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Gearbox President Randy Pitchford Has Harsh Words For Valve
Valve’s dislike of the PS3 isn’t exactly a secret; time and time again employees from the much-lauded development company have expressed criticism of Sony’s home console – to the point where Randy Pitchford, the President of Gearbox (the developers of Borderlands), felt the need to speak up in Sony’s defense. In a recent interview with the U.K.’s Official PlayStation Magazine, Pitchford likened Valve’s avoidance and criticism of the PS3 to that of a fanboy:
"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 bought 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."
Pitchford went on to suggest that Valve is a selfish developer: “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 [Left 4 Dead] 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 love games by both Valve and Gearbox, so in some ways reading
Pitchford’s comments is kind of like watching my parents fight. But he
also raises some good points. What do you think? Is Pitchford on the
money, or does Valve have every right to decide what platforms to
develop for?
[Via AnalogHype]
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