Rumor: Google to buy Valve

[xtop]

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/17/in...-to-buy-valve/

There's nothing in the way of official confirmation at the moment, but tech website the Inquirer reports that "well-placed sources" are telling them that Google will be purchasing Valve "any second now." As the site points out, Google is likely less motivated by Valve's game development than their nigh-ubiquitous content distribution platform, Steam.

We, again, have no idea if this is on the money, but there have been a couple of indicators that lend a sort of credence. You may remember early last month when Valve said they were happy to talk about acquisitions, and just a little over a week ago Forbes' Chris Morris posited that Google could be going into game publishing.

note: while the inquirer is wrong a lot, they do get rumors right a lot too, so don't dismiss this too quickly, but keep the salt nearby

[stockstar1138]

google: the new microsoft

[mikejet]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

google: the new microsoft

Google > Microsoft

They have the money to buy anything. I hope they buy Vavle and maybe they can fix Steam.

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by mikejet

Google > Microsoft

They have the money to buy anything. I hope they buy Vavle and maybe they can fix Steam.

what i meant was, the bigger and bigger google gets, the more it will start acting like microsoft.

[mikejet]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

what i meant was, the bigger and bigger google gets, the more it will start acting like microsoft.

I hope not. We will see what happens when Android finally gets released.

[arush5268d]

Google is getting waaaayyyy too big for their britches.

I truly hope that this does not go through.

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by mikejet

I hope not. We will see what happens when Android finally gets released.

luckily for right now, they got some compeition, so the quality will stay high, but man do they want their hand in everybody's cookie jar.

when google is getting into gaming, you know they got some M$ desires.

[bilbravo]

Adsense on Steam. Makes sense.

Everytime you log in to play you see ads. I've not used Steam a lot, but I know there are ads for the games you can buy... are there other ads already?

I'm not totally against this, and I'm not totally against ads... especially if it means Steam remains a free service and improves. Adsense ads are very unobtrusive also.

[Maximus]

It's not for gaming, it's for Steam.

It wouldn't surprise me if any deal was for Steam and the games development stayed separate. Steam is the biggest online gaming community and Google like information, if they got control of Steam they would instantly have detailed information of gaming habits on millions of gamers.

[Elandyll]

IF they rerally end up buying the whole of Valve and not just the Steam platform, one can hope that it is followed by a "streamlining" of the platform they develop for, and a halt to the MS favoritism

[Red Hood]

Google will own us all.

[Shin-Ra]

Originally Posted by Elandyll

IF they rerally end up buying the whole of Valve and not just the Steam platform, one can hope that it is followed by a "streamlining" of the platform they develop for, and a halt to the MS favoritism

That would require a full frontal lobotomy of key Valve workers.

[AliceT]

Originally Posted by Elandyll

IF they rerally end up buying the whole of Valve and not just the Steam platform, one can hope that it is followed by a "streamlining" of the platform they develop for, and a halt to the MS favoritism

its not MS favoritism, its PC favoritism.

[david2189]

im so hyped about this, im a search marketer and work with adwords/adcenter/panama etc so if this was to happen i could start doing ingame ads

[allstar780]

it should be exciting to see where google goes in the next 5-10 years... it would be nice if they bought up all the bandwidth needed for WiMax and offered free ad supported internet to all of the world...

the thing i like about google is that i cant really see them ever charging for anything they put ads in, whereas when we buy PPV fights on TV or shop online or buy movies, we are basically paying to be bombarded by ads

[Blu Kreme]

Google is..



Be prepared.

[AliceT]

Originally Posted by Blu Kreme

Google is..



Be prepared.

Hmm, are we going to hear of a zombie outbreak on their google barges in the next few years?

[Forrestandjen07]

Originally Posted by mikejet

Google > Microsoft

They have the money to buy anything. I hope they buy Vavle and maybe they can fix Steam.

the only way to fix that worthless trash is to tell it by by

[Blu Kreme]

Originally Posted by AliceT

Hmm, are we going to hear of a zombie outbreak on their google barges in the next few years?

Anything is possible these days.

[quexos]

I've been considering buying Google but I could give them maybe a couple hundred Euros and I fear they might not accept. Greedy bugs