Valve develops three VR games at the same time and hopes for technology development

Gabe Newell at The International 6 Dota 2 Tournament

Last week, a reputable gaming publication Gamasutra reported that Valve is working on three VR games at once. About this during the press conference in Seattle, said the founder and CEO Gabe Newell.

The press conference was held in the framework of a round table with game publications on virtual reality games. Newell spoke about the company's plans in the field of VR-igrostroy, participation in the project HTC Vive and the company's plans in the field of hardware development.
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“One of the frequent questions is:“ Why are we developing iron? ”So, right now we are developing 3 VR games. And what else can we do if right now we design the hardware and create software? It seems that this is what Miyamoto always did? ( Miyamoto Shigeru , general manager of Nintendo, game designer - ed. Comment), ”Newell said.

“He knew how to create games at the same time, and think about how gaming devices and controllers should look. We believe that in this way, we will be able to create a significantly better product for user entertainment, ”added the founder of Valve.

Revelations of the head of Valve excited the gaming community. It is clear why. The company has not been developing new projects for many years, except Dota 2 and support for CS: GO. Valve Anti Cheat looks more like a sieve, and even the most dedicated fans have lost hope of Half-Life 3.

It became quite obvious to the audience: Valve, headed by Gabe, tightly sat down on his Steam project, living on a commission, while lazily supporting life in two projects, which by fate became the main cyber disciplines of the planet, with which only the League of Legends, located in the same niche as Dota 2. In the place of CS: GO, there are no competitors at all. It seemed that the company simply did not have people capable of making new games and that is why Valve began working with HTC in terms of developing a virtual reality helmet, being responsible for both software and hardware parts. However, Gabe Newell laughed at the supporters of the theory that his company was donated to hardware development in pursuit of a long ruble (having no other means to make money other than the aforementioned games and the Steam platform):

“We didn’t have ideas like“ Oh! We will be able to cut down some money on creating hardware! “Because iron is traditionally a weak, low-profit business,” he said.

The head of the company made it clear that Valve is working on VR projects, because he sees the prospect in this market, and being a pioneer is not a bad idea.

Newell does not deny the fact that with the apparent availability of virtual reality helmets, which entered the mass market in 2016, we are still at the very beginning of the journey. VR technologies require computational capabilities that are not yet available to most users, and according to the founder of Valve, they do not yet exist. And equipment manufacturers need to reckon with this. The gaming revolution is already knocking on the door, and Intel, NVIDIA and AMD are hopelessly behind in terms of developing the technologies for which they are responsible:

“The smartest thing AMD, Intel, and Nvidia could do right now is to give the VR systems to software developers. Oh, we squeeze all the crap out of their processors! And we will do it much more efficiently than modern high-end games, ”said Gabe.

At the same time, the head of Valve does not harbor hopes about the imminent arrival of VR "in every home." According to Gabe, VR technology is still a lot of geeks who can afford to spend thousands of dollars on equipment. And even the release of games will not change the fact that VR is a very expensive pleasure. “Now I can’t cite as an example any kind of content that would force millions of people to make changes to the configuration of their personal computers. This is still more of a field of enthusiasts and hardcore players, in which we have made significant progress over the past year. But it is a slow and painful way. ” Said Newell. “Even if we take all the existing VR systems for PCs and make them 80% cheaper, we still won’t get a huge market. Because there are still not enough reasons to spend 20 hours a day in VR, ”added Valve head.

Newell hopes for further development of VR technologies and the transition from the current format of VR-room to the format of VR-house. Of course, this will require the development of wireless data transmission technologies (now it is the main problem of the mobility of VR helmets), but Gabe is optimistic about this. He predicted that fully functional wireless headsets will appear as early as 2017, and will enter the mass market in 2018.

The head of Valve did not say directly what games he was working on at his company, but noted that they are focused on the mass market:

“We think we can make three big games and we already know enough to make it happen. In any case, all game developers will learn from our experience positive or negative lessons, ”he said. During his AMA on Reddit, Newell stressed that at least one of the three games will be a full-fledged title with a single passage.

Undoubtedly, the company's plans give gamers the hope that at least someone will create a full-fledged game, designed specifically for VR, and not an adaptation of the usual PC-game.