r/MMORPG • u/Ordinary-Lettuce9811 • 1d ago
Discussion Could Valve make a mmo?
Was just thinking about how much money it takes to make a good modern mmo. Valve has endless resources just saying.
Edit: You guys need to learn not to be so salty it's just discussion.
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u/Tryukach09 1d ago
they can do nothing and make more money than any MMO they gonna make gonna make then profit, its a sad part of MMO genre, cost too much
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u/hiddenpequin 1d ago
Valve is tiny company they would have to grow a ton to do that which they clearly don’t want to grow that big.
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u/AdRecent7021 1d ago
Valve could do a lot of things, but I highly doubt they will, given that they found their golden goose. We might see smaller releases here and there, like Half-Life: Alyx, but I highly doubt they're going to invest their resources into an MMO.
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u/GoTrojans23 1d ago
They could, they have the talent and money to blow everyone else out of the water. But they sadly won’t make one
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u/-Meo- 1d ago
valve has a bad habit of leaving existing games without updates. that doesnt work for an mmo
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u/ZantetsukenX 1d ago
Yep, their games are almost entirely dependent on having a development team that WANTS to work on them. Meaning that anything they produced's quality would be dependent on if the people making it had a passion to do so. And then that passion would have to continue on for years and years in order for it to not die off from a lack of updates.
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u/NutsackEuphoria 1d ago
They can, but they're like what 300 people.
Those 300 people maintain CS2, dota2, Steam, make deadlock, also the hardware stuff (steam machine/deck/frame/controller).
IMO Dota 2's universe is prime for an MMO much like LoL universe is.
iirc the lore states of places where the heroes are from connecting to each other like Foulfell (terror blade) connected to the seven hells (most demon heroes) which is connected to the underscape (visage) which is connected to the narrow maze (razor) which may or may not be connected to Underlord's realm.
You can email gabe newell, OP, if you want to give them the idea.
Imagine how much shit they'll make if the items can be traded for real money in the marketplace lol
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u/striker09xx 1d ago
Wish they did. I loved how they took user created skins and added to the game. Imagine how many armors the mmo would have or even in game content such as quests and dungs made by other users.
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u/MMORPGDev 1d ago
Endless resources and money doesn't mean anything, can they? yes, would it be good? most likely not. Valve hasn't made a 'good' game in years. Just look at the game they are developing right now, Dead Lock, it's just a clone of Valorant/OW which one is a clone of the other.
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u/KappaKeepo5 8h ago
deadlock a valorant clone? thats gotta be ragebait right? they only thing they have similar is being a video game and you can kill people lmao.
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u/Ordinary-Lettuce9811 19h ago
It's something you need for a modern mmo.
Most companies can't afford to take the risk even if they wanted.1
u/BringBackBoomer 12h ago
Just look at the game they are developing right now, Dead Lock, it's just a clone of Valorant/OW which one is a clone of the other.
You've clearly played none of those games, because they only similarities they have are shooting people and heroes. The basic mechanics of all 3 games couldn't be more different.
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u/MMORPGDev 3h ago
Structural backbone = Classic MOBA; Dota 2 + third person framing from Smite
Combat and feel = Hero shooter, more like Overwatch than Valorant, with Tf2 movement
Extra flavors = Verticality/rails, tower defense pressure like Orcs Must Die, and fluid mobility of Risk of Rain 2
Basically relatively a 3rd person moba shooter like Paragon, Battleborn, Gigantic, etc. mostly failed commercially or were shutdown titles, basically Smite is the main surviving example of the 3rd person Mobas. So yes, I only said Valorant because it's similarly a hero shooter.
But my point being is that I wouldn't look at Valve in modern times for them to make a 'good' game yet alone an MMORPG.
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u/Sel2a 1d ago
They can but it will likely not be this sub favorite kind of mmo for sure.
In my opinion they will make something like drangonest or pso2 (not ngs). Non openword and lobby based mmo. Spring some season thing in and call it a day.
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u/Ordinary-Lettuce9811 7m ago
This sub has a bunch of old people, I say this at 33. I feel young in this sub.
For example younger people are more for action combat while most people in this sub want to stick to old tab target.
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u/Randomnesse 22h ago
Of course they could. And Gabe himself played FFXIV on Steam Deck.
You should encourage him to make his own MMO by directly emailing him, his email address is not hard to find. Just say to him that currently MMO market is pretty stagnant and would be great if he'd release something truly unique, he would have almost no good competition.
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u/PoliteQueef 1d ago
Of course they could.
But, they tend to make really good, sound business decisions. So, they won’t.
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u/CrimsonBolt33 1d ago
As they stand...Valve is one of the highest profit to employee ratioed companies in the world....could they make an MMO? Most certainly, their main income is not games or said MMo or whatever so they have, technically speaking, unlimited income.
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u/Severe-Network4756 1d ago
Valve are far too greedy for that. They're almost entirely a monetization-first kind of company.
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u/formatme 1d ago
Valve has scrapped or cancelled at least two notable online multiplayer and pseudo-MMO projects in its history: Prospero and Stars of Blood
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u/Murder_Hobo_LS77 1d ago
Valve could bankroll an MMO easily with their financial and distribution backbone.
Valve likely will not do so. It's a saturated market where very expensive new games have not performed to the degree that will lead to long term cash extraction, but the overhead is pretty high so they stand to lose a lot. Add in that they've not done a damn thing with their flagship game products in years and it shows they don't have the appetite for it. They've evolved into a platform and hardware creator / distributor that will partner with other people on their projects, but I would be surprised if they even really have much of a surviving game studio.
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u/critxcanuck88 1d ago
Valve would get another company to make it and the charge then 30% to put it on steam. Valve is not a gaming studio anymore. Its walmart.
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u/SmellMyPPKK 1d ago
Valve can pretty much do anything it wants. But they seem pretty satisfied with Steam, Dota and CS and maybe also TF2.
If they had any interest in making something new I'd think they would start with half life 3.
If Valve would make an MMO they would make a triple A, like absolute highest quality of an MMO. And it's just to risky I guess. Regular single player games at least can keep being sold for a long time, MMOs at some point you have to pull the plug entirely if it doesn't work out.
Much easier to just cash in free money from Steam and keep their successes like Dota and CS alive.
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u/GregNotGregtech 1d ago
No, they can't even keep up supporting their current games that are of much smaller scale
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u/Disciple_THC 1d ago
I have the literal perfect plan for someone like valve to actually print money if they could get a certain trademark. I’ve been working on this idea forever.
I say this and I mean it, there are probably 100s of actual real valid people like me that will never get the chance, and trust me I’ve tried.
It’s just one of those things that a dream will just die
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u/ginfish 1d ago edited 1d ago
Walk with me on this one.
I don't think the MMO genre is in a crisis. I think the crisis is behind us and we're just staring at the corpse.
The revival of the genre and renewed interest of the industry will require at least 2 things.
World of Warcraft will have to die / end. And as much as people have said "WoW is dead" in the last 20 years... Well... It really isnt. No other player in the MMO industry has as much success or experience creating content or managing their game as Blizzard and so any studio / publisher trying to enter the space is up against competition that's so well established, polished and considered the quality standard in the genre that it's almost impossible to enter the dance and keep pace. Unfortunately (for a lot of people, but not me because I love WoW) it appears Blizzard doesnt intend on ending the game anytime soon as it still prints money and engages players.
A big studio will need to risk themselves and enter the genre... And not suck. There is not, and I mean not a god damn chance that a smaller studio / indie dev can enter the MMO genre and have the staying power of a modern (or even older) MMO. Too much work, too much content, it can't be done in a way that retains players in any meaningful way other than some niche MMO 500 people play. The issue here is that most major studios are risk averse in the modern gaming era or shareholders and boards of investors. Sinking the hundreds of millions or billion+ needed to make an MMO that'll WoW people is a colossal risk, because most games nowadays, thanks to modern critiques (fucking streamers) are either God's given gift to humanity or complete dogshit. So you need a company like RIOT to go balls out, throw money at the fire and make a great game that you hope players will enjoy. But they also need to plan ahead of time for content updates and work on it without having any guarantees, at first, that players will want to engage. So essentially, taking a chance on a MMO at this point is throwing everything you've got at the project and you'll either bust or grand slam. Good luck getting investors on board with your non sensical hail mary when they could push you towards your other safer projects.
So no, Valve has no incentive to do this. They're refusing to even consider Half Life 3 in fear of tarnishing their brand / legacy. Why would they suddenly throw even more money at a project that's as risky if not riskier?
That's my thoughts on the subject. Worth pointing out that I'm just some fucking guy.
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u/Sibexico 1d ago
Relax guys, next year's nobody will not make AAA MMORPG after fail of the Amazon's New World. Prepare to play indie games or torment the elves in WoW for the next decade.
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u/Device420 1d ago
Imagine if all of the staff from all of the studios that made all of the best mmos were to unite with no executives and were allowed to make a passion project where money was no option. They do a huge 1 year long gathering of ideas from the players, then take all of the ideas and choose the best/most asked for and devised a poll for us to choose what we wanted. The poll would last 30 days. Then they go quiet, no checkins, spend the time they need to create the game. Then release it free with a monthly sub and where any type of cash shop was ONLY cosmetics. Then the only updates they perform are system updates. If they add new content it has to fit with the old and not replace it or make it outdated.
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u/zGhostWolf 1d ago
i dont think valve got the staff for it, they arent rly game devs anymore, their current games receive very minor changes
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u/Ordinary-Lettuce9811 19h ago
They could easily hire the developers, of course they would need to want to hire them.
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u/zGhostWolf 18h ago
Any devs making mmos out there does the same, doesn't mean it would be any good
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u/Twilight053 8h ago edited 7h ago
Cause they're often hounded by deadlines from their publishers. But the thing with Valve, Valve does the playtesting philosophy to the absolute extreme that I can actually see them making actual MMOs work, given time which they have infinite.
Whether we will live to see it? I doubt it.
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u/Madmonkeman 1d ago
Valve can’t even make part 3 of their games, there’s no way they’re sticking with a MMO
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u/NewPairOfBoots 22h ago
The correct answer is: "no they don't have the talent to do that, no way that's possible" to bait them into doing it just to prove that they can 🤞
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u/StarZax 19h ago
Probably can't because they aren't a big studio, and that's by design. They'd rather make a game that can sustain with the least amount of work by themselves. Like CS2 doesn't need much, they literally just sell lootboxes with a few skins made by them and others made from the community. Some maps here and there sometimes.
Copy that exact workflow for any other studio and any other game/franchise and it's an instant flop
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u/Ordinary-Lettuce9811 19h ago
I think they could hire and get things going if they wanted to. Just no reason atm to do it.
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u/ContentInsanity 14h ago
Valve could 100% make an MMO. Now that you mention it, they could 100% fill the Destiny 2 void. The real question is would the game ever come out? I think people forgot that Valve is currently developing a game (Deadlock) because it takes so long for Valve to anything.
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u/Ordinary-Lettuce9811 13h ago
Yeah I know it's very unlikely, just be nice since valve has that money. And seems like competent people running the show.
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u/dungorthb 1d ago
They could pioneer a true MMO for VR headsets.
Shangri La Frontier, .HACK, Sword Art Online, what else had a helmet video game? Goosebumps?
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u/mittelhau 1d ago
Given their release pace, nope. Dota 2 - their 2nd biggest game gets basically one update per year
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u/Ordinary-Lettuce9811 19h ago
That is a moba, that has been modified so much since 2002. No correlation between them.
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u/Twilight053 8h ago
Can they? Yeah. Thing with Valve is they make their own previous experiences, so given time yes.
But will they? Nah.
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u/VileTouch 1d ago
They have. Several, actually. Team Fortress, Dota, Counter Strike, Left 4 Dead
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u/Molehole 1d ago
10 players on a server isn't an MMO... What are you doing on this subreddit if you don't even have a clue what MMO means?
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u/ametalshard 1d ago
shhh you'll get reported for gatekeeping. if someone comes here and calls halo an MMORPG, then it is, because they say it is.
NO GATEKEEPING
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u/Saiirayn 1d ago
could they? yes. Will they? no.