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Valve Explains Choice To Remain A Private Company

by Jeff Marchiafava on Sep 03, 2010 at 06:56 AM

Not a lot of developers choose to remain private companies nowadays, but Valve's Erik Johnson and Gabe Newell have no problem detailing the reasons they're not looking to go public anytime soon.

Speaking with PC Gamer UK, Johnson said that the reason Valve has remained private over the years is because going public changes a company's consumer base. "Any bad decision I ever see out there is because somebody created this different customer that was whoever funds them, and not the consumer of the product."

For Gabe Newell, it's more about maintaining design control: "You end up with a totally different set of decisions, and the person who's trying to design the experience is like 'Okay, I guess we'll put Christopher Walken in our game.'"

While a game starring Christopher Walken sounds like the most bitchin' thing we've ever heard, it's hard to argue against Valve's excellent offerings over the past decade, which have no doubt benefited from Valve's concise vision of what they want their games to be. But seriously, Valve, can't Walken voice one of Portal 2's  personality cores?

[Via CVG]