For later if disney doesn't bite the bait.

[Joshex]

I think this has only been briefly discussed.

what is everyone's thoughts on Aeria Games?

they currently have no superhero MMO, they to my knowledge have never closed a game and allow free to play games with item shops used to make money.

they are very successful.

[Victoria Victrix]

We're working our way down the list.   Bear in mind that whoever we approach will not only need to have the money to convince NCSoft to sell, but will need a studio.

[Surelle]

Has anyone seriously approached Valve?

Why stretch to all these weird companies like Google to whom we are a foreign concept, and a tiny gnat in an endless jungle within that MMO realm to boot, when someone like Valve already has the reach to most every PC gamer out there and the best distribution and to-your-door advertising around?  (And they feature everything from the tiniest indie games and F2P MMOs to the largest big-budget titles too.)

Valve does one-shot game sales.  If you go back for the DLC that alone is something for them.  To Valve, even 40,000 sub-paying CoH players might seem a great boon when their own online games are all F2P lobbies.  And yet they have *some* multiplayer server experience that spans back many years (the original Half Life runs on a pentium 133 MHz, which was back in the age of Voodoo 3D for Pete's sake).  So it wouldn't be an unheard-of jump for them to extend into the MMORPG realm, especially on the small scale we can easily run with for CoH.

And they have their own studio, of course, but if SOMEBODY actually breaks down and talks to them before the rest of Paragon Studios totally fades away forever (didn't some of them just lose their new jobs with Trion, etc. again quite recently?) then maybe we could actually bring some sort of core team of PS back together for the deal, too.

Perhaps it's time, before any more of PS fades away, and before NCSoft fades away too (or worse, changes their stance yet again about not selling) to send Valve, a mighty professional PC gaming distribution channel with billions in financial backing and a soft spot for the little games too, a copy of The Almighty Pitch.    

Or maybe Brian Clayton would be better to actually do it?  Does  he even read the boards here?   I'll bet he can be reached via LinkedIn if not.

This makes so much sense it's really surprising no one, especially those on the actual PS team, have thought of it yet.  I mean, the worst Valve and NCSoft can say is no.  But it's a lot more believable and doable than some other ideas that are floating around, really.

[Joshex]

Has anyone seriously approached Valve?

Why stretch to all these weird companies like Google to whom we are a foreign concept, and a tiny gnat in an endless jungle within that MMO realm to boot, when someone like Valve already has the reach to most every PC gamer out there and the best distribution and to-your-door advertising around?  (And they feature everything from the tiniest indie games and F2P MMOs to the largest big-budget titles too.)

Valve does one-shot game sales.  If you go back for the DLC that alone is something for them.  To Valve, even 40,000 sub-paying CoH players might seem a great boon when their own online games are all F2P lobbies.  And yet they have *some* multiplayer server experience that spans back many years (the original Half Life runs on a pentium 133 MHz, which was back in the age of Voodoo 3D for Pete's sake).  So it wouldn't be an unheard-of jump for them to extend into the MMORPG realm, especially on the small scale we can easily run with for CoH.

And they have their own studio, of course, but if SOMEBODY actually breaks down and talks to them before the rest of Paragon Studios totally fades away forever (didn't some of them just lose their new jobs with Trion, etc. again quite recently?) then maybe we could actually bring some sort of core team of PS back together for the deal, too.

Perhaps it's time, before any more of PS fades away, and before NCSoft fades away too (or worse, changes their stance yet again about not selling) to send Valve, a mighty professional PC gaming distribution channel with billions in financial backing and a soft spot for the little games too, a copy of The Almighty Pitch.    

Or maybe Brian Clayton would be better to actually do it?  Does  he even read the boards here?   I'll bet he can be reached via LinkedIn if not.

This makes so much sense it's really surprising no one, especially those on the actual PS team, have thought of it yet.  I mean, the worst Valve and NCSoft can say is no.  But it's a lot more believable and doable than some other ideas that are floating around, really.

they are not a developer, they are a host according to my knowledge. they don't make or update games they just serve as an advertising company and help other game design companies publish thier games. something tells me they aren't willing to take the initiative of actally maintaining an MMO, but they might be useful in finding a game company that is willing.

[Quinch]

They're quite the developer, actually. Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress, Portal.... while not very numerous given their age, they have quite a bit of development expertise.

[Kistulot]

While I make a LOT of jokes about Valve not being a developer...

They are, and they do like to grab people who make games to make more for them, IE: portal, portal 2. Mods yes, but still worth consideration.

If no one has debated asking them, I'd be preeeeeetty curious why

[Lily Barclay]

I believe VV said they are on the list.

[Mister Bison]

I believe VV said they are on the list.

I actually wonder if they repeatedly asked Akinator while thinking about "An Entity that can buy CoH that I didn't think of yet"

[HEATSTROKE]

The main issue regardless is whether NC Soft will sell.

[Victoria Victrix]

Has anyone seriously approached Valve?

Just as we have assured you that ANY argument you have thought of, we have covered in the pitch letter, we assure you that ANY candidate you have thought of is on the list.  Plus some that you probably have not.

Valve allegedly made an offer early on.  I have not been able to confirm that.

We are working the list from top down and we are concentrating our effort on one target at a time to avoid both bidding wars (yes, a bidding war would be BAD, not good) and scattering our impact.  The reason we are working top down is that we are concentrating on the hardest targets while the movement-base is still fresh and people haven't dropped out yet.  We are going first for the richest targets, because what we see as significant money for the acquisition of the IP and establishment of a studio is basically "just another theme park ride" for those targets, thus making it much likelier that they will put some serious advertising and promotional money behind City.

[Ceremonius]

Just as we have assured you that ANY argument you have thought of, we have covered in the pitch letter, we assure you that ANY candidate you have thought of is on the list.  Plus some that you probably have not.

Valve allegedly made an offer early on.  I have not been able to confirm that.

We are working the list from top down and we are concentrating our effort on one target at a time to avoid both bidding wars (yes, a bidding war would be BAD, not good) and scattering our impact.  The reason we are working top down is that we are concentrating on the hardest targets while the movement-base is still fresh and people haven't dropped out yet.  We are going first for the richest targets, because what we see as significant money for the acquisition of the IP and establishment of a studio is basically "just another theme park ride" for those targets, thus making it much likelier that they will put some serious advertising and promotional money behind City.

As long as there is no EA Interactive . Not that I don't like EA as a publisher or something like that. The companie has tons of really neat stuff. But I heard rumors and also made the expierence that the customer doesn't count much as long as the money rolls.

I would love to the old times of gamemaking again
Grab your desired game, fire it up on you system and be instantly inside the game, without any downloading of patches, first day hotfixes and so on.
There is a reason why I don't wanna actually work in the computer/gaming biz. It just hard as heck. Most of the big, games only, publisher don't leave any room to put much love into your game.

Your game has a fixed amount of money to develop on.
Your game has to be ready when the publisher says it has to be.
Your game has to sell this and that to make cash and keep your company under the big publisher alive.

It's no biz where I can sit for days in front of my designsheet just to get my roadmap done.
Sure...there is much money involved, but without some love from the publisher a game and it's team is about to be doomed on a long shot.

Disney is a company wich lives upon love, family, friends and so on. Hopefully if they consider giving us some love too

[Cinnder]

I would love to the old times of gamemaking again
Grab your desired game, fire it up on you system and be instantly inside the game...

...after you figured out how to set up your autoexec.bat and config.sys for this particular game...  Or, wait, was that older than the old times to which you were referring? 

[Ceremonius]

...after you figured out how to set up your autoexec.bat and config.sys for this particular game...  Or, wait, was that older than the old times to which you were referring? 

Well not exactly . Remember Atari or Commodore. You just had to know some commands to start your game . Or wait half an hour, till your datasette has loaded your Street Fighter game, just to play 1 Battle .

God I wish I still had my C128D . And no, emulation is nothing compared to the real feeling .

[Darkness De Ding]

Thanks for the update. Have been wondering if there have been any nibbles/responses. Even more, I appreciate the fact that Hail Mary has a list of various people to speak with. After all,  we are a kick ass, uh I mean, sweet, community. Frigging proud to have my capes and I refuse to hang them up

[Quinch]

Well not exactly . Remember Atari or Commodore. You just had to know some commands to start your game . Or wait half an hour, till your datasette has loaded your Street Fighter game, just to play 1 Battle .

Repeat as many times as necessary until the tape head is aligned juuuuuust right.

[Vasarto]

Has anyone seriously approached Valve?

Why stretch to all these weird companies like Google to whom we are a foreign concept, and a tiny gnat in an endless jungle within that MMO realm to boot, when someone like Valve already has the reach to most every PC gamer out there and the best distribution and to-your-door advertising around?  (And they feature everything from the tiniest indie games and F2P MMOs to the largest big-budget titles too.)

Valve does one-shot game sales.  If you go back for the DLC that alone is something for them.  To Valve, even 40,000 sub-paying CoH players might seem a great boon when their own online games are all F2P lobbies.  And yet they have *some* multiplayer server experience that spans back many years (the original Half Life runs on a pentium 133 MHz, which was back in the age of Voodoo 3D for Pete's sake).  So it wouldn't be an unheard-of jump for them to extend into the MMORPG realm, especially on the small scale we can easily run with for CoH.

And they have their own studio, of course, but if SOMEBODY actually breaks down and talks to them before the rest of Paragon Studios totally fades away forever (didn't some of them just lose their new jobs with Trion, etc. again quite recently?) then maybe we could actually bring some sort of core team of PS back together for the deal, too.

Perhaps it's time, before any more of PS fades away, and before NCSoft fades away too (or worse, changes their stance yet again about not selling) to send Valve, a mighty professional PC gaming distribution channel with billions in financial backing and a soft spot for the little games too, a copy of The Almighty Pitch.    

Or maybe Brian Clayton would be better to actually do it?  Does  he even read the boards here?   I'll bet he can be reached via LinkedIn if not.

This makes so much sense it's really surprising no one, especially those on the actual PS team, have thought of it yet.  I mean, the worst Valve and NCSoft can say is no.  But it's a lot more believable and doable than some other ideas that are floating around, really.

Valve? Seriously? You wanna try a gaming company full of people who lack the mental capability to count to the number 3?

[Quinch]

Valve? Seriously? You wanna try a gaming company full of people who lack the mental capability to count to the number 3?

Won't be a problem until it's time for CoH's second sequel.

[Riff]

Valve are a developer - you only need to look at their Valve for Linux to see that.

CoH would fit nicely into that aspect too, as an OpenGL game already ported to the Mac it wouldn't take a huge effort to port to Linux giving Valve an ability to offer a top-flight MMO to the Linux crowd.

With the growth of Linux in the portable world (look at your Android Tablet and Chromebook) that could be a strong incentive to them, and worth adding as a USP to any pitch that is made to Valve.

[Victoria Victrix]

Valve is in the middle of the list.  Top down, folks, we would, ideally, like someone with money for the same robust development we are used to.  Valve won't do much development.  We'd be seeing issues once a year, maybe.

[Vasarto]

What about Blizzard? They are pretty good with just keeping the games they make available to play online. At the very least we could have that much at least lol.