn't have nearly the exposure in your country as it does in Japan. I have a very high threshold for pain... I even didn't mind Hanson. But hearing this song more than 100 times in a single 30 day span can break any man. Any man."

Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, Microsoft
"I need Bioshock 2 to be worthy of the first game. I need it to be great! Can't start next year with a broken heart."

Atsushi Inaba, Platinum Games
"I'd like a deserted island, surrounded by emerald green seas. I think even if I really shouldn't, having an island would make me feel like taking a vacation."

Luke Plunkett, Kotaku
"What do I want, readers? I want the complete Battlestar Galactica collection on Blu-Ray. I'll probably end up with something else, since that's so damn expensive, but we're talking about what I want here, not what I think I'll get."

Brian Ashcraft, Kotaku
"A weaker Japanese yen — way weaker. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD PLEASE!"

Stephen Totilo, Kotaku
"I want all my comics to magically turn into trade paperbacks, my old cassette tapes to suddenly be on my iPod and all my video games accessible from harddrives instead of discs. And I want all of that to be indestructible and always accessible, please? Oh, and more time to read would be nice."

Michael Fahey, Kotaku
"I want to know how to read and speak Japanese for Christmas. It would be lovely if this was something you could receive in a box with a neatly-wrapped bow around it. See, I've imported Final Fantasy XIII, and while I am to the point where I can make out a word in katakana if you give me a few minutes, I am relatively sure that won't do in this situation. Other than suddenly having knowledge of a language that takes years to learn, my list mainly consists of harder-to-find games. Bust-A-Groove for the PlayStation (I own a Japanese copy I can't play in anything,) and Thousand Arms. I would kill for a nice copy of Thousand Arms, probably my favorite RPG on the PlayStation. I suppose killing isn't in keeping with the season. I'd...hug an orphan for a nice copy of Thousand Arms."

Amanda Glasser, Kotaku
"Well, since I didn't get The Hangover on DVD for Hanukkah, I'd like that for Christmas, as well as Family Guy's Something Something Dark Side. The holidays are usually a real drag at my house and I'm forbidden to play video games because it's not 'spending time with the family,' so I'll need funny stuff like this to watch while the family is in the same room with me.

"Also, I'm still holding out for that pony."

Owen Good, Kotaku
More than anything I want a conference championship in either football or men's basketball for North Carolina State University. That's all. Not a Final Four. I don't even care about the Orange Bowl. Just a fucking Atlantic Coast Conference championship, which I've won a thousand times on my Xbox 360 in NCAA Football and Basketball, but which my school hasn't seen in real life since Jim Valvano and Bo Rein. Both coaches died young, and tragically. My wish doesn't really have much to do with games, unfortunately. But you asked, and when I honestly think of something that would make me happier than I have ever been in years, if only for a day, that is it.

PIC via Matti Matilla's Flickr photostream

The "Dude, Where's My Thumb 2" contest rules are pretty simple. Take a photo of yourself in front of one of the many outdoor ads currently plastered across New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami, Phoenix, Dallas, Minneapolis, and San Francisco, exhibit some creativity, submit your photo and cross those two aforementioned fingers. Last year's winner was this guy, so do better than that.

The winner of that contest gets a custom "infected" Xbox 360, which is hand-painted, laser engraved and custom designed. 25 runners-up get Xbox 360 copies of Left 4 Dead 2 autographed by Valve team members..

The only downside here is that PC gamers appear to have been left behind. But you're getting used to this level of disappointment, right PC gamers?

You have until November 15 to make photographic magic happen. Full details at the official Left 4 Dead site.

Dude, Where's My Thumb 2 [L4D.com]

Quick recap: We got sent a screengrab of some files in the Left 4 Dead 2 demo, pointing to "zombiedogs." I wasn't aware this was the prototype name of the Hunter's attack call from the original Left 4 Dead last year. Within about 20 minutes, thanks to your comments, we corrected the post and ultimately the decision was made to take it down, because it didn't in fact report any news or engage a useful debate to earn its traffic. This isn't a hard and fast policy or a precedent by the way, just peeling back the curtains on a decision readers may have noticed.

And for the record, I don't blame the tipster at all. I think he had good intentions and he and I both were just uninformed about the origin of zombiedogs.

But Fake Gabe Newell was on the case at once. "oh why'd we have to include zombie dogs," he Tweeted, He knows I'd been following him, probably hoping I or someone would report the tweet as confirmation of the rumor.

How do I know he's fake? A while back I was tipped off to some humorous tweets Newell was allegedly making, regarding some Taco Bell inspired gastric trouble. I ran this back to both Newell and Doug Lombardi, and the reply was instant: "I don't have a Twitter account," Newell said, and cc'd Valve's info chief on the reply, which led me to believe Twitter would be notified and action taken to either take down Fake Gabe Newell or make him change his handle.

Nope. Fake Gabe struck again Oct. 10 "Left4dead 2 is working me to the bone, I shall one day rest and on that day, I'll finally be able to start work on left4dead 3." At least one gaming blog picked this up and ran with it.

Fake Gabe's got a great writing style. He follows current developments, mentions Valve employees and salts his updates with enough workaday stuff to make his fake rumors somewhat believable to someone not looking too closely at his Twitter feed. Dig deeper through his updates and you don't see much that sounds like it would come from a man in his position though. And while he has 1,700 followers, he's only following 12 people, and 188 tweets. The real Gabe Newell would likely have higher counts in both, showing a network more befitting a public figure in this industry.

So anyway, Fake Gabe Newell, I'll probably regret giving you the publicity. But it's the light that disinfects, no? I'm calling you a big Fake Fakey McFakehead, and I challenge you - I know you are reading this! - to direct message me admitting your masquerade, and tell us what motivated you to carry out such evildoing!

And in a good-natured spirit, to ask that you stop impersonating the Valve chief. It's not a crime, and you've had plenty of fun. But the joke is getting stale.

Newell was asked about support for Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, relative to other Valve titles, and the chief offered that "Team Fortress is the benchmark and that's the level we intend to bring all products to.

We're going through transition, which I think is interesting. We call it "entertainment as a service" and Team Fortress is furthest along, in terms of rapid regular updates, and moving into movies with the 'Meet the Team' shorts, as well as we're starting to do some stuff with comics. So, Team Fortress is really the model that the rest of our products are gonna be following as we move ahead.

As to why he honored modder Joe W-A's request to get down to Brisbane and see his Left 4 Dead campaign:

We recognize that we really are part of this community. We talk about it a lot, that we're not up here and the community's down here, and the games snowflake in. We really are part of it. We look to that community to see what we should do. ... It was pretty clear that this was one of those things that the community fell in love with the idea. They wanted us to come down here and meet with Joe and give him feedback. And in our experience, it's been very bad idea when we get such a clear signal from pc gaming community, if we ignore it.

Fly Gabe Newell - Gabe Q&A - Part One [YouTube, from Joe W-A]

That you may already know. But Newell's not taking the ticket. Instead, Valve will be footing the bill for Gabe and Erik Johnson to travel to Australia, with the donations offered by the gaming community instead going to Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity. That's $3,121.27 USD in stuff for hospitalized kids! Who else feels warm and fuzzy?

Well, you shouldn't. Because there's no way that Gabe would be flying economy. And you can't book a business class flight on Qantas for under $8,000. Oh alright, you can feel warm and fuzzy now. I'm just being cynical.

Wonder if Joe W-A should get his resume in order...

Newell has apparently ended his mock boycott of a Left 4 Dead modder's campaign, committing (along with Valve's Erik Johnson) to visit Brisbane, Australia and play some guy's map. That modder, feeling slighted by not being flown to Valve himself to see if Left 4 Dead 2 was any good or not, racked up $3,000 in donations to get Newell and Johnson to take a 25 hour flight down under. And, as we've confirmed with Valve, that trip does appear to be happening.

While we wait for this cross-hemisphere meeting to take place, please visit my new blog I-have-not-been-personally-shown-half-life-2-episode-three.com. Show your support for this gross oversight on Valve's part. Thank you.

The Fly Gabe Newell Fund Has Been Successful! [Fly Gabe Newell]

The backstory: Joe W-A of Brisbane is a serious modder, working on this custom Left 4 Dead campaign, "Shotgun Sunrise." He's also pals with Newell. So Joe jokingly feigned disappointment that Newell didn't fly him up to Valve HQ to preview Left 4 Dead 2, which Valve did earlier for the leaders of the L4D2 boycott movement. Newell's joking reply was a "boycott" of Joe's campaign, and then the demand that Joe fly him and producer Erik Johnson to Australia if he wanted them to preview it.

Somehow, this premise netted more than $3,000 in donations through Saturday, when Joe announced the drive had breached its target. While he's offered to return donations should any of this be called off, the sum now is so serious that "I'm assuming you don't want refunds, and the money will go to either Gabe and Erik's flights or [the charity] Child's Play."

When he got about $500 in on the first day, Joe emailed Newell to ask for a price quote. Newell replied with a $1,211 figure on Qantas, connecting through L.A. "So Erik and I aren't too much in danger," Newell said. Not so fast, my friend.

So the ball is in Valve's court here. Whatever happens, we've all had a great laugh - some of Valve's employees even donated to the cause. And whether it ends with pictures of Gabe Newell and Erik Johnson in a 19-year-old modder's home across the Pacific Ocean, playing Left 4 Dead, or a handsome donation to a worthy cause, we can stamp "win" all over this.

Just Waiting on Gabe and Erik's Responses [Fly Gabe Newell]

The modder, Joe of Joe's Modding Menagerie, is putting together a campaign for Left 4 Dead (pictured, above. Note the "I miss Twitter" graffiti.) He's apparently friendly enough with Newell that the Valve managing director answers his emails. He's even autographed a prop graphics card. But Joe felt snubbed by the corrupting/co-opting/olive branch offering to the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott leaders, and sent Newell this email with the header "I think you just opened up a can of worms: Why the hell haven't I been flown to Valve? I mean, you guys need to preview my campaign."

Newell's arch reply: "We are boycotting your campaign."

Playing shocked, Joe asks if that means he has to fly Newell to Brisbane for him to preview the mod. Newell ups the ante. "Me and Erik [Johnson, Valve project manager]," he answers, cc'd to Johnson.

So what's left to be done? Boycott a boycott? Two of those won't make a right here. Instead, Joe has begun a fund drive to collect enough money to fly both down to Brisbane to test out his campaign. A ticket from Seattle to Brisbane runs about $1,000, U.S. Joe has $6 (Australian) in donations so far.

Update: Couple things here.

1) This is all a big gag, although the donation total is up to $375.75, with $100 of that coming from Valve's Robin Walker, who writes: "This is Robin Walker, from Valve. The rest of us at Valve would sure appreciate a couple of days without Erik around, so thanks for organising this! Quick question though: if I donated more, would you buy a one-way ticket for him?" So who knows where this is headed.

2) Nobody is pissed at anyone. It's clearly a parody of the rush to boycott things that displease you in games. Although I do acknowledge that my aside "Or was anyway," commenting on Joe's good terms with Gabe, carried not enough of an ironic tone and created confusion for some that Joe really is PO'd. He's not. So that's why I edited the lede. Everyone's having a good time.

Fly Gabe Newell [Blogspot]

There is substantial evidence that 4chan had plenty to do with this, as 4chan founder moot was No. 1 for some time, too. So I heavily doubt that Gabe himself chose to enter this contest. Other dudes, including Jared from Subway, had a strong run before getting removed.

"I love my body. I don't let anyone get me down about it," is the quote beside Gabe's picture. "If someone says a hurtful comment, I just push it back."

Yeah. Slick way to put that, whomever entered Gabe.

Naturally, Victoria's Secret said, "ick, nerds!" and smashed down the draft-Gabe shenanigans. Too bad, I would have loved seeing him prance down the runway at the annual CBS fashion show. Maybe they could give him a prop crowbar to wave around.

Body By Victoria Contest: Gabe [Victoria's Secret]

The story in question originally ran on Joystiq, which presented a lengthy e-mailed anecdote from Pitchford that purportedly answered the question of how Gearbox got its name. The story of riverboat gambling was extraordinary, and one I mistakenly took as true.

Pitchford told me today that his intent was to entertain, not mislead. I regret not trying to confirm the story with Valve before publication.

Over Twitter, he wrote: "Enjoy the Tall Tale about the Gearbox name? Read it on Joystiq and give them love! Kotaku too :)"

Apologies to Valve and you readers for presenting a tall tale as a real one. We're all for a good yarn, but didn't mean to mislead anyone.

Here's a little chit-chat the Valve head had with host Geoff Keighley on tonight's episode of GTTV:

Keighley: Are you guys working on PlayStation 3 here now, trying to understand it, trying to get better at it?

Gabe: Uh, no. Not in any real way.

There you have it. Not much wiggle room in that sentence.

Valve founder Gabe Newell discusses this character in a newly uploaded YouTube video, which appears to be from that focus test. In it, Newell speaks of a hearing impaired character that Alyx "had a crush on" well before her first meeting with protagonist Gordon Freeman. According to Newell, Alyx taught her robot sidekick Dog to sign so she could practice, while this person is off, say, fighting the Combine.

Newell calls the character's inclusion and use of sign language an "excuse to build the technology for signing" in an unspecified game. Joining Newell at that session was Valve modeler/animator Bay Raitt, who apparently attended to study facial movements made by the deaf focus testers.

Newell also asks the testers, some of them fans of Valve, if they think the developer is serving the deaf community properly with its games, particularly in multiplayer.

We're not sure what Valve has planned for Episode 3, but Newell has indicated before that its extended development cycle is related to some new technology that the company plans to implement alongside the expansion's release.

But we're definitely happy that Valve is paying attention to this sort of thing, catering to a small segment of its user base, the one's incapable of hearing the soothing sounds of Gordon Freeman's voice.

Gabe Newell w/ Deaf Character - Part 2 - Part 3 [YouTube]

Valve like to think so. Company boss Gabe Newell has said that, rather than allow conservative publishers to dictate the kind of content that's published, that decision should rest instead with you. The customer.

One of the areas that I am super interested in right now is how we can do financing from the community. So right now, what typically happens is you have this budget - it needs to be huge, it has to be $10m - $30m, and it has to be all available at the beginning of the project. There's a huge amount of risk associated with those dollars and decisions have to be incredibly conservative.

What I think would be much better would be if the community could finance the games. In other words, ‘Hey, I really like this idea you have. I'll be an early investor in that and, as a result, at a later point I may make a return on that product, but I'll also get a copy of that game.'

So move financing from something that occurs between a publisher and a developer… Instead have it be something where funding is coming out of community for games and game concepts they really like.

May not be entirely practical for AAA games, whose budgets can run into the tens of millions, but for smaller games - or even a demo for a larger game - hey, why not, this could totally work.

Gabe Newell - Valve Software [Good Game, via Kotaku AU]

Instead, it looked as though it had been released by Valve, and made to look like a leak.

So why would the company go to such lengths to fake the release of a movie that would have gone down well regardless of how we'd found out about it? It's all to do with the development team, and how they're so in the zone.

Valve boss Gabe Newell:

Just so you know, the thing to me, that feels right, is the rhythm that Robin and his team are operating with. It's like watching the reaction of that community, watching their ability to respond, looking at the quality of the work they're getting with the length of those development cycles. They're having a great time. And I think it shows on the other side, right? I mean, they were just giggling so hard when they were changing the buttons in the movies to say "leak video." Do you remember the big screen with all the buttons? And they were like we have to put "leaks video" into that thing before we release it. They were just like cackling away. What should have been like, pretty demoralizing and stressful was for them, "Oh, this is no big deal." So, yeah, people get the idea.

Wait wait wait, so it was leaked? And they were just lucky enough to have covered their asses beforehand, in preparation? Oh Valve, you're so confusing.

Opening The Valve: The Gabe Newell Interview [G4]

As outlined in the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott group's manifesto, that group of fans believe that the "stand-alone sequel will split the communities and decrease the quality of multiplayer gaming." Miffed fans believe that the content so far revealed "does not warrant a stand-alone, full-priced sequel and should instead become updates (free or otherwise)" for the original Left 4 Dead.

We asked Valve for a response to those claims.

"Doing a sequel in one year is new for Valve. But providing ongoing support for our titles after the initial launch isn't - it has been part of our philosophy since Half-Life was released ten and half years ago," said Valve president Gabe Newell in a statement to Kotaku. "We see no reason to change that and will continue to support the over three million customers in the L4D community."

"E3 is a trade event where developers and publishers come to announce new games for the coming year. L4D2 — like any new product — requires an appearance at the show," Newell said.

Valve says, it will continue to support the original with continued updates.

"Some in the community are concerned that the announcement of L4D2 implied a change in our plans for L4D1. We aren't changing our plans for L4D1."

Whether that will allay fears that Left 4 Dead will be left behind by some community members remains to be seen, but Valve notes that it hasn't abandoned the original.

"In addition to the recently released Survival Pack, we are releasing authoring tools for Mod makers, community matchmaking, 4x4 matchmaking, and more new content during the coming months for L4D1," Newell says. "We also agree with our customers that there needs to be an interoperability plan for players of L4D1 and L4D2, as multiplayer games are driven by the cohesiveness of their community."

When we first went hands-on with the Steam version of Left 4 Dead 2 at E3, we felt that the title felt awfully similar to the original. Some of that may simply be due to incremental updates already revealed. As Valve's Chet Faliszek told us at the time, there are still plenty of details left to be doled out, including information on new weapons, two new Special Infected types and more.

Faliszek said at E3 that he very much understood the "gut reaction" to the uncharacteristically Valve move to launch such a quick follow-up. But, he said, as people learn more about the game over the next few months, they'll see why "none of the additions [in Left 4 Dead 2] are trivial."

- He says some great sutff about combating piracy. Really seems to hit the nail on the head when it comes to the PC market. He says that people aren't pirating because they're cheapskates, they're pirating because it's a better service. No regional delays, no DRM, instant downloading, that kind of thing.

Which Steam is aiming to match. They're not trying to stamp out piracy, they're trying to catch up.

- The team currently working on Team Fortress 2's excellent character videos are now working on comics. He didn't specify whether they'd be Team Fortress 2 comics, though, but you'd wager it'd be something Valve-related, or he wouldn't be mentioning it now, would he? MTV"s Stephen Totilo has let us know that, yes, they're working on Team Fortress 2 comics

- Steam sales don't increase sales. "Increase" is doing the benefit a disservice. Team Fortress 2 sales go up by over 100% when there's a free update on the PC. And the recent Left 4 Dead sale? That saw sales of the game increase by 3000%. And no, that's not a typo.

- The benefits of Steam as a retail platform don't stop there. Newell also mentioned that for a particular third-party game (which goes unnamed), sales went up 36,000% following a weekend sale. Sure, that's a hand-picked statistic (it's just one game, and we don't know how low sales were beforehand), but it's also an enormous figure.

- Responding to audience questions, Newell believes that it's inevitable that a service like Steam - which started on the PC - will eventually migrate to consoles.

Live Blog: DICE 2009 Keynote - Gabe Newell, Valve Software [G4]

Newell will be on hand at the 2009 D.I.C.E. Summit to deliver a keynote address, which I presume will have something to do with Valve, Steam, or some combination thereof. The key thing to remember here is that Gabe isn't one to mince words, and his mouth is big enough for both of his feet, as well as the feet of several innocent passersby. Should be a hoot!

“Gabe Newell and Valve have become a force for innovation in gaming over the past a decade, creating some of the best-selling games of all time and a ground-breaking platform for PC entertainment,” said Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. “His perspective and vision of the games industry are a welcome addition to this year’s D.I.C.E. Summit, and will greatly contribute to the high-profile line-up.”

Check out the entire updated roster of D.I.C.E. speakers below, all of whom shall say some things while they are there. Possibly things regarding stuff.

• Dan Bilson, THQ.
• Chris Cao, Sony Online Entertainment
• N'Gai Croal, Newsweek
• Michael Denny, Sony Corp. EU
• Anita Frazier, NPD Research
• Julianne Greer, The Escapist
• Lars Gustavsson, D.I.C.E. Studios/EA
• Michael Haigh, SCE Worldwide Studios
• Mona Hamilton, Capcom
• Rich Hilleman, Electronic Arts
• Todd Howard, Bethesda Studios
• Geoff Keighley, Spike TV
• Alex Laurent, LucasArts/ILM
• Ralph Osterhout, Serial Inventor
• David Perry, Acclaim Entertainment
• Ted Price, Insomniac Games
• J. Paul Raines, Gamestop
• John Riccitiello, Electronic Arts
• Seth Schiesel, New York Times
• Bruce Shelley, Ensemble Studios
• Mike Snider, USA Today
• Jun Takeuchi, Capcom
• Chris Taylor, Gas Powered Games

In an email to a fan who had contacted Valve about fears that they would be using SecuROM to lock down Left 4 Dead, Newell replied,

"As far as DRM goes, most DRM strategies are just dumb. The goal should be to create greater value for customers through service value [...] not by decreasing the value of a product. We really really discourage other developers and publishes from using the broken DRM offerings, and in general there is a groundswell to abandon those approaches."

Report: Valve's Gabe Newell Disses DRM [GamePolitics]

It seems by and large that gamers are incredibly smart; the average gamer seems to know more about what makes a good game than the average person at a publisher.

When Gabe Newell's right, Gabe Newell's right.

Gabe Newell: Gamers Smarter Than Publishers [Ripten via Dtoid] [Pic]

And it’s not just the PS3 they’re warming to. The Wii has, last time we checked, sold a ton of units as well. Same story, then?

If we were going for the Wii we'd have to go for a whole new game that's designed for that platform. That's an expensive proposition and riskier than just getting some good PS3 developers on board.

It's something that we're still evaluating, but certainly the install base is the thing that rules all. If there's an opportunity there you've got to take it seriously.

Yup.

On the topic of the PS3… if Valve are suddenly warming to the PS3, what does this mean for the prospect of a PS3 version of Left 4 Dead? It means things are looking up! Well, maybe not up, but at least “50-50”. And a 50% chance is a lot better than a 0% chance.

Valve: Doug Lombardi [CVG]