Gabe Newell on managers, EA and listening to customers

A company without managers might sound pretty chaotic, but according to Valve Corporation co-founder and managing director Gabe Newell, it works like a charm for his company.

“Titles are not particularly helpful to us in terms of getting people to be more successful,” said Newell in a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz. “People change roles a lot inside of the company.”

The same interview also touches on Valve’s distribution deal with Electronic Arts. Although some people might have seen the deal as a prelude to something bigger like acquisition, Newell says that Valve would rather remain independent.

“I think something that contributes to our ability to be successful is that we don’t have external financing on our projects,” said Newell. “There’s no venture capitalists breathing down our neck, and I think that helps us make decisions that are more focused on what customers will like than what a third party has an opinion about.”

And what about customer feedback? “It’s hugely valuable to us how articulate and thoughtful the community is, because any game developer is going to benefit enormously from paying attention to what people have to say,” said Newell. “You read the reviews and you pay attention and it’s going to help you understand what you’re doing right and what you need to work harder at.”

For the full interview, click on the read link below.

A company without managers might sound pretty chaotic, but according to Valve Corporation co-founder and managing director Gabe Newell, it works like a charm for his company.

“Titles are not particularly helpful to us in terms of getting people to be more successful,” said Newell in a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz. “People change roles a lot inside of the company.”

The same interview also touches on Valve’s distribution deal with Electronic Arts. Although some people might have seen the deal as a prelude to something bigger like acquisition, Newell says that Valve would rather remain independent.

“I think something that contributes to our ability to be successful is that we don’t have external financing on our projects,” said Newell. “There’s no venture capitalists breathing down our neck, and I think that helps us make decisions that are more focused on what customers will like than what a third party has an opinion about.”

And what about customer feedback? “It’s hugely valuable to us how articulate and thoughtful the community is, because any game developer is going to benefit enormously from paying attention to what people have to say,” said Newell. “You read the reviews and you pay attention and it’s going to help you understand what you’re doing right and what you need to work harder at.”

For the full interview, click on the read link below.