Valve co-founder Gabe Newell has recently shared his thoughts on game delays in a new documentary celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Half-Life series. According to Newell, “late is just for a little while, suck is forever,” emphasizing the importance of not rushing a game’s release.
Newell touched on the challenges Valve faced leading up to the release of Half-Life, which ultimately led to the game being delayed for a year. He stated, “We could try to force this thing out the door, but that’s not the company we want to be, that’s not the people we want to be. That’s not the relationship we want to have with our customers.”
This quote has drawn comparisons to an alleged quote from Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, where he supposedly said, “a delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.” Interestingly, Newell has previously expressed his admiration for Miyamoto and how the Nintendo creator’s work has made him a “better” developer. Valve even released the Portal: Companion Collection on the Switch last year and mentioned how the OLED model paved the way for the Steam Deck OLED.
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