Valve isn't too keen on platform exclusivity, says Holtman
Valve's Jason Holtman has said the firm isn't too keen on platform exclusives, thus the reason the firm doesn't purposely set out to create Steam exclusives.
Speaking with PCGamesN during Develop 2012, Holtman said the firm's philosophy is one of the reason Steam is so popular with gamers.
“Often times, when people come to see us, they’ll say: ‘well, what’s the deal? Is there an exclusive arrangement?’ And we’re like, ‘no’. And they’re like, ‘where else should we go’," Holtman explained, stating Valve tells developer to go where there is "value, where else has customers, where else are good partners.
"Places to put your content shouldn’t be limited by exclusives, unless you’re awfully good at it. The problem is that you’re making a prediction about whoever you’re going exclusive with - they have to be buying you out of the other opportunities.
“Maybe it makes perfect sense, if somebody over indexes it, and pays you too much? But maybe the risk is too real. Like, how do I know that delaying this a month, or not being on this other platform, or not being in this place....how do I know that when you gave me extra marketing, and some odd hundreds and thousands of pounds, that I wasn’t giving up hundreds and thousands of customers, and millions of pounds? I don’t know, it’s just too risky.”
Holtman said Valve wants all platforms to succeed as such success is good for the games industry as a whole.
“When people are building other stuff, we love it. We, at our core, we love the PC, and we love what we do. We have our own business, but at the end of the day, we see ourselves as an entertainment company, a company that partners with other entertainers and we’re all part of this bigger, broader business," he said.
"If we encourage that, I think it’s actually a generalized benefit as opposed to ‘gosh’, we have to have everybody and lock them up.
"If they’re building something better than us, [developers] should go to the other thing. But while you go there, you should stay here too. There doesn’t have to be a choice."