In what might be the most game-changing agreement to ever hit the industry, Valve and Nintendo have announced an deal that will make the Wii U the only place to play console ports of Valve games, including the upcoming Dota 2, Counterstrike: Global Offensive and “any future Half-Life or Portal episodes”. No word on how much Nintendo paid for this deal but it signals that they are serious about reaching out to the hardcore gamer demographic that critics maintain have largely been abandoned by the Japanese superpower.
Valve head Gabe Newell said in a statement, “Nintendo is always pushing the industry to new and exciting places and we at Valve like to think we do the same. By pushing together, perhaps we can usher in a new era of quality gaming on both PCs and consoles.” Mr. Newell also went on to say that, “Nintendo doesn’t care about high-powered graphics and neither do we. It’s a perfect fit for us and we look forward to blowing everyone’s minds with what we have to show at E3.”
Valve made waves last year with Portal 2’s feature that allowed Playstation 3 owners to play the game’s co-op mode with PC gamers, but this news far surpasses that innovative feature. There were rumors that Valve itself was looking to get into the console business, but it appears they are happy to enter into a marriage with Nintendo rather than go to the party stag. I’m pretty stunned and as a console-only gamer, it puts the Wii U at the top of my list of consoles to buy. What say you?
Hahahaha I actually believed this for the first 30 seconds, you scared me Anthony.
Hmmmm…curious lack of a link to the original article here. I wonder why that is…
What day is it again?
I say lies & slander! But I would love to see nintendo players face off with xbox, pc & playstation players in a CEVO type tourney in csgo. Whoops, let’s not forget the mac! I say, enough of each console having their own online networks….let’s have some cross console competition instead, and I can see Valve making that happen.
You have caught me out in previous years, but not this time. Sorry Anthony
On a serious note, though, they did cancel cross-platform gameplay for Counter-Strike GO. No jokes. Pretty crappy, but it’s what I expected.
Julez, that would be because they know that console players wouldn’t stand much of a chance against PC players….not trying to be a pc fanboy here, but for CS, I can’t see a person with a joystick successfully aiming as quickly as a person with a mouse&keyboard. I’m sure that’s not the actual reason behind it, but I’m sure they had it in mind.
@ kjseath , Yeah we have talked about that extensively around here before, it even came up in a podcast or two. I’ve always said I would play with pistols or somehow handicap myself just to play with my friends who only have a console. It would just be interesting.