Opinions: Orange Box only $9.99 This Weekend

[John Funk]

I love Valve. They're a company that bases their success on how happy their customers are rather then how much money they make.

Valve's best-selling product on steam is the orange box and its components, Perhaps putting it on sell will bring in even more customers. Once a person buys the orange box, they already have Steam so they are more likely to buy more games and make Valve more money.

Don't kid yourself. At the end of the day, Valve is still a company, they still have employees who have bills to pay and families to feed. They need to fund development costs of future games. If you think they don't care about making a profit, that's simply naive.

That said, Valve is one of a very, very select few companies I can think of (Blizzard being the other at the moment, but I'm sure there's one or two more that I'm blanking on at the moment) that HAS shown a willingness to consider a different bottom line than just how much money they rake in, so it's not like your point is completely invalidated. But even Valve and Blizzard have families who need to have food on their table.

 

[insanelich]

I love Valve. They're a company that bases their success on how happy their customers are rather then how much money they make.

Valve's best-selling product on steam is the orange box and its components, Perhaps putting it on sell will bring in even more customers. Once a person buys the orange box, they already have Steam so they are more likely to buy more games and make Valve more money.

Don't kid yourself. At the end of the day, Valve is still a company, they still have employees who have bills to pay and families to feed. They need to fund development costs of future games. If you think they don't care about making a profit, that's simply naive.

That said, Valve is one of a very, very select few companies I can think of (Blizzard being the other at the moment, but I'm sure there's one or two more that I'm blanking on at the moment) that HAS shown a willingness to consider a different bottom line than just how much money they rake in, so it's not like your point is completely invalidated. But even Valve and Blizzard have families who need to have food on their table.

True, but Valve, unlike so many other companies, realize that happy customers are often repeat customers.

 

[Nutcase]

I love Valve. They're a company that bases their success on how happy their customers are rather then how much money they make.

Valve's best-selling product on steam is the orange box and its components, Perhaps putting it on sell will bring in even more customers. Once a person buys the orange box, they already have Steam so they are more likely to buy more games and make Valve more money.

Don't kid yourself. At the end of the day, Valve is still a company, they still have employees who have bills to pay and families to feed. They need to fund development costs of future games. If you think they don't care about making a profit, that's simply naive.

That said, Valve is one of a very, very select few companies I can think of (Blizzard being the other at the moment, but I'm sure there's one or two more that I'm blanking on at the moment) that HAS shown a willingness to consider a different bottom line than just how much money they rake in, so it's not like your point is completely invalidated.

Have they, really? Blizzard and Valve have successfully positioned themselves as premium quality developers, and built incredibly strong brands. People trust they will get something solid when they go and buy anything with the Blizzard logo. Even if they were looking at nothing but the bottom line, it makes sense that they will rather eat some development costs than push out a product that is less than stellar and will nibble their brand and customer confidence. Anything they could possibly gain from selling the mediocre game would be lost in diminished sales of Diablo III, Starcraft II, and everything else that is to come.

So, just from the observation they shoot for quality, you can't really be sure that they care about anything but money.

 

[John Funk]

I love Valve. They're a company that bases their success on how happy their customers are rather then how much money they make.

Valve's best-selling product on steam is the orange box and its components, Perhaps putting it on sell will bring in even more customers. Once a person buys the orange box, they already have Steam so they are more likely to buy more games and make Valve more money.

Don't kid yourself. At the end of the day, Valve is still a company, they still have employees who have bills to pay and families to feed. They need to fund development costs of future games. If you think they don't care about making a profit, that's simply naive.

That said, Valve is one of a very, very select few companies I can think of (Blizzard being the other at the moment, but I'm sure there's one or two more that I'm blanking on at the moment) that HAS shown a willingness to consider a different bottom line than just how much money they rake in, so it's not like your point is completely invalidated.

Have they, really? Blizzard and Valve have successfully positioned themselves as premium quality developers, and built incredibly strong brands. People trust they will get something solid when they go and buy anything with the Blizzard logo. Even if they were looking at nothing but the bottom line, it makes sense that they will rather eat some development costs than push out a product that is less than stellar and will nibble their brand and customer confidence. Anything they could possibly gain from selling the mediocre game would be lost in diminished sales of Diablo III, Starcraft II, and everything else that is to come.

So, just from the observation they shoot for quality, you can't really be sure that they care about anything but money.

No, that's absolutely true. I make this statement purely on personal experience. I feel like I've told this anecdote too much already, but eh, why not one more?

After the Community Summit before last Blizzcon, I ended up chilling at a bar having a few drinks with one of the Blizzard community managers, who related to me a story where his boss came into the office he shared with one other person and really yelled at them - chewed him out, honestly and genuinely upset - not because of some financial lapse, but because something had gone wrong and people who were attending Blizzcon weren't going to have the best experience possible. Said community manager then admitted that despite working for Blizzard for seven years, he was consistently surprised by how much *that* was the mandate that came down from the higher ups - not "will this make us the most money" but "Will this result in the best experience possible"?

Of course, as per your point, the two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. You're absolutely correct that - as per this mandate to try and create the best experience possible - Blizzard (and Valve) have established incredible brand loyalty, which gives them a liiiittle bit of financial breathing room.

 

[SnakeSkeeter]

To think I was going to buy this for $30 on PC.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I love Valve. They're a company that bases their success on how happy their customers are rather then how much money they make.

Valve's best-selling product on steam is the orange box and its components, Perhaps putting it on sell will bring in even more customers. Once a person buys the orange box, they already have Steam so they are more likely to buy more games and make Valve more money.

Don't kid yourself. At the end of the day, Valve is still a company, they still have employees who have bills to pay and families to feed. They need to fund development costs of future games. If you think they don't care about making a profit, that's simply naive.

That said, Valve is one of a very, very select few companies I can think of (Blizzard being the other at the moment, but I'm sure there's one or two more that I'm blanking on at the moment) that HAS shown a willingness to consider a different bottom line than just how much money they rake in, so it's not like your point is completely invalidated. But even Valve and Blizzard have families who need to have food on their table.

I understand that. I was making the point that they are less money-centric. If they wanted to they could be charging me a monthly fee for Tf2, L4D or even to use steam itself. The fact that they don't shows that they're not totally obsessed with making a buck.

 

[dunnace]

They make the money because... it costs them nothing! All they have to do is host it, and that's covered so easily by other purchases. Plus, now they've got new people registered to buy more games. Simples.
And yes, I bought it. though to be honest, I registered back when Oddworld was introduced. I love oddworld...

I don't normally buy anything off Steam because I like to own, not rent, my games.

But 2EUR/game is a good price even for a rental. One more OB owner reporting in.

i actually prefer to buy off steam, because it means if I get a new PC i don't have to hunt down all my discs, I just need a username and password. And it's cheaper. Like now. Anyway, how is it renting? I've been able to play all my games? Are you one of those people who thinks DRM is wrong? Well I got news for you, it's kinda quite justified. If you need to make more than 10 copies of a game, you really need to pay attention to the PC's you're buying.

 

[Lord_Panzer]

Wait. You're telling me there's still people who don't yet have the Orange Box?

 

[Corven]

Is there a monthly fee with Team Fortress? Someone told me there was and that currently is my only reservation against it

No, unlike with the Xbox, there is no subscription fee to play team fortress 2, unless you want in on private servers, but those are run by other websites and you have to pay them, not valve, to gain access to them, but there are plenty of public servers so you really don't have to worry about it.

 

[Kstreitenfeld]

I have TF2 and Half Life 2 (minus the episodes) on PC and the Orange box itself on 360. Is it worth getting again just for ep 1, 2 and portal for PC?

for 10$? Yes

 

[SimuLord]

Even though I have less than zero interest in first-person shooters (especially sci-fi first-person shooters), I've got to hand it to Valve for being willing to use Orange Box as a loss leader...although I suspect anyone who's had any interest at all in playing already owns it by now.