Valve, the company behind Steam and hyper popular games Half-Life, Portal, and more, is currently developing three full-blown virtual reality titles. Full-blown in this context means as opposed to "tech demos."
Three Valve VR Games In Development
At a media roundtable at the company's headquarters in Washington Thursday, Gabe Newell, Valve's president, said that the VR titles in question represent a second generation of VR outings, which are poised to be more longer and more complex and in-depth than previously released demo experiences.
Gabe Newell Can't Talk About The Titles Yet
Newell, however, didn't cough up any details pertaining to what the games might be, although he did confirm that they'll be created using Source 2 and Unity game engines. Additionally, Newell also said that all three games will be individually different.
It appears unlikely for the games to be based on Half-Life or Team Fortress, two of Valve's highly recognized titles. There was, however, an attempt to do just that — Newell said his teams tried to create VR titles based on those, but they ended up not being fun on the platform, Polygon reports.
Newell's Belief In VR
Valve, needless to say, is very faithful and invested in VR, as exemplified by its own Vive platform with manufacturer HTC. Newell said that the company is still devoting time for the platform, developing new hardware for Vive, which includes the knuckle controllers spotted at last year's Steam Dev Day.
"One of the questions you might be asking is 'Why in the world would you be making hardware?'" Newell said. "What we can do now is we can be designing hardware at the same time that we're designing software."
Newell brought gaming icon and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto as the template behind Valve's decision to develop hardware alongside software.
"[Miyamoto] had the ability to think about what the input device is and design a system while he designs games. Our sense is that this will actually allow us to build much better entertainment experiences for people."
Newell insists that VR isn't a fad or a gimmick but a new and unique language in the sprawling arena of virtual experiences, EuroGamer reports.
"It feels like we've been stuck with mouse and keyboard for a [really] long time," he said, noting that opportunities to design and create unique experiences are there, just simply waiting to be tapped and taken advantage of.
Aside from a series of VR demos titled The Lab, which was launched in 2016, Valve's last full, original game was Dota 2, released in 2013. Valve says that it will not be anymore adding to The Lab, as it doesn't see it as an ongoing project.
No Price Decreases For Its VR Hardware
Newell said price decreases are unlikely, even with hardware upgrades poised to arrive in the next two years because VR is primarily a platform geared for players who have capable VR-compatible gaming rigs, which could be really expensive. He also said that chip manufacturers should be more involved in VR marketing, opining that they're likely to benefit from it the most.
As revealed by Valve, Steam had an 86 percent VR user growth in terms of monthly active users in 2016's second half, which may spell active interest in the steadily developing yet slowly-to-be-adapted field.
Speculate away about what those three VR titles might be, but take note that they won't be based off Valve's previous software. So no Half-Life 3, unfortunately. Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
