Three big surprises from Valve

PALGN News | Newell opens the excitement valve.

Big things are on the way from developer Valve according to CVG, with big boss Gabe Newell delivering the titillating news that his company has three big surprises coming over at least the next twelve months. Sadly, in typical Valve fashion, Newell refused to offer any hints as to what these surprises will entail, other than stating that 'people will be shocked again'.

A history of keeping a tight lid on things is not unusual for Valve, with the latest surprise being Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3, a platform that, until then, had been panned by Newell for its difficult programming platform.

Valve's known projects at this point include Portal 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 3, something secret from Defense of the Ancients developer 'IceFrog', and the seemingly endless updates for Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2. The secrets may have something to do with any of these titles, or they may be about something else entirely. Counter Strike 2? Something for the Wii? A film? Valve has, in the past, mentioned all of these things to some degree, though who really knows what is going on behind closed doors.

Why not post your speculation in the comments?

Related Content

Valve dates Portal 2
19 Aug, 2010 Suuure...

Portal 2 Delayed
10 Jun, 2010 Surprise! Not.

Steam Comes to Mac
10 Mar, 2010 Steamed Apple?

PagePrevious 12

49 Comments

sobriquet835

1 year ago

Quote

They could strike a deal where steam is integrated into the service pack for windows 7. Steam becomes the new games explorer, installed on every windows PC.

That would be insanely awesome. Doubt it will happen, but it would be awesome.

johnmiceter

1 year ago

COUNTER STRIKE For XBOX live Arcade.

This would sell a million I reckon in the first few days

Sin Ogaris

1 year ago

grim-one wrote

Cliffski.com wrote

Cliffski.com">Here are some things valve could do, that really are surprises.

1) They could convert steam to a subscription model. All current steam games free, to all subscribers. Subscription is $20 a month, a revenue split is worked out with the developers.

2) They could launch a TV or Movie based venture. Maybe an online streamed TV station based on gaming. They aim to become the #1 global media source for games news.

3) They could strike a deal where steam is integrated into the service pack for windows 7. Steam becomes the new games explorer, installed on every windows PC.

^ I like the way this guy thinks

1) No. I refuse to pay for a service I can readily get elsewhere on PC for free.

2) Sounds ok... but I can imagine it wouldn't really hit it off that well, the gaming TV thing that is.

3) HELL NO! It already pisses me off that I have to log in every time I want to play a Steam game, it also pisses me off that I have to log in to play SC2, if some kind of blanket system forced me to have to log into the net every ******* time I wanted to play frigging solitaire I would go shoot somebody.

grim-one

1 year ago

Sin Ogaris wrote

1) How about as an alternative payment model?

3) Umm.. why don't you sign into Steam automatically?

Sin Ogaris

1 year ago

1) If I have to start paying for something I get elsewhere for free, I'll stop using the service and use a different one. There really isn't a thing I can think of that is necessary for me to have to pay a subscription for in Steam.

3) Because I have very few games in Steam, but there's quite a few games I play, I don't like having ANOTHER thing working away in the background because my computer sucks.

Jarrod

1 year ago

Sin Ogaris wrote

You know he doesn't mean "convert everything in Steam to a subscription model", right? The idea was an optional monthly subscription model that, should you chose, would allow you access to all 'Steam' related games for free.

So, hypothetically, for the month that you pay $20 you'd be able to immediately download and own any games released by participating developers during that period.

Something like that couldn't happen though. Too much red tape and money grubbing publishers to deal with.

Benza

1 year ago

Quote

3) They could strike a deal where steam is integrated into the service pack for windows 7. Steam becomes the new games explorer, installed on every windows PC

Dear god no.

I **** hate steam and loathe the fact that I had to install it to play games that I'd bought at a store and had on a DVD. Bundling it in with windows would make it 1000 times worse.

Also I'm sure my mum and dad, and my grandma would love having steam installed on there pc's...

A13x

1 year ago

What's wrong with Steam?

Benza

1 year ago

A13x wrote

What's wrong with Steam?

I don't like anything that's forced on me and prevents me from playing my games when my internet crashed before I could set it to "Run offline" or whatever the **** it was.

Simple fact is, I just paid 90 bucks for half life 2, I didn't want Steam, why should I have to install it?

Sin Ogaris

1 year ago

No, see Benza, you're not allowed to diss Steam, because Valve is apparently infallible. You're only allowed to get narky at OTHER companies that use that kind of DRM (which is exactly what Steam is, I might add).

Jarrod wrote

Sin Ogaris wrote

Cool... but it'll never happen.

grim-one

1 year ago

Benza wrote

I don't like anything that's forced on me and prevents me from playing my games when my internet crashed before I could set it to "Run offline" or whatever the **** it was.

I don't think it does that anymore (if it ever did). If it can't connect, you just tell it to run in offline mode.

Benza

1 year ago

grim-one wrote

Benza wrote

I don't like anything that's forced on me and prevents me from playing my games when my internet crashed before I could set it to "Run offline" or whatever the **** it was.

I don't think it does that anymore (if it ever did). If it can't connect, you just tell it to run in offline mode.

As of about 2 months ago it does when it did it to me it does.

grim-one

1 year ago

Benza wrote

grim-one wrote

Benza wrote

I don't like anything that's forced on me and prevents me from playing my games when my internet crashed before I could set it to "Run offline" or whatever the **** it was.

I don't think it does that anymore (if it ever did). If it can't connect, you just tell it to run in offline mode.

As of about 2 months ago it does when it did it to me it does.

/shrug

Just tried this:
1) Quit steam
2) Pull network cable
3) Start Steam
4) Steam prompts me to go into offline mode
5) Play TF2, Torchlight, Plain Sight (Galcon Fusion didn't work - couldn't connect to "key server")

Furianshi

1 year ago

Benza wrote

Quote

3) They could strike a deal where steam is integrated into the service pack for windows 7. Steam becomes the new games explorer, installed on every windows PC

I don't think it'll happen. I don't know much about Steam because I don't bother installing games on my pos laptop, but isn't it like a rival platform to MS's Games for Windows? If that's the case, I don't see Microsoft being too keen on incorporating Steam into Windows.

Nevertheless, if it did happen, or for anything else they don't want running automatically at start-up, give codestuff starter a go. It'll stop whatever you want from starting as Windows boots.

Cerebral

1 year ago

Secretly hoping at least one of the surprises is related to Valve hiring 'Icefrog' and registering the trademark 'DOTA' the other month.

Furianshi

1 year ago

So... what were the 3 big surprises?

A13x

1 year ago

the article wrote

Gabe Newell delivering the titillating news that his company has three big surprises coming over at least the next twelve months

Furianshi

1 year ago

Ah ok, I didn't read it properly, cheers.

I thought it was gonna be 3 big surprises at PAX, but then it went quiet and nothing eventuated... guess I won't be needing this then:

what a waste of time.

Benza

1 year ago

Duke is better then Freeman anyway

grim-one

1 year ago

Yeah but Freeman has depth. Duke's just a 2D musclehead.

Fetidchimp

1 year ago

but duke has balls of steel, it looks like freeman has got balls of high strength polymer compound

Benza

1 year ago

grim-one wrote

Yeah but Freeman has depth.

We must be struggling for deep characters if Freeman counts as being deep. He's a silent protagonist with no personality and pretty much no backstory?

grim-one

1 year ago

Benza wrote

grim-one wrote

Yeah but Freeman has depth.

We must be struggling for deep characters if Freeman counts as being deep. He's a silent protagonist with no personality and pretty much no backstory?

I was a joking - Duke is (was?) a sprite.

Benza

1 year ago

grim-one wrote

Benza wrote

grim-one wrote

Yeah but Freeman has depth.

We must be struggling for deep characters if Freeman counts as being deep. He's a silent protagonist with no personality and pretty much no backstory?

I was a joking - Duke is (was?) a sprite.

Well don't I look like a prat then