News Valve is Working on Three Full VR Games

Gabe Newell says next generation of games won’t be mere demos

Valve is working on three new virtual reality games, which company chief Gabe Newell describes as full games rather than tech demos.

At a media round-table at the company's Bellevue, Washington headquarters yesterday, Newell said that the games represent a second generation of VR releases, which will be longer and more in-depth than previous demo-like experiences.

He refused to be drawn on the nature of the games but said that they were all very different from one another.

Gabe Newell virtual reality​

It seems unlikely that they will be based on Half-Life or Team Fortress. Newell said his teams had tried to create VR games based on Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2, but that they weren't fun on the VR platform.

When asked if the games are being built for Valve's own Source 2 engine or on Unity, Newell replied, "both."

Valve is heavily invested in VR, having created the Vive platform along with manufacturer HTC. Newell said he is still developing new hardware for Vive, including the knuckle controllers previously seen at the Steam Dev Day last year.

Apart from series of VR demos called The Lab, launched last year, the last full, original name released by Valve was 2013’s DOTA 2. Valve says it will not be adding to The Lab, and does not see it as an ongoing project.

Newell said that while hardware improvements will come in the next two years — particularly in the field of head-mounted displays — price decreases aren't likely, as VR is largely aimed at a niche market of gamers with powerful PCs.

He said that chip manufacturers should get more involved in marketing VR, as they are likely to be major beneficiaries of any emerging mass market.

Valve also revealed that Steam reported an 86 percent VR user growth in terms of monthly active users in the second half of last year, and that 30 VR apps have made more than $250,000 in Steam revenue so far.

Polygon will run Newell's full interview on Monday.

By Colin Campbell