Resident Evil 7? The gaming press say it's a great experience in VR.

It is. It's not perfect with a few odd black outs. Eg when you start climbing a ladder bit otherwise PSVR is a great way to play the game.

A lot of people talked about Superhot VR as that leap, and it doesn't seem to have driven many sales for people who didn't have VR already. If anything, I've talked to more people who tried Gear VR and decided it was cool enough to upgrade to a non-terrible VR product.

I suppose Superhot could have sufficed without a non-VR alternative, but I rather doubt it.

The sad thing is Super hot could have been the game to beat on VR, but they partnered with Oculus and released as an Oculus exclusive. This split the market right down the middle with many Vive owners now refusing to buy the game at all even when it does come to the Vive.

The worst part? The Oculus version of the game works perfectly on the Vive through ReVive so it's not like they had to do much extra work to get the game working.

I keep thinking valve should use their one shot at HL3 as a move to push VR on their desperate fans. HL3 is so hyped it can't avoid disappointing.

Why would Valve want to push VR?

They think it's an emerging technology and want to be at the forefront? Hence building the Vive with HTC and working on their tracking technology. Gabe Newell has been waxing lyrical about their VR plans just this week. They are currently making three VR games.

I saw him talking about it. He said:

> We're also pretty comfortable with the idea that it will turn out to be a complete failure.

About Vive he said:

> Vive is the most expensive device on the market. It's barely capable of doing a marginally adequate job of delivering a VR experience.

Not sure if he's underselling, but he doesn't sound that enthusiastic about it. It sounds more like the Vive investment is an insurance policy.

Reading the original source article [1], I think he's enthusiastic enough. He also comes across as being more conservative than many at the pace that it's going to be picked up and realistic about how limited the tech is currently.

Per your quote, he apparently also is open to the possibility that VR could turn out to be a dead end but that's not so much a lack of enthusiasm as not being a mindless cheerleader.

[1] http://www.polygon.com/features/2017/2/15/14616192/gabe-newe...

I think your assessment is spot on. I think his conservative take probably stems from the fact that he and Valve are going to be okay no matter what happens with VR. Almost nothing is at stake for him.

Because it's the company vision that they want it to succeed. Also they are partnered with HTC to make the VIVE.

Not strong enough, which is why not everyone owns a console. (compare with phones or even PCs)

Something like a spreadsheet or communication would be just the thing.

Vendors would be perfectly happy to get game console-like penetration, moreover, they would have a viable business and an industry.