Tag Archives: doug lombardi

Doug Lombardi has said that “free weekend” sales on Steam assist retail and online game stores.

“When we do our free weekends on Steam for our products we see an increase in player numbers, obviously, and then we’ll see a spike in sales at the end of the weekend on Steam and at retail,” he told Gi.biz. “Recently we’ve seen data that shows Left 4 Dead free weekends increase the sales of Left 4 Dead on Steam, at retail and on the Xbox 360, which we would never have guessed could have happened, but it’s just that word of mouth.

“A lot of the ‘Steam is there to compete with retail’ stuff is sort of sensationalized. We spent more money at GameStop in the US promoting Left For Dead than we did at any other chain. We sold more copies of Left 4 Dead at Gamestop than we did at any other chain.

“[Steam is] about making the games better. It’s currently a great marketing and promotions channel, and yeah we sell games over it and that’s great, but whether people buy games at GameStop, or GAME UK, or on Steam, we get paid. So for us, whichever cash register you want to pay at, that’s fine.”

More through the link.

Valve doesn’t want to make PlayStation games. End of.

“If we were customers of that product on PlayStation, we’d feel like we sort of got the stepchild version of the product while the guys on the PC and the 360 got the sweet version of it,” Valve marketing boss Doug Lombardi told CVG in London yesterday.

And why are Valve’s PC and 360 games better than Valve’s PlayStation games? Because Valve isn’t very good at PlayStation games. End of.

“If you look at it as a matter of Valve doing it, Valve did the 360 and the PC version of the Orange Box and they both go 96 on Metacritic – The PS3 version was nowhere close to that. Left 4 Dead got a 89 or a 90 on 360 and PC,” Lombardi said.

He added: “Until we have the ability to get a PS3 team together, until we find the people who want to come to Valve or who are at Valve who want to work on that, I don’t really see us moving to that platform.”

End of. Please.

Despite nearly 40,000 people signing a petition against the apparently overly early announcement of Left 4 Dead, Valve told CVG in London yesterday that it didn’t make a jot of difference.

“It really didn’t change our plans at all,” said Valve marketing boss Doug Lombardi.

“As I mentioned we had plans to keep releasing stuff [for L4D1]. We put the Survival Pack out for free which I thought was pretty cool on 360 as well as PC – it’s sort of uncommon to be able to get new stuff out that way.”

That’s where petitions get you, kids. There’s more through there.

Valve’s told EG that Left 4 Dead 2 pre-orders are double those taken for the original game.

“Our pre-orders are currently double what they were for Left 4 Dead 1 at this point in time away from launch,” said Valve’s Doug Lombardi. “We’re like 20 weeks out or something like that.”

He added: “We’re seeing great enthusiasm from retailers, from EA, [and] the press called it multiplayer game of E3.”

The zombie shooter’s out later this year for PC and 360.

Valve told EG in London yesterday that it didn’t expect such an adverse reaction to Left 4 Dead 2, and put “confusion” surrounding a perceived dropping of the first game down to E3′s format.

“We obviously listen to the community a lot,” said Doug Lombardi. “That’s one of our staples. Did we anticipate it? No, we didn’t, but I think that one of the key things is: announcing Left 4 Dead 2 doesn’t mean we’re abandoning Left 4 Dead 1.

“Another thing is it’s important to remember that E3 is where you go to announce new titles, specifically titles that are coming to retail. We do press there, but it’s not really a venue for announcing DLC or mod tools.

“So I think there was a little bit of confusion that we created unintentionally, by announcing a sequel and not having the complete story ready: announcing it and not saying, there’s still a lot of stuff being worked on for Left 4 Dead 1, and the mod tools will work with both games.”

So calm down, internet. Everything’s fine, apparently. Hit the link for the full thing.

Valve has stated that more Left 4 Dead DLC will be announced before the end of the summer for both PC and Xbox 360.

“We plan to keep supporting Left 4 Dead 1,” Doug Lombardi told CVG at a press event in London today. “There will be some announcements coming before summer’s out about what’s coming there, and then we haven’t shown everything that’s in Left 4 Dead 2 yet.

“I think 8, 9 months from now once everything’s been out for a while and everyone’s had time to see the complete product of Left 4 Dead 2 and see continued support for Left 4 Dead 1, they may sort of see what we were up to and what the method of our madness was there.”

Speaking to OXM at the same event, Lombardi confirmed a multiplayer demo for the sequel, and it’s expected sometime before the November release.

“With Left 4 Dead in particular we’ve found that word of mouth really is the strongest thing,” he said. “With Left 4 Dead 2 we plan to do a demo before the game comes out that’ll have multiplayer in it. And hopefully we can continue the free weekends with the full game post-launch.”

Hit the links for the full thing.

In an interview with GamingShogun at E3, Valve’s Doug Lombardi has said the now controversial Left 4 Dead sequel was a “special case” as the team had so many good ideas.

“It’s a special case of the team came off the project with a head full of ideas for what to do next,” said Doug.

“They got a lot more feedback when the game went out and basically they sat down, did a whiteboard exercise and put a plan together for the sequel.

“The pitched the game to a bunch of us [Valve] and it seemed like a great idea.”

So that’s that.

Watch the full interview after the break.

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Below is footage of Valve’s Doug Lombardi explaining the Left 4 Dead 2 E3 teaser trailer in great detail.

We see the Charger, a huge but deformed zombie with a small head. We find out the game is taking place in a “non-Katrina New Orleans” and of course, get to see the excellent teaser once again.

Not for the squeamish, this one.

More »

According to this Shacknews piece, Left 4 Dead pre-orders are now running at almost double those seen for the Orange Box last year.

“Pre-orders are now running 95% over those of The Orange Box, and we’re getting set to launch the pre-release demo and television campaign to further fuel this momentum,” said Valve’s Doug Lombardi.

The publisher also announced yesterday that those pre-ordering the game are going to get their hands on the demo a week early, on November 6.

That’s next week.

More through there.

Valve’s Doug Lombardi’s told Shacknews that there aren’t going to be any more Team Fortress 2 updates in 2008.

“Well, it won’t be this year,” he said. “But we’re going to keep evolving TF2. Once Left 4 Dead wraps, you’ll hear us clamouring more about [the next TF2 update].”

TF2 staffers had been moved onto Left 4 Dead in the run-up to the game’s launch, apparently.

More through the link.

Speaking to Shacknews, Valve’s Doug Lombardi’s opened up a little on the upcoming Half-Life 2: Episode 3, saying the next installment in the shooter series is a “more ambitious project” than previous chapters.

“We want the next installment of Half-Life 2 to be really big,” he said.

The marketing exec added: “I thought we did a better job of telling the story. Some of those moments there with Eli at the end were pretty dramatic I would say, in terms of what you can do within a game.

“And we’re pretty proud of that. But each of the episodes you saw becoming a more ambitious project as you ramped up towards where the finale’s gonna be of this chapter.”

We’re hoping to see something solid on this before the end of the year.

More through the link.

Valve’s Doug Lombardi has said those hoping for a PS3 version of Left 4 Dead this year can go on wishing: it’s not happening.

“There’s zero chance of it happening this year,” he told CVG. “It’s something that’s being talked about right now as the game is gaining popularity and looking like it’s going to be a hit.”

“Hit” is about right. Pre-orders are well up, with or without a PS3 version.

Game’s out in November. More through the link.

Speaking to VGChartz, Valve’s Doug Lombardi has said that Left 4 Dead pre-orders are trouncing those taken by The Orange Box.

“Pre-orders for Left 4 Dead are currently exceeding Orange Box pre-orders by well over 40 percent, this driven largely by the 10 percent off promotion being offered now for both versions,” he said.

“And one could assume this trend over Orange will continue as the pre-launch demo hits and the largest consumer advertising campaign for any Valve game begins on buses, buildings, billboards, TV, magazines, and web sites in the next couple weeks.”

More through there. The multiplay shooter’s out for 360 and PC in November.

According to this 1UP piece, Valve’s confirmed that free content already added to the PC version of Team Fortress 2 – and confirmed for release for the 360 SKU – won’t make it to the PS3 game. Snip:

“We don’t have PlayStation developers,” Lombardi told us. Earlier in the interview, Newell discussed how Electronic Arts had handled the PS3 port of Orange Box rather than Valve internally. When asked whether or not EA would support the game by helping port the downloadable content over, Newell said, “They’re not doing ongoing development on The Orange Box for the PS3.”

More through the link.

Valve’s Doug Lombardi has just told Left 4 Dead 411 that the game will be released in the US on November 18 and Europe on November 21, and not November 20 as previously reported.

The site also points out that the new dates coincide with Half Life’s 10 year anniversary, so make sure you’ve got the jelly and ice-cream at the ready.

By Mike Bowden

According to this CVG story, Valve’s Doug Lombardi said at Games Convention this week that there’s still a “50-50″ chance of a PS3 version of Left 4 Dead coming out. Don’t expect to see it any time soon, whatever happens.

“There’s zero chance of it happening this year,” he said. “It’s something that’s being talked about right now as the game is gaining popularity and looking like it’s going to be a hit.”

More through the link.

According to Valve’s Doug Lombardi, all of the current Team Fortress 2 updates available on Steam will make their way to 360 before the end of the year, reports Kotaku.

The site claims Valve wants to wait a bit longer and release a massive update for 360 owners instead of the incremental ones delivered to PC gamers.

Lombardi apparently said all this after a Left 4 Dead presentation at Games Convention.

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Valve’s Doug Lombardi has said the firm is open to talk about acquisition in an interview with Gamasutra, the first time the shooter developer has mentioned anything of the sort in public.

Valve’s “happy to have that conversation,” he told the site.

“By the same token, the company’s doing pretty well, and we’re really happy with what we’re doing,” he added.

“So we’ll see. I mean, anything is possible.”

Lombardo went on to talk about EA’s involvement with the firm, labouring the point that Valve is as independent as possible and was merely looking for a distribution partner in the publisher.

“We had been socialized to doing so many things ourselves, whether it’s box creation, funding our own development, etcetera,” he said, “that when we came to meet with folks about a distribution deal – and I use that phrase intentionally – we were looking for somebody to do a certain set of services that we didn’t want to do, or weren’t versed in, and nothing more.”

More through the link.

Speaking with X3F, Valve’s Doug Lombardi reiterated the firm’s disinterest in developing for PlayStation 3 and Wii, and revealed that there were “new projects in the works” for Xbox 360.

He also confirmed that Portal: Still Alive was just the original game plus a few new challenges added to it.

“[Portal: Still Alive is] another way for people to experience Portal, without having to buy the full Orange Box,” said.

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

According to this BluesNews piece, Valve multiplayer shooter Left 4 Dead will release for PC and 360 in November. The info comes from a Shacknews interview with Valve marketing chap Doug Lombardi.

For the last we heard of Left 4 Dead, check out this audio file of Doug’s presentation at the EA Games event in London last month.