It seems that Valve can count to three after all.
Speaking at the Seattle Interactive Conference this week, Valve’s Greg Coomer had some interesting things to say about how the company approaches each game it creates. Most interesting of his many hypothetical claims is that any trio of Valve employees could, in theory, build and ship absolutely any game they desire.
“Three people at the company can ship anything,” explained Coomer. “And the reason it is three people – because really it is one person can ship anything – but the work gets better if you just check with a couple of people before you decide to push a button.”
Valve’s flat internal employment structure means that its employees are able to take on multiple different tasks, with no one person specializing in a single area. “Nobody is checking your work,” notes Coomer, emphasizing how the company trusts each employee to be at the top of their game. “Every single person is responsible for deciding what they do every day.”
So, of Valve’s 320 employees, any group of three could, according to Coomer, be working on Half-Life 3 right now. Or Team Fortress 3. Or Portal 3. Or Left 4 Dead 3. In fact, maybe they are, and that’s why it’s taking so long. Ba-zing!
Source: GeekWire
