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Firewatch Developer Campo Santo Acquired by Valve

Raevenlord

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Firewatch Developer Campo Santo has announced in a blog post that their studio has been acquired by Valve. The affair has come about after a sort of enamorement period after the team at Campo Santo drank a bottle of champagne that was meant to be opened with the attribution of a Game of the Year accolade to Valve's own Portal 2 - back when Valve actually developed games (some of us can remember that time, yes).

The message sent by the Campo Santo team is one of excitement at the opportunity, and confidence that Valve will be a partner in the development their studio wants to make, rather than an evil overlord mind-bent on franchise and creativity destruction. Knowing Valve, I'm sure people would agree with the developers. Here's hoping this marks a newfound interest from Valve in games development... even if by proxy. How I miss GLADoS' jokes... but that's a story for another day. For now, you can read the press release from Campo Santo right after the break.





"The twelve of us at Campo Santo have agreed to join Valve, where we will maintain our jobs as video game developers and continue production on our current project, In the Valley of Gods.

If you're the type of person who gives two flips about this news, we can elaborate a little bit on this big decision. First, we really like making video games. Furthermore, and perhaps more accurately, we really like making and producing entertainment. From the day-to-day production of our last game, Firewatch, to the way we run the company, make merchandise, meet players at expos and shows, send out a quarterly literary journal, throw open-to-the-public game demos in the middle of an artificial forest-all of it is geared towards surprising, delighting, and entertaining the customers who have shared in our success.

In Valve we found a group of folks who, to their core, feel the same way about the work that they do (this, you may be surprised to learn, doesn't happen every day). In us, they found a group with unique experience and valuable, diverse perspectives. It quickly became an obvious match.

Second, while visiting IGN's headquarters in early 2015 to talk about Firewatch, we came across an undelivered 2011 Game of the Year Award for Portal 2. It happened to be engraved on an unopened bottle of champagne. Never ones to pass up free alcohol, we stole it and drank it to celebrate the launch of Firewatch a year later. So in some sense, this is a return home for us. Well, for that bottle of champagne.



Third, and last, we had a series of long conversations with the people at Valve and everyone shared the satisfaction we take in working with people whose talents dwarf our own to make things we never thought possible. Both sides spoke about our values and how, when you get right down to it, we, as human beings, are hard-limited by the time we have left when it comes to making the things we care about and believe in. They asked us if we'd all be interested in coming up to Bellevue and doing that there and we said yes.

Yes, we're still making In the Valley of Gods (as a Valve game!); yes, we'll still support Firewatch; and yes, we'll still produce The Quarterly Review and our regular blog content. Thanks so much for your interest in our games and we'll see you in Washington. Cheers."

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Well, here's hoping everything just stays the same with them like they say. Other than more money. Reality: No matter how benevolent Valve seems, Campo Santo now answers to a publisher that owns them. Deadlines will be affected, even if they don't think so right now.
 
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Well, here's hoping everything just stays the same with them like they say. Other than more money. Reality: No matter how benevolent Valve seems, Campo Santo now answers to a publisher that owns them. Deadlines will be affected, even if they don't think so right now.

I don't think deadlines are an issue. Value is pretty famous for being pretty lax on delivery dates. I mean, people are still waiting on HL3.
 
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After what they have done to Piewdiepie only because he played one of thier videogames .
I don't think a lot of people where going to buy thier walking sim with a interesting but short story.
Talking about Fire Watch .
 
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After what they have done to Piewdiepie only because he played one of thier videogames .
I don't think a lot of people where going to buy thier walking sim with a interesting but short story.
Talking about Fire Watch .

Can't say I gather much smypathy for PewDiePie. The guy gets his kicks from trolling people and being offensive in general.
 
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After what they have done to Piewdiepie only because he played one of thier videogames .
I don't think a lot of people where going to buy thier walking sim with a interesting but short story.
Talking about Fire Watch .
He got shit for saying the worst thing in the worst time after all the scandals he had, the guy dug his own grave so stop making up the story. Also no one remembers that shit now.
 

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I don't think deadlines are an issue. Value is pretty famous for being pretty lax on delivery dates. I mean, people are still waiting on HL3.
Good point!

@Capitan Harlock a lot of people did buy Firewatch. It was quite successful.
 
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He got shit for saying the worst thing in the worst time after all the scandals he had, the guy dug his own grave so stop making up the story. Also no one remembers that shit now.
I'm not making up any story, only because "MEDIA" give so much attention , the devs of Fire Watch decided to jump on the hate wagon before announcing the new game .
Now look what happen?
I don't think 62 millions of people that follow someone can't count on sales for your game .
I'm just saying what happen.
You that live there with all that made up mess in your country should know what i'm talking about.
 
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I'm not making up any story, only because "MEDIA" give so much attention , the devs of Fire Watch decided to jump on the hate wagon before announcing the new game .
Now look what happen?
I don't think 62 millions of people that follow someone can't count on sales for your game .
I'm just saying what happen.
You that live there with all that made up mess in your country should know what i'm talking about.

This is the last thing I'll say about this. But dude, you seriously think 62 million people blindly follow a youtuber? I started to watch his videos back in januray 17, I know what happened. Yes, he got a lot of undeserved and manipulated shit for the fiverr thing. But the streaming thing was the stupidest thing he could do after what happened, the "MEDIA" didn't do anything, and he just apologized, but that doesn't save him from critics. The DMCA from Camposanto was another unjustified nonsense, but I can understand why they don't want him to go near them. And all of this is in the past and no one cares.

And what the fuck has to do my country with all this? Is not like the corporate "MEDIA" in every country has problems. Stop embarrasing yourself.
 
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This is the last thing I'll say about this. But dude, you seriously think 62 million people blindly follow a youtuber? I started to watch his videos back in januray 17, I know what happened. Yes, he got a lot of undeserved and manipulated shit for the fiverr thing. But the streaming thing was the stupidest thing he could do after what happened, the "MEDIA" didn't do anything, and he just apologized, but that doesn't save him from critics. The DMCA from Camposanto was another unjustified nonsense, but I can understand why they don't want him to go near them. And all of this is in the past and no one cares.

And what the fuck has to do my country with all this? Is not like the corporate "MEDIA" in every country has problems. Stop embarrasing yourself.

I know better than you what the Media do in Europe other than in other places.
The thing is simple, if they had the money for stay up them self this acquisition would not have been possible.
Mistakes happen to anyone so , i don't think is not possible that what happen didn't influenced their sales .

Good thing is Valve and not EA .
 
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Can't say I gather much smypathy for PewDiePie. The guy gets his kicks from trolling people and being offensive in general.
The FireWatch takedown was a blatant violation of fair use, and people defend it because they dont like the youtuber affected. Just because you dont like a youtuber or reviewer doesnt mean its OK to suspend the rules and punish him on unrelated content for no good reason. It doesnt matter if it is pewdiepie, achievement hunter, game grumps, jim sterling, *instert gaming channel here* or even totally worthless people like keemstar.

Campo absolutely jumped on the hate train, and earned themselves a black eye PR wise for supporting a spurious DMCA takedown request. They threw their hat into the ring with companies like digital homicide and crazy youtubers like alex mauer when they decided to throw a DMCA because they didnt like a particular individual playing their game. Many people (including myself) will not buy a game from a petulant indie developer that abuses the legal system to throw a temper tantrum over a youtube personality.
 
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The FireWatch takedown was a blatant violation of fair use, and people defend it because they dont like the youtuber affected. Just because you dont like a youtuber or reviewer doesnt mean its OK to suspend the rules and punish him on unrelated content for no good reason. It doesnt matter if it is pewdiepie, achievement hunter, game grumps, jim sterling, *instert gaming channel here* or even totally worthless people like keemstar.

Campo absolutely jumped on the hate train, and earned themselves a black eye PR wise for supporting a spurious DMCA takedown request. They threw their hat into the ring with companies like digital homicide and crazy youtubers like alex mauer when they decided to throw a DMCA because they didnt like a particular individual playing their game. Many people (including myself) will not buy a game from a petulant indie developer that abuses the legal system to throw a temper tantrum over a youtube personality.

Oh I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying that the two deserve each other. It's not like PewDiePie hasn't done any terrible spurious PR stunts....Cough *fake account deletion promise* Cough

If PewDiePie really felt he was wronged he could easily sue the indie developor for violation of fair use and argue they led to him loosing money. I've seen a ton of cases like this in the past.
 
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