Skip to main content

With three new games in development, Valve is showing its commitment to virtual reality

Valve headquarters
Harry101UK
The studio behind Half-Life and Portal is currently working on three full-length VR games, Gabe Newell, Valve co-founder and president, disclosed in an interview with Eurogamer.

Newell stressed that the projects aren’t merely tech demos like 2016’s free VR title The Lab, a prototype experience that coincided with the launch of the HTC Vive, the headset that Valve partnered on with HTC. All we know so far is that the games will be built with Valve’s in-house engine Source 2 and Unity.

Newell further explained Valve’s steadfast commitment to the use of the emerging technology in games, emphasizing that he doesn’t think VR is a fad.

“It feels like we’ve been stuck with mouse and keyboard for a really 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,” he said.

Newell and his team won’t simply bring traditional console experiences into VR.  “VR is not going to be a success at all if people are just taking existing content and putting it into a VR space,” he said. He explained that when Valve first started working on VR, the team put Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress in VR, but found that it didn’t add any substance to those experiences.

Valve is taking its time to create high-caliber VR experiences that truly differentiate themselves from traditional games, thus influencing more people to embrace the technology. In order to do this, the level of technology that Newell desires will need to catch up to his design ideas. Newell predicted VR will overtake almost all other display technologies in terms of resolution and refresh rate by as soon as 2018.

We already knew that Valve was dedicating a large amount of its resources to VR to turn its ambitions into reality. Last year, it was reported that roughly a third of Valve’s employees were developing for VR.

We’ll just have to wait and see if Newell’s vision for VR pans out in the three games.

Editors' Recommendations

Steven Petite
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…
Best Buy deals: Save on laptops, TVs, appliances, and more
best buy shuts down insignia line smart home products store 2 768x768

One of the best places to shop for almost anything involving electronics says so right in its name: Best Buy. The retail giant has a ton of departments with some of today’s most popular devices, components, and appliances for sale. It also offers a lot of these at a discount, which is certainly what we’re seeing right now. Some of the best TV deals, best tablet deals, best laptop deals, and best phone deals can currently be found at Best Buy, and those are just the tip of the iceberg. We’ve tracked down all of the best deals you can shop at Best Buy right now, so read onward for some gift ideas for yourself or a loved one and for some great ways to save.
Best Buy TV deals

There may be no better place to purchase one of the best TVs than Best Buy. There is almost always some huge savings to find on TVs at Best Buy, and that’s certainly the case right now. You’ll find deals top TV brands like Sony, Samsung, and LG, and more budget-friendly brands like TCL and Hisense are in play, too.

Read more
Best PS5 SSD deals: Add more storage to your PS5 from $80
A 2TB WD Black

If you've snapped up one of the better PS5 deals around at the moment, it's a smart move to also buy one of the best SSDs for PS5 so you can easily expand your PlayStation 5's storage. While the internal storage will get you started, as you install more games and download more titles from the PSN store, the more you'll find yourself limited for space. That's why we've sought out all the best PS5 SSD deals around right now. Below, we've listed the best PS5 SSDs so you won't have to worry about any compatibility issues or installing a heatsink for yourself. Different sizes and price ranges are available here so you'll easily find the right one for your situation.
Our favorite PS5 SSD deal

It wasn't that long ago that you'd have to pay well over $100 to get a SSD for your PS5 and often, it'd be slower than the pricier alternatives. These days, you can buy a Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD with heatsink for just $80 from Best Buy, thereby saving $40 off the regular price of $120. The SSD offers speedy performance while also having its own nickel coated high end controller to help deliver effective thermal control. It means it won't overheat and performance won't be compromised. Being a PCIe Gen 4 SSD, you get twice the data transfer speed of PCIe Gen 3 which is useful. Offering maximum read speeds of 7,000 megabytes per second, it's a good upgrade to go alongside your existing hard drive with 1TB offering plenty of extra space at a shrewd price.

Read more
Best Xbox Series X deals: consoles, games, and accessories
Xbox Series X on a table.

The Xbox Series X, Microsoft's flagship video game console that's competing against Sony's PlayStation 5 and the Nintendo Switch, offers phenomenal performance with an extremely efficient cooling structure that allows it to remain surprisingly quiet while pushing out 12 teraflops of processing power. The Xbox Series X works amazing with an Xbox Game Pass subscription, which grants access to a massive library of titles that you can play as long as your membership remains active. If you're interested in Xbox Series X deals for the console, as well as its games and accessories, we've rounded up the top offers below, but since we're not sure how long they'll remain online, it's highly recommended that you make your purchases quickly.
Best Xbox Series X deals

If you don't own the Xbox Series X yet, you're missing out on a powerful console. Discounts don't happen often, so the offers that we've rounded up here aren't expected to last long. Whether you just want the console, or you prefer getting it with a bundled game or an Xbox Game Pass subscription, you're going to get great value, especially if you're able to pocket the savings from below.

Read more