All Valve delay jokes aside, they still deliver fine products, whenever they’re released. Valve’s Gabe Newell sat down with CVG and discussed possible changes to their episodic game plan.
"I think what we really want to do is have a couple of examples out there – Episode One, and how long it was to play and how long it took to develop, Episode Two, Portal and TF2 and then the third part of the trilogy; and then sit down with the community and say, ‘OK, so what do you want?’"
One of the advantages of an episodic plan is that Valve can release continual updates to its Source engine in the form of bite-sized episodes rather than gamers having to wait several years for another Half-Life 2-like game.
Once Half-Life 2: Episode Three is released; Newell and company will take a look and evaluate its procedures.
Newell praised Telltale Games for its episodic game plan with Sam & Max: Season 1 and its upcoming Season 2 for this fall. Telltale gained kudos from gamers (including me) for releasing a new game episode every month, so for Valve to give the nod to the independent developer, is a good sign that they’re heading in that direction too.
The Orange Box will be released for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on October 9th.
