PS3 needs to be “open like a Mac”, says Valve

[luke_c]

Valve boss Gabe Newell’s said in an interview with 5BY5TV that he’d like to see PS3 be “open like a Mac” instead of being “more closed like a Gamecube”.

His remarks come 24 hours after comments made by EA Partners boss David DeMartini, saying that EA’s port work on the PS3 version of The Orange Box was a “challenge situation”.

“Platform investments, like the Mac, are difficult because you have to be aware of what direction that platform is moving,” Newell said, referring to the firm’s recent move onto Mac with its titles and distribution service Steam.

“We need to target platforms that do a better job of looking like where we want to be in a few years.

”On PS3, he said: “We would love to see the PS3 be more open like a Mac than more closed like a Gamecube. It makes it easier to justify those investments if that were the case.

”So far, the firm’s avoided bringing its titles to the system, bar EA’s Orange Box port, deciding to handle on Xbox 360 and PC only.

Source.

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

Open like a Mac, closed like a GameCube? What the fuck?

 

[Thoob]

"Open like a Mac"? LOLIRONY.

 

[Spikey]

Yet they bring their games to the overly closed 360. The PS3 is a far more open system than the 360 is, by huge leaps and bounds. So this logic is, how do you say, completely and utterly broken?

 

[Law]

I think what Gabe means is that they want open access to Sony's bank accounts

 

[BORTZ]

Open like a Mac, closed like a GameCube? What the fuck?

Yes what the fuck indeed.
Has anyone here ever tried to hack a mac?
Has anyone here NOT had homebrew on their gamecube?
This guy is waaaay off with his analogies.

 

[playallday]

Nice irony there.

 

[Jamstruth]

Is it something to do with the forecasting of how popular the system is, will be etc? I dunno what he's talking about to be honest. Maybe its got to do with the level of access they can gain to the system?

 

[Forstride]

I think this is Valve's way of saying they want to have their games on the PS3 really bad... They just compared it to a Gamecube (lolwut?) because, well...I actually don't know why...

It should be the other way around, like Bortz said.

 

[AshuraZro]

Talking about homebrew here is pointless because Valve is not a homebrew developer and has access to development tools regardless of the platform. Frankly I think no one here can really comment towards what they've said and at the same time know precisely what they are talking about. Although that is a fault of theirs as without explanation it still is a very wtf statement (much like everyone elses in here).

 

[PolloDiablo]

I dont know what the fuck this means.
Anyway.... HAIL NINTENDO!!!

 

[nando]

mac is pretty open in a way. the developer tools are already in every mac for free and the all the documentation is also available for free.

 

[Maikel Steneker]

Well, you can't argue that a Mac is more open than a PS3. You can use pretty much any device on a Mac and you can run any software on it that's written for it. If I want to make a Mac game, I can.

With consoles, this is not the case. Sony is the one that decides what games are on the PS3. Still, the PS3 is much more open than the Xbox 360, for which Valve does develop, and it's definitely more open than a GameCube. You can plug in any USB controller and it will work, you can use microphones and webcams that are not made by Sony and they'll still work in games, you can plug in a keyboard and a mouse and you can use it to browse the web and even control games that support it (UT3)...

I really hope Valve will develop for the PS3 again. Yes, The Orange Box could (and should) have been better. But that's 3 years ago now. We want new Portal and Half-Life games, and with a market as huge as it is (larger than the Mac I'd think) there's no reason for Valve not to invest in the PS3. Even better, because they use only one engine (the Source Engine) they could fully optimize it so all games would run on it. They could then even release an update for The Orange Box.

 

[geoflcl]

Weird. This article seems to make the PS3 sound very open-source. And after all, just up to a little while ago, PS3 users had the "Other OS" option, didn't they?

I'm sort of inexperienced with bot the X360 and the PS3, but from what I've read from this article as well as others, the PS3 is making much more progress than anyone else on the "open" issue here.

However, Microsoft seems to be making babysteps also, while Nintendo still sees the words "homebrew" and "pirating" as interchangeable terms.

 

[iNFiNiTY]

In what way does it even need to be open. How does it being open even affect them considering they are a major game developer, and why is it any different from 360? Gabe Newell just talking a load of shit again.

 

[playallday]

mac is pretty open in a way. the developer tools are already in every mac for free and the all the documentation is also available for free.

Not really, Mac is as closed as Microsoft if you ask me.

They need to be more open like Linux.

 

[Flame]

this is bull. Valve just wants to make money, Valve is just saying we want a piece of the pie, if tomorrow apple really want to be part of the gaming world, Valve will really understand what closed meant.

 

[Maikel Steneker]

mac is pretty open in a way. the developer tools are already in every mac for free and the all the documentation is also available for free.

Not really, Mac is as closed as Microsoft if you ask me.

They need to be more open like Linux.

Assuming you mean Windows by Microsoft, that's pretty open too. No, you can't see its source code, but at least you can run any program on it. I think when Valve is talking about "open", this is what they mean.

 

[monkat]

mac is pretty open in a way. the developer tools are already in every mac for free and the all the documentation is also available for free.

Not really, Mac is as closed as Microsoft if you ask me.

They need to be more open like Linux.

Assuming you mean Windows by Microsoft, that's pretty open too. No, you can't see its source code, but at least you can run any program on it. I think when Valve is talking about "open", this is what they mean.

Exactly. At first I had no idea what he was talking about. "closed like a gamecube?" It sounds like he doesn't like the disc's cover.

He is saying that consoles now-a-days require licensing (thanks to Ninty back in the 80s - it's actually a good thing), and more so with the PS3 (and with how we thought of the GC a few years ago), it is very difficult to run unlicensed code.

I can promise you that no one at Valve is going to say that video games need to start being open source. That's just silly.