Lost Between Levels Special Edition: Valve

You watching EA? This is how you run a gaming company.

Love this series, can't wait for the Osaka/Kyoto one.

It really offers an unique insight, and even Valve's very controlled environnement can't slip through without BSing (the latter part) :p

Also, stop shaking Shaun! xD

I wish they would just allow me to live there! I love VALVe and all their games. I seriously wish that they would release HL3 or HL2 Ep 3 just like everyone else the anticipation of knowing more about Freeman and Alex's story is killing me! Especially after how Ep 2 ended, i mean come on we have been stuck wondering for far too long!

Half Life 3 plz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the reason HL3 (or HL2 EP3) has not come out is most likely due to valve completely rebuilding the steam engine to compete with the new generation of games coming out this year and next. They (valve press and Gabe himself) have mentioned that it has been a huge project for the company and its time consuming. I cannot imagine them not making HL3 once the new steam engine has been finished.

more of this gamespot

Stop being lazy ******* Valve and make a game instead of tooting your own horn, you made some great games in the past but you haven't done a damn thing since 2011, CS:GO is a bad joke, the game removed more then it added.

Very good show!

Shaun, please come to Sweden again. I buy you coffee!

Thank you Gamespot, please more content like this and less articles about Cliff Bleszinski

The house that half life built, should be the house that is building half life. HURRY UP VALVE!

and what about the man in the black suit holding a briefcase??

I'm thinking they were waiting for the next gen systems to come out before working on HL3. I don't think they thought it would take 8-9 years for that to happen. Hopefully we'll see it within a year or so.......hopefully.

this company is just living off HL legacy i dont view u guys as anything special srry its the truth

Free to play is horrible. $=win no skills needed.

Shaun visits the house that Half-Life built, and then abandoned, and then decided to release a shitty gaming system for $1,000... I hope they go under... nothing but disappointment after disappointment after HL2... Where's HL Ep3??!?!?!?!

Great video, always wanted to know more about valve, now i do =]. This lost between levels is by far one of the best shows you guys have done. Thanks so much for these!

It was really quite depressing when he recognized the "freemium" importance, and how the sales department must design the game together with the design department. They're facing reality, I guess.

no wonder half life 3 isnt out yet

Valve is absolutely unique. The only company that actually seems to care about the gaming community.

Very cool vid. Thanks Gamespot!

Very interesting! My first thought was that Shaun was going to have to take a cable train car that goes down into some large mountain to get to the Valve entrance where he would be met by a security guard wearing a blue uniform named Barney. My guess is that that particular entrance is for people who have a high security clearance of HL3. Valve made sure Shaun was restricted to certain locations as to not reveal any work-in progress of HL3. You could just feel that as Shaun was listening to the feedback from the Valve employee's he wanted to just scream out "please for the love of budda, give me any scoop on HL3. Just nod your head up and down would be a wonderful sign of acknowledgement"!

Loved what Valve has done in the past, present, and look forward to what's next in the future. Especially an HL3 future! =)

Valve is the best . That's all I can say . I have nothing but Respect for Gabe Newell , all I can do is to support their awesome products forever and praise steam . Thanks Gabe .

I did not see in the interview an explanation for why they have rolled their desks away from their signature half-life series for so long. Even if the team is thoroughly jaded on half-life, the fans have been clamoring for more for too long. A top-down corporation would have been on half-life 9 by now, granted, but having none since hl2 episode 2 is too extreme in the other direction.

Hard to explain valve's success? How hard is it to understand that by listening and understanding your customers, they're more likely to purchase your goods and services?

That is interesting how they manage to keep grabbing self-directed people. I wish I could be like that, but I'm a slow starter. I don't start working well until I start defining the project well and see ideas coming together, but once I get an idea of the final product, I can really start to take off. The uncertainty of being unmanaged and starting up a project on my own are enough to stop me from even being able to start without help. I am trying to expand my capabilities but the highly systematic confines of mild autism are difficult to overcome.

Woah. I'd always thought Valve was a special company, but now I've got a new appreciation of just how special. Such a business model shouldn't work, but they've got it to. Bravo!

if they feel like it they will make HL3

seems pretty obvious now right!!

and plz fix zeus model so that people can make items for him :P

when ur unpredictable ...u always win... always

these guys have a great business model... they just do games because they like doing games and they're not rushed by a publisher to finish a game - they only release when they're satisfied with what they created. great article

Valve, always an example for the rest of the industry to follow.

Wow this is an awesome work model for a company, no managers, no titles, no definitive roles as employees, just get to work on what your best at, if you fail pick yourself up and prove your worth it, awesome... it also explains (unfortunately) why HL3 isnt done yet.

err...was that 'Nirvana' or 'Queens of the Stone Age' ;) ...whatever, close enough!

Video that focuses on hiring from diverse backgrounds --- interviews 4 white guys

dota > lol

HL3 is not coming out. When will you bitches realise this?

I have no arms or legs

DOTA 2!!!

Is it just me or did that Half Life footage @ 00:58 showed ragdoll physics..

Really excellent report. So many interesting points raised. Thinking about the music and sound in Portal 2 - what a definitive part of the game they were. I really liked the focus of questions on practical aspects of the company structure and was pleased to see that Valve were giving such frank answers; where other companies would have gone for much cheesier self-promotion, I thought these interviews were quite candid.

I bet that @dannyodwyer would have paid for to be there doing the interview with Shaun.