Underwhelmed by Valve at GDC

[CCP115]

I love Valve. I really do. Probably explains why I'm here of all places. But surely I can't be the only one who has been really underwhelmed by Valve recently?

Granted, I have numerous things to be dissapointed at Valve at, namely to do with the fortress with 2 teams. But dipping into VR isn't really dissapointing, it's just more like "eh, everyone's doing it, it's the cool kids thing. Kinda like MOBAs last year."
I know, it's probably just me really wanting some sort of new content from Valve. The source 2 announcement was nothing to me, they already admitted last year it was a thing, so no biggie. Steam Link and Steam Machines? I don't care about game streaming in the slightest, why game in my living room? My chair is comfy enough, and my monitor big enough.
VR? Everyone's doing it, lots of people say it's the future of gaming, and I gotta disagree. Heavily. The only genre that would really work would be FPS, or MOBA/RTS because of the camera view.

So what are your opinions, has Valve really stopped making games? Or is this just some hardware phase they're going through? Am I the only one who wants games and not boxes?

 

[-smash-]

Steam itself was the foundation for Source/Half-Life 2/CS:S/And beyond.

All of this Steam Universe, SteamVR, Vulkan, and Source 2 are the foundation for the next-generation of Valve. We have to wait a little while longer before we see games, but they are definitely coming.

 

[CCP115]

Wait, what's Vulkan?

 

[Omnomnick]

Wait, what's Vulkan?

A thing from Star Trek.

So what are your opinions, has Valve really stopped making games? Or is this just some hardware phase they're going through? Am I the only one who wants games and not boxes?

Of course they've stopped making games. They designed and programmed an entirely new engine just so they can sit and stare at it.

 

[SpotEnemyBoats]

>valve
>making games

Were you expecting something else, perhaps?

 

[-smash-]

Wait, what's Vulkan?

The official name of glNext.

https://www.khronos.org/news/press/...-high-efficiency-graphics-and-compute-on-gpus
https://www.khronos.org/vulkan
https://www.khronos.org/assets/uploads/developers/library/overview/2015_vulkan_v1_Overview.pdf

“Industry standard APIs like Vulkan are a critical part of enabling developers to bring the best possible experience to customers on multiple platforms,” said Valve's Gabe Newell. “Valve and the other Khronos members are working hard to ensure that this high-performance graphics interface is made available as widely as possible and we view it as a critical component of SteamOS and future Valve games.”

 

[Darth Mojave]

Sigh.... what has changed? Valve has always taken their time with games, and then when they release a new game, it's always amazing. Just be patient or go focus on something else. To be honest, I thought all of Valve's stuff has been fantastic so far, and GDC isn't even over. That being said, GDC is not E3 or PAX. The lights aren't going to dim and bass isn't going to reverb the building back and forth as a giant Lambda logo fills up a screen the size of a skyscraper. This is mainly for developers. For developers, this has been fantastic. That means things will be fantastic for gamers.

 

[MFL]

*Valve literally makes entirely new engine for the creation of videogames*
*Hordes decry the lack of video game development from Valve...*
*God gives up on this reality and scraps the whole ****ing thing.*

 

[rikt]

I wouldn't worry about Valve not making games anymore. As stated already, they created Source 2 so they're going to use it it was a huge investment on their part, besure of that.

When will you see new games? That's another story and a long one best left alone already...

 

[Kerdizoumé]

Valve already has the games in the works. Not completely ready or even close to finished, but in the works. That being said, I'm going to place my bet on the games being released by the end of 2016 and hopefully by the end of 2015; which I know, it's unrealistic. Then again, it could be another 5 years before the release, but hey! There's plenty of other games and/or mods.

 

[rikt]

Valve already has the games in the works. Not completely ready or even close to finished, but in the works. That being said, I'm going to place my bet on the games being released by the end of 2016 and hopefully by the end of 2015; which I know, it's unrealistic. Then again, it could be another 5 years before the release, but hey! There's plenty of other games and/or mods.

I wouldn't be surprised if, for example, HL3 only came out around 2018 when the series will be 20 years old, but that's just me speculating without any evidence whatsoever.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

It's Valve 3.0 on the horizon. It's exciting because they are movers and shakers, things they do change things in this industry. You can bundle Half-life 2 with Steam and label that as Valve 2.0 if you like.

It completely blows my mind you can be disappointed by what they've announced at this point! It's like we're in 2002 again, after 4 years of Source in development, 2 years from HL2's release. The only difference is the bar is much higher than 2002, the innovations have to be different. They also have to be bigger and better.

 

[Alienmoge]

The only difference is the bar is much higher than 2002

I guess you could say they're uhhh... raising the bar

dont kill me please

On a more relevant note however, I was very impressed with what they've shown.

 

[Vincent Pride]

They're fine, it's just the transition to moba and f2p that is probably disappointing you. It's all there folks - we have the whole new generation of PC gamers associating Valve with Dota and not with HL series. And Dota is really huge - I would say it's much bigger than HL2 ever was at it's prime. Sad days for us HL fans? Definitely. But history is known to repeat its cycles. HL has all the chances to get its completion / reboot, but something groundbreaking should happen first. May be it's VR, may be not.

 

[CCP115]

After Valve just updated the Steam Universe page, I read it, and I gotta say, it actually explained a lot of things, and cleared up a lot of my concerns. I am actually really excited for what's on offer, and now I guess I can safely say I can see why they haven't really made many games recently.
Though I would like someone to clarify, the whole point of Steam Universe is to bring Steam to the living room right?
Also are Steam Machines just PCs meant for the living room, for people too lazy or who just want to move from console to PC?

Also $5,000 Steam Machine? Phew.

 

[Toyoka]

They're fine, it's just the transition to moba and f2p that is probably disappointing you. It's all there folks - we have the whole new generation of PC gamers associating Valve with Dota and not with HL series. And Dota is really huge - I would say it's much bigger than HL2 ever was at it's prime. Sad days for us HL fans? Definitely. But history is known to repeat its cycles. HL has all the chances to get its completion / reboot, but something groundbreaking should happen first. May be it's VR, may be not.

I honestly think it's for the better that they have picked up on Dota and fp2 for the past couple of years. This gave them some breathing room to work on their other projects, since Dota 2 is something that has been worked on over time (like TF2). It is this generation's testbed, much like TF2 was for Source and everything it came with. I would rather have Dota 2 for the several years it was out than nothing and lose interest altogether. It does not serve fans of Valve and their games any good, to squander what Valve does or does not make or work on. I say just be happy they're still busy, and appreciate what they're creating for us