Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: campo santo, Firewatch, In the Valley of the Gods, Steam, valve

Valve Acquires Firewatch Developer Campo Santo

Campo Santo's Firewatch is something of a strange, lonely little game, however, its gotten itself quite the following. Which likely explains a part of why the developer has decided to join the team at Valve. In a post over on the Campo Santo blog, the team announced their decision to work under the big Valve umbrella on their current project, In the Valley of the Gods. Which, yes, will be released under Vavle.

The team explained the move, saying:

If you're 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 forest—all 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, doesn't 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 IGN's 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 we'd all be interested in coming up to Bellevue and doing that there and we said yes.

So while the move is a bit out of left field, it won't be meaning much for Firewatch fans. Campo Santo will continue to support the game, and will even continue producing their Quarterly Review and regular blog content. They're just moving to Washington.

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