Valve CEO Gabe Newell has said that he’s a “big fan” of what Kickstarter is doing. He thinks that crowd-funded projects will help engender a better relationship between fans and creators, but be bad for larger companies.
“There are a bunch of different ways that communities can drive what is going to happen, and one of the last pieces is to figure out how the community itself can drive the financing of projects,” said Newell to The Nerdist. “I actually think that’s going to happen regardless [of Kickstarter].”
“The earlier [fans] start supporting a project, the greater the results are going to be,” he continued. “Entertainment will get better, creators will do better, I think the percentage of control and the amount of money that goes to things like distribution and marketing will fall, and I think that’s a fine thing.”
When asked in the interview how large corporations can remain relevant, Newell said, “I doubt that a lot of the larger corporations will be able to make transitions into the new world. I don’t think the big companies will. I think the rate of change is too fast for most of them to adapt.”
