Poll of the Day > Valve just acquired Campo Santo, the developer that made Firewatch.

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://blog.camposanto.com/post/173170027579/campo-santo-news

4/21/2018 - CAMPO SANTO NEWS - SAN FRANCISCOLOS ANGELESLONDONSOMEWHERE IN NORTHERN ENGLAND The twelve of us at Campo Santo have agreed to join Valve, where we will maintain our jobs as video game developers and continue production on our current project, In the Valley of Gods.

If youre the type of person who gives two flips about this news, we can elaborate a little bit on this big decision. First, we really like making video games. Furthermore, and perhaps more accurately, we really like making and producing entertainment. From the day-to-day production of our last game, Firewatch, to the way we run the company, make merchandise, meet players at expos and shows, send out a quarterly literary journal, throw open-to-the-public game demos in the middle of an artificial forestall of it is geared towards surprising, delighting, and entertaining the customers who have shared in our success.

In Valve we found a group of folks who, to their core, feel the same way about the work that they do (this, you may be surprised to learn, doesnt happen every day). In us, they found a group with unique experience and valuable, diverse perspectives. It quickly became an obvious match.

Second, while visiting IGNs headquarters in early 2015 to talk about Firewatch, we came across an undelivered 2011 Game of the Year Award for Portal 2. It happened to be engraved on an unopened bottle of champagne. Never ones to pass up free alcohol, we stole it and drank it to celebrate the launch of Firewatch a year later. So in some sense, this is a return home for us. Well, for that bottle of champagne.

Third, and last, we had a series of long conversations with the people at Valve and everyone shared the satisfaction we take in working with people whose talents dwarf our own to make things we never thought possible. Both sides spoke about our values and how, when you get right down to it, we, as human beings, are hard-limited by the time we have left when it comes to making the things we care about and believe in. They asked us if wed all be interested in coming up to Bellevue and doing that there and we said yes.

Yes, were still making In the Valley of Gods (as a Valve game!); yes, well still support Firewatch; and yes, well still produce The Quarterly Review and our regular blog content. Thanks so much for your interest in our games and well see you in Washington. Cheers.

Campo Santo

Neat.

Valve, laziest company in the world, acquires company known the laziest genre in the world.
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Hang on, they stole a bottle of champagne from IGN?
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Jiggy101011 posted...

Hang on, they stole a bottle of champagne from IGN?

Lulz

Also, never heard of Firewatch
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This complicates my boycott of Campo Santo. Guess I'll just avoid Steam/Valve now.
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ninja_lootz posted...

This complicates my boycott of Campo Santo. Guess I'll just avoid Steam/Valve now.

Dont explain why you are boycotting them or anything, that might lead to a discussion.
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Firewatch strikes me as the sort of game that could work as a VR title. I wonder if this move is motivated in part by a desire to produce more games that utilize the technology they've invested so much into.
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Cruddy_horse posted...

ninja_lootz posted...

This complicates my boycott of Campo Santo. Guess I'll just avoid Steam/Valve now.

Dont explain why you are boycotting them or anything, that might lead to a discussion.

if he explained, he'd have to face the fact that it's probably extremely silly or based off of wrong information
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Oh, they abused copyright law to try to shut down Pewdiepie's channel. Purely because they don't like him.

Firewatch is garbage so it's not like it's hard to boycott them, though.
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that makes me like them even more tbh
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ninja_lootz posted...

Oh, they abused copyright law to try to shut down Pewdiepie's channel. Purely because they don't like him.

Firewatch is garbage so it's not like it's hard to boycott them, though.

Good. Pewdiepie is garbage.

ninja_lootz posted...

Oh, they abused copyright law to try to shut down Pewdiepie's channel. Purely because they don't like him.
Firewatch is garbage so it's not like it's hard to boycott them, though.

By "abused copyright law" do you mean "abused the Youtube Copyright system"?
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shadowsword87 posted...

ninja_lootz posted...

Oh, they abused copyright law to try to shut down Pewdiepie's channel. Purely because they don't like him.
Firewatch is garbage so it's not like it's hard to boycott them, though.

By "abused copyright law" do you mean "abused the Youtube Copyright system"?

"On September 10, 2017, Sean Vanaman tweeted that he would be issuing a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown against the streamer PewDiePie in response to him using a racist insult while streaming PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.[24] As a result of that move, there was a backlash from the gaming community against a perceived abuse of DMCA and Firewatch was "review-bombed" on Steam.[25] Ars Technica noted that the company previously stated on their website that they gave open permission to stream and monetize videos made while playing the game."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campo_Santo_(company)

Slightly exaggerated to say they tried to shut his channel down. They tried to get videos of him playing their game removed despite having previously given open permission to use the game

shadowsword87 posted...

ninja_lootz posted...

Oh, they abused copyright law to try to shut down Pewdiepie's channel. Purely because they don't like him.
Firewatch is garbage so it's not like it's hard to boycott them, though.

By "abused copyright law" do you mean "abused the Youtube Copyright system"?

I don't it's productive to split that hair. The Youtube DMCA procedures didn't come out of nowhere, they exist because of copyright law.
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Knowing how software start-ups come about, that is pretty much the goal of every start-up: Get bought by a larger company, run your own company into the ground, then take the money the larger company gave you and start over again.

Any start-up that thinks they are going to compete with one of the big guys is solely mistaken.
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rjsilverthorn posted...

Slightly exaggerated to say they tried to shut his channel down. They tried to get videos of him playing their game removed despite having previously given open permission to use the game

They were also urging other devs to follow suit and Youtube shuts down channels that get too many strikes. The intent was pretty clear.
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i wish it worked and they succeeded
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ninja_lootz posted...

rjsilverthorn posted...

Slightly exaggerated to say they tried to shut his channel down. They tried to get videos of him playing their game removed despite having previously given open permission to use the game

They were also urging other devs to follow suit and Youtube shuts down channels that get too many strikes. The intent was pretty clear.

"we should boycott this company that had the moral nerve to not want their game associated with a racial slur spewing european dude who doesn't even know how to fathom the history behind the word and its usage in american history toward black people"
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ninja_lootz posted...

Oh, they abused copyright law to try to shut down Pewdiepie's channel. Purely because they don't like him.

no it was because he's a racist dickbag
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YOUHAVENOHOPE posted...

ninja_lootz posted...

rjsilverthorn posted...

Slightly exaggerated to say they tried to shut his channel down. They tried to get videos of him playing their game removed despite having previously given open permission to use the game

They were also urging other devs to follow suit and Youtube shuts down channels that get too many strikes. The intent was pretty clear.

"we should boycott this company that had the moral nerve to not want their game associated with a racial slur spewing european dude who doesn't even know how to fathom the history behind the word and its usage in american history toward black people"

It's one thing to say "we don't want our product associated with you and are revoking your permission to use it on your channel." It's another entirely to file spurious DMCA takedown claims and encourage others to do so, knowing that accumulating strikes faster than they can be dealt with will shut a channel down.

_AdjI_ posted...

It's one thing to say "we don't want our product associated with you and are revoking your permission to use it on your channel." It's another entirely to file spurious DMCA takedown claims and encourage others to do so, knowing that accumulating strikes faster than they can be dealt with will shut a channel down.

It's not spurious. Any developer can file DMCA claims on their own footage. But most don't because streaming and videos are pretty much free advertising. If racist dickbags have footage of your game on record, it is completely within your right to have that dealt with. The "special permission" that was given is not legally binding.
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Nightengale posted...

It's not spurious. Any developer can file DMCA claims on their own footage.

Unless it falls under fair use. The issue is that fighting to have it acknowledged as fair use often involves more legal resources than most youtubers have ready access to.

Ah right I forgot pewdiepie is a small independent youtuber.
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imagine defending pewdiepie and being serious about it
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rjsilverthorn posted...

shadowsword87 posted...

ninja_lootz posted...

Oh, they abused copyright law to try to shut down Pewdiepie's channel. Purely because they don't like him.
Firewatch is garbage so it's not like it's hard to boycott them, though.

By "abused copyright law" do you mean "abused the Youtube Copyright system"?

"On September 10, 2017, Sean Vanaman tweeted that he would be issuing a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown against the streamer PewDiePie in response to him using a racist insult while streaming PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.[24] As a result of that move, there was a backlash from the gaming community against a perceived abuse of DMCA and Firewatch was "review-bombed" on Steam.[25] Ars Technica noted that the company previously stated on their website that they gave open permission to stream and monetize videos made while playing the game."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campo_Santo_(company)

Slightly exaggerated to say they tried to shut his channel down. They tried to get videos of him playing their game removed despite having previously given open permission to use the game

It wouldn't matter since YouTube is owned by an American company therefore Fair Use applies regardless if PewdiePie is Swedish.
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Why? Firewatch was shit.
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