Valve Reveals Gaming Headset, Teases Big Picture 151
dotarray writes with a bit from Player Attack: "Gaming is big business, says Valve, as the developer takes the time to show off its brand new gaming headset and TV-based Big Picture. Rather than inviting the games media masses who have been clamouring for any details on the Seattle company's 'wearable computing' initiative, Gabe Newell and his team instead went right to the top, with an in-depth interview published in The New York Times."
The New York Times article on which this report is based is worth reading, too: Valve's corporate non-structure sounds hard to believe. It seems Valve is also looking for hardware designers.
Gaming Headset Seem Too Strenous (Score:2, Interesting)
Given how much you look around in first person games having to move your head would end up very strenuous and would likely result in some sort of RSI. I'd much rather look at a monitor in front of me and move the mouse a few centimetres when I want to look around.
I also wonder how these headsets will work with movement/aim. With standard first person control where you're looking, the direction you're facing and the point you're aiming at are all the same. With a headset it would be ridiculous to set your movement direction/aim by turning your head, so the direction you're travelling/aiming will have to be separate from the direction you're looking. That will lead to a situation you often experience when controlling tanks in games where the turret ends up facing a different direction to where the tank is travelling, so you get confused and have to take a moment to re-align the turret with the tank direction. Having to do that in a fast paced FPS would become annoying, and it would be frustrating to die repeatedly because you were sorting yourself out while getting shot at.
I see these headsets as being like 3D films - a fun novelty that you'd only want to use occasionally.
Re:No managers (Score:2, Interesting)
It would take about 80 years to run a company with $2.5 billion in the bank to the ground with 300 employees, even if they never ever sold a single product from now on until 2092...
Perhaps you should read less Ayn Rand and concern yourself more with reality.
Re:Cool, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
Unveiled Too Soon (Score:2, Interesting)
They're still hiring designers and engineers to get this thing off the ground and it's already revealed? Newell criticized MS for copying Apple ("[T]rying to copy Apple will accelerate, not slow, Microsoft's decline.") yet he really should have copied Apple in this instance rather than go the old MS route. The MS route is to show off a product in the early prototype stages. The Apple method is to show off a functional product. Maybe Newell is trying to attract the attention of potential investors. If not, he just made a huge blunder. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft probably already all have working VR prototypes and associated patents. Now they just have to combine that hardware with the 'augmented reality' concept (and two of those companies can take a short-cut by partnering with Google).
Really, Newell dug his own hole. He stayed closely allied with Microsoft from the creation to Valve until the unveiling of Windows 8. He's mad that their new OS might wipe out his business, yet he helped contribute to Microsoft's stranglehold on the PC gaming market. Perhaps if he didn't want to be dependent on another company that has a history of stabbing partners in the back, then he would have ported Half-Life to something other than PS2 (and only after the Dreamcast - Microsoft's console - became an apparent failure). Newell's last minute support of OS X and Linux reeks of desperation. Like the PS2 port, it's an 'oh shit!' moment. Well, he's the one that threw his company's weight behind Windows and XBox. OS X has undergone huge growth since its inception, Linux geeks are the ideal market for Valve products, yet he ignored those markets in favor of laying golden eggs for Microsoft. Maybe he thought being a part of their good 'ole boys network would always pay off.
The only reason I feel somewhat sorry for him is because his company is committed to making quality games. I don't play video games anymore, but I like people who are committed to creating things of high quality. But Newell's quality products were dependent on non-quality products. It's like whatever company that makes the best aftermarket parts for Hondas. Whoever that was, I bet they tanked in the early 2000s when Honda went away from those tiny two-door Civics that were so popular among modders.
Re:ya know (Score:5, Interesting)
apparently you have never worn one of these things, they are heavy, and hurt your eyes, face, nose, and the back of your head, genius? if they are so grand why have they never become popular?
The reason they never became popular the first time around was that the Virtuality sets were so expensive. They cost tens of thousands of dollars each and were only good if you had a few so several of you could play together as they had no single player games available.
If you happened to get access to an arcade where you could play for free though (Like I did) you could still get seriously addicted to playing them. Whenever someone came in to the arcade and wanted to play but they were the only person I would have to don the other headset. I never remember the helmet being that uncomfortable to wear but I probably would not have cared if it was to be honest. The only thing that pissed me off was how expensive it was to play, I thought we should drop the price but when I found out how much it cost to rent it I understood.
Ultimately we gave it back as to just didn't generate the revenue for the floor space it took up. If you could have got the price down to a level where it could cost more like 50 cents or a dollar I think it might have been more profitable. As it was I think the minimum you could charge to cover the rent of one was about $5 per go and that barely covered the rental even if it was busy every night and all weekend (It wasn't at that price).
The problem with anything like this though is that once one company tries it and fails it poisons the idea and prevents anyone else from trying it for a while afterwards. The other problem is that most arcades started closing during this period as the consoles you could buy at home caught up in terms of technology.
The killer product that has made the idea of these things popular again though is the Microsoft Kinect. Once you take 2 or 3 Kinect style gizmos and throw them around you in a living room it will make it possible to track something like a brightly coloured gun to figure out where you are aiming it. Then a headset to control the visual movement and a simple joystick on the side of the gun to make you walk (so you can stay still in the middle of the room). Nobody previously would have predicted that microsoft could have produced the Kinect and released it for the price they did, that changed a whole lot of things.
Another amazing use for one of these devices now is in racing games. Currently even playing with a nice steering wheel setup the way you look at cars around you (such as when they are overtaking and in your mirror blindspot) is quirky or non existent. A device like this could make driving games seem far more natural.