Gabe Newell says Valve is 'designing our own VR games' internally
Newell wants to broaden 'the range of options' at Valve's disposal for creating different types of experiences.
Valve developers are working on VR games internally, per a question asked by a fan during founder Gabe Newell's Reddit AMA (via UploadVR).
"The big thing right now is broadening the range of options we have in creating experiences," Newell replied to Reddit user Air_chandler, who asked for Newell's thoughts on Valve's present and future direction.
"We think investing in hardware will give us those options," he continued. "The knuckles controller is being designed at the same time as we’re designing our own VR games."
Thus far, Valve's catalog of VR games consists only of The Lab; titles such as Destinations and DOTA 2's viewing mode are not "games" in the denotative definition of the word.
Newell made waves earlier during the AMA when he responded "Yep" to the possibility of future Half-Life and Portal games.
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replyDavid Craddock posted a new article, Gabe Newell says Valve is 'designing our own VR games' internally
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A Portal 3 would be an incredible experience in a Vive.
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At least the buckets can be tracked in VR with the pucks!
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If done right, a Portal game in VR would interest me much more than a HL game in VR.
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that'd be pretty wild for sure.
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Agreed
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And I'd be even more interested in HL3, without the VR, but I've given up on that ever happening and written off Valve and Gabe Newell for good. Valve is a company with no direction, no focus, and no leadership. A sad, empty shell of what it once was.
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I'd be surprised if they didn't buy the Budget Cuts devs.
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Or the Windlands Devs...
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They hate locomotion, so lol no
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But do they like grappling hooks?
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Implies locomotion so you have your answer.
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Well screw them. They wouldn't even make Windlands 3 anyway.
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Wait... They did? Is it a valve title now or they just hired the main dev?
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My assumption is that they won't do Half Life 3 until they can make it a full featured VR game that will be the killer app that takes VR mainstream.
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So... maybe we'll get it by 2077?
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Damn it probably won't make that.. Id be 100yrs old
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That's been said a few times in chatty. There's merit to the idea. But, it's also putting a lot of eggs into that one basket. Which is to say they'll be waiting a while longer for the tech to get there, as well as for hardware to be more adopted. Sure a killer app like that would help sell hardware, but I don't see him investing millions into a new game that might only have a market of a few thousand based on hardware sales. They could not make it a VR exclusive, but that seems counter to why they'd way for VR in the first place.
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They could wait for saturation to be enough to make it worthwhile.
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Plus, if it comes out at the same time as a serious drop in cost to play...
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As a company, you never want to say "no" because that closes doors that people will jump on you for opening in the future. Valve may want to do HL3 one day, so they'll never give "No" as an official response.
The flip side of the coin is you never want to give a firm "Yes" because then people will expect it. Keep the door open so that you can walk through one day, if you want to. -
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He wasn't, he said that a game in the same universe could still be on the table and then idiots assume HL3 whereas it could easily be another Portal or something completely new. Intentional misinterpretation for drama's sake.
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You're absolutely right. He should simply say "the future of the half life franchise is something we're always discussing, so I can't say no it will never happen. It might happen. It might not. That's the best answer I can give."
That's PR. That's treating your customers with respect.
George Broussard (whatever you may think of him) faced the same problem for the same period of time. A decade+ of being asked one question. But George didn't stare at the reporter in silence as if to say, "how dare you ask me that question?" He didn't treat people with contempt. He had a simple answer, "when it's done." -
he is simply trying to keep valve relevant. the hive mind of the internet is leaving them behind - they have nothing other than dota2 and CSGO. he *had* to do something to keep them even remotely on the radar of the gaming community, because steam is a commodity and not even really reflecting on valve any longer. steam is a given tool no different than 7zip.
so, valve needs a reason to make it known they are doing things.-
Other than 2 of the 3 most popular PC games and the largest distribution platform, they are irrelevant. Totally irrelevant.
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right, I get what you mean, but they have focused on those 2 properties to their own identity situation. what is valve going to do? stay on that treadmill forever? the same 2 games? yes, that's a cash cow and very lucrative but has got to be soul sucking.
the key here is VALVE - do people even know they are behind dota2 and CSGO at this point?
blizzard is constantly diversified with things and has a great setup going forward, including their own distribution system now.
competition is coming for them, in other words. the next generation of folks won't know anything about valve because of what you just said. they have 3 hugely successful things, but they are commoditized and they offer no brand equity into valve at this point.
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