Cognition Dissemination: What the Heck Does Valve Want with Campo Santo?

There was a time when Valve was known for releasing a worthwhile variety of single-player and multiplayer games. The Half-Life and Portal franchises were their key contributions in the former category, while the latter contained franchises like Dota, Team Fortress, and Left 4 Dead. It seemed like this trend would continue for a while, during which Valve was also supporting PC store Steam. But this era faded seemingly overnight.

It’s clear which titles made more money for Valve, as they shifted their focus to supporting Steam and the several games released on the platform every week. They’ve also continued to support MOBA title Dota 2, which released nearly five years ago. Additionally, they’ve provided unique projects like free HTC Vive VR game The Lab and mobile digital collectible card game The Artifact, the latter of which utilizes elements from Dota 2.

While those are nice, their business shift unfortunately came at the expense of making single-player games, something they haven’t done since Portal 2 over seven years ago. They’ve also ignored the cries for a new Half-Life title, which have been ongoing since Half-Life 2: Episode Two released in 2007 and ended on a cliffhanger. Every sign indicated that Valve was done with single-player games for good.

That’s precisely why I was shocked to see the news that Valve had purchased Campo Santo, a newer developer known for one single-player game — though a good one. Their first and only title was Firewatch, a mystery adventure game set in Wyoming during 1989, showered with critical and commercial accolades. The success made them the kind of developer a publisher would love to have on board, and potentially have dibs on their next game: In the Valley of Gods, another single-player first-person adventure announced at The Game Awards last year. But they’re an odd fit for current Valve, considering the aforementioned business shift. It could be taken sign that they want to get back into single-player experiences.

It was also funny how this news was announced late on a Saturday afternoon, which made writers who don’t usually work on the weekends have to post articles. I’m sure they loved it.

Of course, presuming Valve wants to make single-player games again wasn’t where my mind drifted upon first hearing the news. My first concern was whether Valve saw a convenient team of developers to scoop up all at once to develop projects for them. I was far from the first one to jump to that conclusion, and it’s a fear both companies involved knew they’d have to address immediately. In the Valley of Gods won’t be changed in any significant way, meaning the company will stay as they are for the time being. Well, outside of them having to move their headquarters from San Francisco to Seattle.

Campo Santo will stick to making single-player games for now, and the extra resources they’ll have at their disposal will only help. When Firewatch first launched, it had significant performance issues on consoles — especially on PS4. They eventually patched and fixed the issues on both platforms, and it didn’t affect their sales too badly. If they run into this issue with their newest title, there’s a good chance they’ll be able to fix them faster.

The big question is what Campo Santo and Valve will do after In the Valley of Gods releases. Whether they’ll keep them as a developer that makes single-player experiences will likely depend on how well that game sells, and how profitable overall multiplayer experiences will be by the time it releases. I won’t go into whether Valve getting back into single-player games will entail developing a new Half-Life game, since I don’t want to get into the habit of disappointing the, let’s say, three of you reading. But that would be nice.

It’s become harder to find games on Steam with the sheer number of them releasing lately, which especially applies to single-player games that don’t have, or don’t have as many, microtransactions. It’s bad enough that a company like Square Enix explained how it’s easier for their fans to find games when they link to them from the official websites instead of letting potential purchasers search, and you have to imagine how bad it is for smaller developers.

But there’s a good chance In the Valley of Gods and possible subsequent single-player Campo Santo games could have an easier time, thanks to Valve owning them. This could open a can of worms with other developers if they get preferential treatment, but I hope Valve finds a solution to this problem before then.

In the Valley of Gods is still on track for a 2019 release, despite the development team shuffling locations. Perhaps we’ll get another look at it soon, to get an idea of how similar or different it will be compared to Firewatch.

P.S. Speaking of Firewatch: The game is due for a release on Nintendo Switch sometime this summer. Some Unity titles have needed a little work before releasing on the system, but the port should turn out well with Valve’s extra resources. Expect a full date to be announced soon.