Valve boss Gabe Newell feels that with the rise of indie gaming and the advent of new services such as Kickstarter, big game companies will find it hard to make a transition to the new market scenario in the future, and that they probably will not stay relevant.
“Philosophically I’m a big fan of what Kickstarter and other efforts like it are trying to do,” Newell told The Nerdist in an interview.
“There are a bunch of different ways that communities can drive what is going to happen, and one of the last pieces is to figure out how the community itself can drive the financing of projects,” he continued in the interview. “I actually think that’s going to happen regardless [of Kickstarter].
“The earlier [fans] start supporting a project, the greater the results are going to be.
“Entertainment will get better, creators will do better, I think the percentage of control and the amount of money that goes to things like distribution and marketing will fall, and I think that’s a fine thing.”
He then went on to make the big claims:
“I doubt that a lot of the larger corporations will be able to make transitions into the new world,” he said.
“I don’t think the big companies will,” Newell replied when asked if he thought the big companies would remain relevant. “I think the rate of change is too fast for most of them to adapt.”
Kickstarter was a huge success in 2012. See the full report here.
[CVG]