Is Valve Gaming's Equivalent of Pixar?

Pixar are by far one of the best movie making companies out there, and have been for years. But could Valve be gaming’s answer to such a phenomenon?

You may be thinking that I’m crazy, but there are quite a few traits that both share. Firstly, and the most telling one, Pixar have never made a bad film. Cars is probably their worst film, but that is still a lot better than the rest of the crap that fills the industry. We see exactly the same with Valve; you have to be a cold-hearted person to say that every game that Valve creates isn’t of the highest quality!

Secondly, Pixar are not prolific with their films! They will make sure that they spend a long time on their films and therefore only release one every few years, keeping the audience waiting and building the anticipation. Valve, unfortunately some may say, do exactly the same; with the obvious case being the Half-Life series, we’ve been kept waiting for so long! But this also helps the first point, they make sure all their games are as good as they can be, meaning that they have to spend a long time and not rush it out the door.

Another defining feature of Pixar’s films is that they are for all the family, the sort of films you’d want to show to your children. Now, while maybe Left 4 Dead isn’t the most appropriate game for your 7 year old, I personally would be happy to play through the whole Portal with my future children and feel they would be better for the experience, something you really don’t get in a lot of games; it seems nowadays there is a split in the market for games that are for kids and games that are for adults. No, Wii Sports doesn’t count… Wii Sports never counts.

Pixar is a company known for taking risks; I’m sure most companies would have laughed in the face of the man that came up to them and pitched the idea of a film about a rat that can cook, but Pixar believed in him and we got the great film that is Ratatouille from it. Unfortunately, I must draw on Portal as another example, we must recognize that making a game like this was a complete shot in the dark. Portal could have easily panned, but no, Valve trusted the idea and we got what is, for many, one of the greatest games of all time out of it.

Pixar films have an uncanny ability to have us balling our eyes out one minute and in absolute stitches the next; the montage at the beginning of Up never fails to set me off and yet it had me laughing my arse off at the talking dog. Valve, in this case, seem to be almost there. Obviously, Portal has basically invented the genre of a “comedy” game, but also they make deep and affecting stories, such as the Half-Life series, so Valve are just that one step away from making one that has both, because we know that they can do each separately perfectly.

Finally, Pixar has completely changed the film industry through its animation. When the company was first set up, the idea of a full-length animated film wasn’t even conceived, but Pixar pushed, and continues to push, the boundaries of the technology available. While Valve hasn’t changed the technical side of the industry, we have seen the complete revolution of the way we sell PC games. Before Steam, the PC gaming industry seemed on its last legs, but now with it we have seen a resurgence of PC gaming and the now famed Steam sales has already been the death of many-a-gamer’s wallet.

So, there you have it, 6 reasons why Valve might just be the company in the gaming world that parallels the brilliance of Pixar in the gaming world.