With some people considering virtual reality (VR) headsets as a gimmick or an expensive fad, the industry will need to put in a lot of work to convince gamers that the immersive wearables are worth their money.
With some people considering virtual reality (VR) headsets as a gimmick or an expensive fad, the industry will need to put in a lot of work to convince gamers that the immersive wearables are worth their money. One way to do this is by simply releasing great VR games, as these will show gamers that VR headsets aren’t a pricey accessory but are a genuinely exciting technology instead.
Well-positioned then is game publisher and developer Valve who recently announced their VR headset Vive, which is being made in collaboration with Taiwanese electronics maker HTC.is the only game to be announced for Vive yet, with its condiment spraying madness causing more laughs than Vive pre-orders, but HTC chairwoman Cher Wang caused a ruckus yesterday when she revealed that Half-Life may be coming to Vivetoo.
Speaking to the BBC she explained that HTC is “co-operating with Half-Life , and I think… I hope, you know, it will be on it”, causing many to believe that Valve is working on a brand new Half-Life game or experience to compliment its newly announced hardware. As Half-Life fans have been hoping for a sequel to Half-Life 2 for quite some time, plenty of gamers had their fingers crossed for some sort of official reveal from Valve. Sadly, though, those hopes have now been dashed as Wang has now apologized for her earlier comments.
After sources within Valve suggested that Wang may have been confused and that Valve is not actually working on, Wang herself proceeded to release the following statement:
“Regarding my BBC interview with Dave Lee yesterday, I would like to apologise for any confusion caused when I referred to individual games titles. In response to a question on specific games, I misspoke when I referred to our working together with Valve on a particular game, when instead I meant our collaboration with Valve on developing next-generation virtual reality experiences for gaming. I am very excited about the work we are doing with Valve, and look forward to bringing our HTC Vive to market later this year.”
This is obviously massively disappointing for Half-Life fans who have been looking for another Gordon Freeman fix. Moreover, it feels like a missed opportunity for Valve considering both games in the sci-fi series were released to high sales and incredibly positive review scores.
But, given just how well Vive would sell if Half-Life 3 was a Vive-only game, it’s entirely possible that Valve will change their minds. Eventually they will need to make big moves if they want to compete against VR headsets like Oculus Riftand Project Morpheus.
Are you sad that Half-Life isn’t going to be released on Vive? Do you think Vive can be a success without it?
Source: BBC