Shovel some coal into the hype train, because it's about to roll out of the station. Gabe Newell has announced that Valve is currently developing 3, count them, 3 VR games. Before you chime in with skepticism and doubt, Newell clarifies exactly what Valve is making:
"When I say we're building three games, we're building three full games, not experiments."
Newell seems adamant that VR is the future of gaming. Whether he's right or not doesn't matter, Valve is pushing all their resources into making these games for the platform:
"It feels like we've been stuck with mouse and keyboard for a reeeaaally long time and that the opportunities to build much more interesting kinds of experiences for gamers were there, we just need to sort of expand what we can do. But it's not about being in hardware, it's about building better games. It's about taking bigger leaps forward with the kinds of games that we can do."
Of course, this is likely to help bolster the sales of the HTC Vive, which has shown sluggish sales amidst a waning interest in VR at the current buy-in price. I'm guessing the strategy is get people psyched about VR by making a good game on it, which makes sense.
If Newell is about to bring a full Portal, Left 4 Dead, or...actually I'm not even gonna say it...you already know what game I'm talking about, I would be psyched. I've been pretty vocal about the current state of VR, and that while the tech may not be a gimmick, the litany of software currently out on the market for it certainly is. No one wants to pay $500 to play games with the same level of functionality as the standard Atari...let's get some actual games in the hardware. I'm still gonna remain skeptical, but I have hope that if one person can bring people back into VR, it's Gabe Newell.
