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Steamworks silence

Nothing to say :: February 7th, 2008 :: Steamworks :: 10 Responses

Steamworks is a very large and profound change for the PC industry. Unfortunately Valve don’t appear interested in talking to me any more, so there is little I can do for the conversation surrounding it but add unanswered questions. Which I would rather not.

I will instead leave you with Andy Simpson’s guest opinion piece from last year, for reasons which should become clear as you read it, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun’s interview, which does an excellent job of demystifying a press release that left a lot of its readers in the dark.

I’m sorry about this.

10 Responses to this post:

  1. February 7th, 2008 at 6:14 pm ::
    Ed Says:

    As a developer of a popular (non half-life) mod I contacted Valve after seeing the release to ask if Steamworks was suitable for us. No response. Contacted again, ditto. Bit sad really…

  2. February 7th, 2008 at 6:55 pm ::
    hahnchen Says:

    Did the drop off in activity get you culled from Valve’s press list?

  3. February 8th, 2008 at 9:39 am ::
    Tom Edwards Says:

    No, it’s been going on for longer than that.

  4. February 8th, 2008 at 11:50 am ::
    Daniel Chambers Says:

    That Valve won’t talk to you is a real pity. Maybe’s something wrong at their end… considering Ed has also received the same treatment. Valve never struck me as the sort of company to act like this…

  5. February 9th, 2008 at 6:29 pm ::
    garry Says:

    Can’t you just peice together what they said in other articles?

  6. February 11th, 2008 at 9:13 pm ::
    g3n3tix Says:

    Interesting…the first Steamworks enabled game ! It will feature achievements.
    http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=news&id=1436
    Audiosurf, a music puzzle game with the Orange box soundtrack, you can use you own mp3s.
    Let’s see how it goes…

  7. February 16th, 2008 at 4:46 pm ::
    Andy Simpson Says:

    The new Steamworks site is up: http://steamgames.com/steamworks

    There’s some interesting stuff UI on display for actual matchmaking, with game lobbies and everything.

    Also, this has the same kind of layout as the Steam community pages. I think it’s only a matter of time before a new design for the Store comes down the pipe.

  8. February 20th, 2008 at 5:57 pm ::
    Tom Edwards Says:

    Turns out I’m not the only one with difficulties getting through. The PR department are snubbing anyone who isn’t from a mainstream media outlet! It does make sense in hindsight: I stopped getting communications at roughly the same time as everything started being redirected through them.

    Can’t you just peice together what they said in other articles?

    What would be the point? Nobody needs me to do that for them.

    The lobby system is clearly a mock-up, Andy. Not worth bothering with yet. I am surprised to see that VAC is on offer with Steamworks though, and that it looks like you’ll get free hosting on the content servers.

  9. February 20th, 2008 at 11:23 pm ::
    Andy Simpson Says:

    It’s either a mockup or they’ve reskinned Steam again, I know. But it does show what they’re aiming towards.

    And that’s a shame – Valve was always special for trying to keep in touch with the community. If they start releasing nothing but dull press releases, it’ll be a great shame.

  10. February 23rd, 2008 at 5:03 am ::
    Mickiscoole Says:

    Just keep trying to get onto them, and if you can’t get through, email Gabe or someone who does know the importance of a good community interaction and complain and maybe they’ll do something about it.

    I find it awesome that they’re slowly designing everything to look like the overlay