Game developer Valve used to make some great games, but as of late, has been riding on past successes like Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2. It looks like there will finally be new games from the studio, but one of them won’t be Half Life 3.
Speaking to Gamasutra, Valve founder Gabe Newell confirmed there are three new games coming from the studio, all VR-based. The reason for this is because Valve is so invested in making VR hardware.
"So one of the questions you might ask us is 'Why in the world are we making hardware?' So right now, we're building 3 VR games,” Newell told Gamasutra. “And what we can do now is to be designing hardware at the same time that we're designing software. This is something that Miyamoto has always had, right?"
Newell cites legendary game developer Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of games like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. To make the varied experiences in his games, Miyamoto builds the hardware needed for those experiences, instead of having to adapt to the hardware of others.
Newell continued by saying "[Miyamoto] has had the ability to think about what the input devices and the design of systems should be like while he's trying to design games. Our sense is that that's going to allow us to actually build much better entertainment experiences for people."
This will help offset the cost of developing hardware as well. "So the idea isn't like oh - we suddenly thought we could make more money by building hardware - because hardware's actually traditionally been a lousy low-margin business," Newell said.
Even better, these games will not be simple demos or short “experiences.” Instead, they are said to be full games, made with Source Engine 2 and Unity. As for what these games will be, well, we’ll have to wait on Valve to know more. Seeing as how the company generally keeps projects close to the chest, it could be a while until more is known.
So what do you think? Are you interested in VR games from Valve? Would you like to see the company make something else, like Portal 3 or Half Life 3? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
