With the upcoming release of Valve, one might wonder why Valve’s release schedule is so jumpy in comparison to most other developers’. In the most recent issue of Xbox 360 World Magazine, Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi attempted to explain.
“I think it’s fair to say that Valve never approaches a product release the same way twice,” Lombardi said.
“With Half-Life 2 we took six years to create an epic sequel, then we immediately shifted to episodic releases, which were then followed by the release of a new IP (Left 4 Dead) which was given a sequel in less than a year.”
“Now, with Portal 2, we’ve taken a couple of years to produce a full sequel to a game that was launched in episodic size. The point is not that we’re schizophrenic, but that we try to productize every game in a way that’s best for [it], given market conditions and other factors.”
Schizo or not, Portal 2 is shaping up to look amazing. It’s out April 19 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. The PlayStation 3 version of the game will support the Steamworks platform.
Thanks, GamerNode.