Poll: Who takes longer to develop games, Blizzard or Valve?

[Eric the Orange]

Blizzard and Valve, the two companies that follow the "when it's done" philosophy (also ironically they have some of the most consumer loyalty of any company). This leads to polished games, and long development times.

So my question is this, who takes longer, on average, to develop games? Which is longer, Valve time or Blizz time?

 

[triggrhappy94]

I read the title and just laughed.
Great question.
I have no idea. Blizzard's been sitting on Diablo for forever, but they have a WoW expansion out pretty often.
Valve releaced L4D and L4d2 pretty fast, but we're still waiting for Halflife.

I'm going to go with Blizzard, just because its been 10 long years since Diablo 2

 

[Archereus]

My vote goes to Blizzard for this one. But your missing one company that should be in this battle 3d realms. Those two have nothing on 12 years of game development for just one damned game.

 

[Sinclair Solutions]

God...this is hard. I'm going to say Valve, just because I find Gabe Newell to be one of the biggest trolls in the industry.

 

[Top35]

I'm going with valve just because of the agony that is waiting for HL2 ep:3

 

[rabidmidget]

The correct answer is 3dRealms

 

[Saelune]

Blizzard. Valve may take forever for HL3, but it is quick on everything else.
Blizzard...what else have they even made since a WoW expansion? (I dont play on PC, so Im guessing anything they put out I wouldnt know anyways, so I could be very wrong here)

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Valve. The difference though is that every game Valve makes is amazing whereas Blizzard's stink.

 

[FalloutJack]

I'm going to say Blizzard.

I played Starcraft for the first time several years after it'd been released. SCII is only around lately and not complete, and they cancelled Ghost. Suffice to say, let's just be glad I'm more patient about these things.

 

[Super Toast]

Blizzard, because its been ten years since Diablo 2. Also, StarCraft II took forever and a half.

 

[John Funk]

Tough to say. Blizzard never had a game turn vaporware like TF2 used to be, and like Ep3 is now. But between Portal and the L4Ds, I think Valve has a more consistent release schedule now?

I'd say Blizzard is probably longer overall, but Valve starts talking about its games first and so it feels longer. Imagine if Blizz had started talking about the first version of Diablo 3 it was making back in what, 2003-2005?

Valve. The difference though is that every game Valve makes is amazing whereas Blizzard's stink.

Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo and WoW are all genre-defining games. Pretty impressive for games that stink...

 

[Bon_Clay]

Ya I'd have to say Blizzard as well. Valve takes forever with mostly just Half life, while Blizzard is the opposite and only doesn't take forever with WoW expansions.

Valve gets their other sequels out in reasonable amounts of time while Blizzard's other series go over a decade for new releases.

Also GOD DAMNIT I HIT THE RED BUTTON AGAIN. I tell people apart by avatars, this is mighty annoying.

 

[Eric the Orange]

But your missing one company that should be in this battle 3d realms.

yeah but that was one game, before that the company didn't have a reputation for long development times.

 

[Archereus]

But your missing one company that should be in this battle 3d realms.

yeah but that was one game, before that the company didn't have a reputation for long development times.

Good point, but like all gamers its fun to throw a low blow at them for this game. But yeah i believe blizzard has it for long development times...still waiting for diablo 3...

 

[Eric the Orange]

Blizzard. Valve may take forever for HL3, but it is quick on everything else.
Blizzard...what else have they even made since a WoW expansion? (I dont play on PC, so Im guessing anything they put out I wouldnt know anyways, so I could be very wrong here)

Well while Valves games generally get a console port both Valve and Blizzard are PC centric companies.

 

[back pain]

The interesting thing is that both developers have massive cash cows. If it wasn't for Steam/WOW both companies would have development cycles closer to the industry norm.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Blizzard actually releases quite a lot in the way of patches and free content. Certainly more than Valve does. Their retail releases usually take longer, but it definitely shows since their games are a lot more polished and refined.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Tough to say. Blizzard never had a game turn vaporware like TF2 used to be, and like Ep3 is now. But between Portal and the L4Ds, I think Valve has a more consistent release schedule now?

I'd say Blizzard is probably longer overall, but Valve starts talking about its games first and so it feels longer. Imagine if Blizz had started talking about the first version of Diablo 3 it was making back in what, 2003-2005?

Valve. The difference though is that every game Valve makes is amazing whereas Blizzard's stink.

Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo and WoW are all genre-defining games. Pretty impressive for games that stink...

Sorry, I should have said mediocre games. I was mostly referring to WoW and Starcraft 2. The people at Blizzard has all changed since their good releases. They really aren't the same company I used to love.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Blizzard actually releases quite a lot in the way of patches and free content. Certainly more than Valve does.

I dunno, Valve releases pretty regular patches for TF2 and L4D.