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Valve is still making video games! But they're probably, almost certainly not Half-Life 3 (I know it's hard, but we have to let it go.) During a media roundtable, Valve founder Gabe Newell confirmed that the company is working on three new titles for VR. Not just little experiments either, like the room-scale mini-game collection The Lab. Real, proper video games. "When I say we're building three games, we're building three full games, not experiments," he said, according to Eurogamer. Few other details were disclosed, such as whether the team was working on new or existing IP.
Newell did explain why the company had returned to video game development, however. Now that the HTC Vive is on the market, Valve is in a position to develop hardware and software simultaneously. Like Nintendo, this gives it an advantage over typical game studios. "This is something that [Nintendo designer Shigeru] Miyamoto has always had," he said. "He's had the ability to think about what the input device is and design a system while de designs games. Our sense is that this will actually allow us to build much better entertainment experiences for people."
Valve's support makes sense. For VR to thrive, it needs compelling software. Headset sales are low right now, so it can be tough to persuade developers to make new, tailored games for the platform. Valve, on the other hand, has a huge incentive to make VR a success given its role with both the hardware (the Vive) and distribution (Steam). The company is passionate about VR, so it should come as no surprise that it has teams working on software. The question, of course, is what those new games will look like. It's been a while since Half-Life 2 and Portal 2 came out...