Google is on the brink of buying noted video game maker Valve Software, according to a report in The Inquirer that cites "well-placed sources."
Bellevue, Wash.-based Valve rose to prominence through games such as its Half Life series, but The Inquirer's Charlie Demerjian speculates the reason Google would be most interested in the company is its Steam Powered technology, a multipurpose online hub with throngs of users.
That rationale makes some sense to me as well, in part because getting into the video game business in and of itself doesn't sound terribly well aligned with Google's mission "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Steam is an online foundation for selling and distributing games, updating patches, enabling multiplayer online chat, and using digital rights management to control who has permission to use elements like game versions or game terrain.
Btw, MSFT, you should be buying LOGI, not YHOO, you fucking idiots.
Can't say I blame the Valve folks for taking the money though. It also proves what a success Steam has been.
I bet Microsoft responds by trying to make X-Box Live for PC a competitor of Steam.
Hmmm, there's an update on the article that "throws cold water" on Google buying Valve. It also seems to leave open a possibility of someone buying Valve. Other players would probably be Microsoft, EA, and Vivendi. Maybe Sony or Nintendo, although they'd be LONG shots.
Edited By Leisher on 1221672753
“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.” - Dr Thomas Sowell
Man, I hope this ain't true. The tentacles of Google are already enough places.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."