Left 4 Dead 2 On PS3: “It’s Not Going To”

And Gearbox president chips in with PS3 support.

Published 07/11/2009 at 12:00.
By Tuffcub.

Valve, Valve, Valve. When you just admit you’re actually a bit crap and can’t work out how to write games for the PS3. What excuse are you going to use this time?

“Right now for Left 4 Dead 2 we’re looking at PC and 360 because the community aspects really fit the game – it’s all about playing with your friends,” he said, “Right now don’t not buy it on the 360 because you think it’s coming out on the PS3 – it’s not going to. Right? It’s coming out on the PC and 360. It’s going to be exclusive for that. In hooking up with your friends and the community aspects, I think the Xbox 360 is head and shoulders above the PS3. The 360 and PC are on par, right?”

So there we go. Left 4 Dead 2 is not coming out on PS3 because we’re not friendly. We wouldn’t want to let Valve down, so will all PS3 users please face in the direction of Bellevue in the United States, the home of Valve (it’s just above Washington). Everyone ready? Right, now turn 180 degrees to face in the opposite direction and drop your trousers and moon.

The exquisitely named Randy Pitchford, President of Borderlands dev, Gearbox, has commented on Valve’s anti-Ps3 campaign,

“The PS3 is awesome. I think Valve… I don’t know why they are doing that. It’s weird, but yeah, the PlayStation platform’s really cool. It’s different to others and it’s certainly a challenge to be able to develop software for. But that’s where the fun is, right?”

“I noticed something on the net not too long ago. Doug Lombardi (Valve’s VP Marketing) had to take a swipe at the PS3 again, and I thought it was foolish. I read it the same way I read fanboys. Like there’s a guy who brought the Sony platform and he’s a Sony guy, so he decides he’s going to spend a certain percentage of his time bashing Microsoft. And there’s a guy on Microsoft doing the same thing. Those guys are childish and narrow minded, it’s the same kind of thing.”

“Valve think their own stuff is the only stuff that matters, to the point where they have their own distribution platform. It’s like, I don’t care about retail, about Marketplace, or PSN, I’m going to have Steam. It’s cool, it’s good, and they’re doing a good job but at the same time they’re reliant on the rest of the world. They had to do that deal with EA. When I see the L4D ad on the television I don’t see a Valve logo, I see an EA logo, and when I bought it, I bought it at a store.”

I don’t think any more needs to be said on the subject, do you?

Comments

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mynameisblair | 07/11/2009 12:02
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4205 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009

“Right now don’t not buy it on the 360″
Weirdest worded sentence ever.
Is this guy for real?
- teflon | 07/11/2009 12:34
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  3257 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
  
  It’s a valid sentence structure in the context of what he’s trying to say. Double negatives just sound very american, I find. Id have said “If you think it’s coming out on the PS3, it’s not going to. So buy it on 360.”
  
  And yeah, unfortunately he and Gabe Newell are real (one could say that Gabe Newell is a bit too real), whilst Randy seems to have a very level head on his shoulders. Just a couple weeks after he says that Steam should be a separate company because it’s too close to Valve and their technology and we see all the other online DDL stores saying they wont sell MW2 because it would require you to install Steam first.
  
  Now that there is some anti-competitive controversy, and would you look at what other company is at the heart of it? oh yeah! Activision!
  - Sympozium | 07/11/2009 22:27
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    3144 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
    
    What he is saying is don’t buy it on 360 because it is just Left 4 Dead 1.5, hey you can even get it for free on pc!!!
Deathbrin | 07/11/2009 12:04
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1186 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009

Well, they say L4D2 is crap anyway. Maybe there’ll be a chance with the third one?
- Person678 | 07/11/2009 13:04
  BOOM! Headshot!
  2353 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009
  
  From what I’ve played of the demo L4D2 is utterly fantastic.
- Ripperfish | 08/11/2009 15:19
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  213 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2009
  
  Well they say wrong, its far better than the first one ebcuase they’ve just polished it up but at the same time added stuff in, its going to be a great game.
Ryan1991 | 07/11/2009 12:07
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2692 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009

What an absolute moron. From a business point of view, he is losing so much money from not releasing it on the PS3 just because our community may be slightly less evolved than X360 but why would that stop you from releasing it on PS3? Just to clarify my whole point, Valve are morons.
cc_star | 07/11/2009 12:08
Team TSA: Writer
11320 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

PS3 has a pretty flat online community – the network is silent, and the community features are weak in comparison to the competition.

There I said it, it’s out in the open, I can’t take it back and pretend I never said it (unless I delete the comment of course)
- lewis815 | 07/11/2009 12:12
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  Quick! Put those worms back in the can !!
- Cjdamon042 | 07/11/2009 13:25
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  You’re right, but I still think it’s a viable platform to develop for. L4D2 could easily work on PS3. People do have friends and people do have headsets. Sure the majority don’t (I don’t, but I’m not really into that stuff anyway), but there is still a market there. PSN may not be as “great” as XBL, but I still think it’s pretty close, considering it’s Sony’s first attempt at a robust online community whilst being free.
  - cc_star | 07/11/2009 19:21
    Team TSA: Writer
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    Hell yeah it’s viable
    
    If people play with friends then it doesn’t matter, but when you have a game when none of your friends are playing is when I notice just either how silent it is, or that people just play crap music down their mic
- hazelam | 07/11/2009 13:27
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  5852 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
  
  there’s not actually that much difference in the two services when it comes down to it.
  live has a few extra features that the psn doesn’t have, although apparently ms are letting devs deactivate some of them if they decide to.
  and the lack of racist, homophobic foul mouthed 12 year old american kids is a plus point not a negative.
  - cc_star | 07/11/2009 19:24
    Team TSA: Writer
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    You’re right of course, but the PS3 has a couple of good features hidden away in Home, which if they were on the XMB would greatly aid the community feel of the network as a whole.
    
    Although the PS3 has less racist homophobes, it does have just as many other annoying idiots who use the mic to play crap loud msic down it, or have a massive argument with their mrs.
    
    I’ve played loads of Uncharted 2 online and not once has anyone spoke anything useful (either tactics, or just had a laugh) And I spend half the time muting people – making my mic purchase a waste of money, and the network largely useless.
- aerobes | 07/11/2009 22:39
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  2020 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
  
  Though i confess to not being overly vocal online, I find some of the (admittedly few) racist remarks/crying babys/loud music) a bit overbearing, It makes me a touch apprehensive to try and form multiplayers with people who actually want to play.
  I actually bought a 360 at launch (I was distraught at PS3 European delay), I subsequently sold the unit but i now dread to think what some 360 players are saying online considering what some posters are saying!
  I might try some TSA gaming meets since most on here seem to be fairly considerate and open.
lewis815 | 07/11/2009 12:11
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854 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009

How pathetic. Just because not every PS3 owner has a headset doesn’t mean the community is any less “involved” than the 360 owners.
- cc_star | 07/11/2009 12:15
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  11320 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
  
  But it kinda does
  
  I may like chatting online, you might… but the overwhelming majority don’t own a headset and those that do don’t know how to communicate in games.
  
  Also the features like not being able to take a group of friends straight into a game (unless you power up Home, wait whilst you have to download various areas etc….) or from one game to another, to another is quite limiting
  - BetaGhast | 07/11/2009 13:22
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    I mute the majority of players in Uncharted 2, so i can talk with my headset touting party, and not listening to the other annoyances.
MF6465 | 07/11/2009 12:18
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165 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008

Im sorry, but want i do not want to happen to the PSN is for it to be overrun with 12 yearold children and people who think everone else in the game wants to listen to low quality crackly music from their mic. Valve are complete …… i want to say f***ots but thats not very polite, so i will say….. spoon’s.
- FRUIT0FDOOM | 07/11/2009 12:45
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  490 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
  
  The beauty of Live is you can mute anyone you want forever! Genius idea.
xdarkmagician | 07/11/2009 12:26
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755 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009

“Right now don’t not buy it on the 360 because you think it’s coming out on the PS3…” This tells me that they knew this product would sell just as many copies on the PS3. There’s only 1 reason not to make money somewhere, and that’s because you’re making it someplace else. Don’t you need Vista to play it on PC? I have always gotten the feeling that MS has their hand in Valve’s decision making, or at least a finger or two. Saying that PSN doesn’t have the community for it is stupid, games create communities, they don’t just happen without the game. If Valve want’s to put all their eggs in MS basket that’s fine, but at least have the balls to say your MS’s bitch when asked why.
- hamburger_rob0s3x | 07/11/2009 20:09
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  who still makes games for xp any more?
  - xdarkmagician | 08/11/2009 02:10
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    My point is even though they say it’s on 2 systems, it’s really only on one- MS. So valve is really a 1st party developer, and they should just step out of the closet and admit it. People would have more respect for them if they just said “we choose to support MS because they pay us” instead of bashing the PS3 about why they don’t make games for it.
Zoidberg | 07/11/2009 12:29
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13 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2009

It’s all rather embarrassing and sad on Valves part. The PS3 is constantly gaining strength, and the Xbox getting weaker. Pretty soon the PS3 will be in second place, and by the end of the generation, out on top.

The more sh1t talking that Valve do, the harder it will be do swallow their words down he line. They might be happy to ignoe 48% of their potential userbase right now, but when they are ignoring 70% then it’s not so easy, the shareholders will be very upset.

Gabe, I hope this is all worth it, as lets remember when the real problem is here, it’s not that PS3 is hard to develop for (PS2 was harder, and Naughty Dog aren’t having any problems), the problem here is that Gabe used to work for Microsoft and still has close ties with them. He will happilly sink the company rather than upset Microsoft it seems.
- hamburger_rob0s3x | 07/11/2009 20:10
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  How is the xbox getting weaker when it’s been making a profit while the ps3 hasn’t?
gazzagb | 07/11/2009 13:05
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4274 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009

Erm, dont Valve realise that if they made it for PS3, they would make more money???
Valve arent exactly best buds with EA so i doubt if Valve get into trouble, EA will help them out…
online4ntagonist | 07/11/2009 13:24
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528 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008

That depends. If they sell enough to break even or make a profit to regain some of the production costs, they might consider. But I think that Valve estimates the risks are too high.
It might have something to do with everybody bashing the orange box on the PS3. In my opinion a totally unjust and untrue bashing. I play HL2 a lot on a 1080 102cm screen, sure it staggers every now and then, but I’ve played it on a borrowed Xbox too, and guess what? Same freezes, staggers and other fuckups.
- Zoidberg | 07/11/2009 14:23
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  13 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2009
  
  The media went off on a PS3 HateFest with orangebox, and frankly made themselves look like clueless idiots. Anyone thats actually PLAYED PS3 Orange Box right though will testify that there is nothing wrong with it whatsoever.
  - minerwilly | 07/11/2009 19:20
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    1197 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
    
    Yea before i chose to get a PS3 i was weighing up the benefits of each console and I remember reading a lot of stuff about the orange box and it almost swung me to get a 360 . This year i rented it out and it was fantastic and is an absolute bargain now (usually under £20) .
  - hamburger_rob0s3x | 07/11/2009 20:12
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    13 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2009
    
    Actually valve didn’t develop the orange box for the ps3 EA did. So i think that makes you clueless.