When did people first say the next Half Life was going to be VR (or, does Jeff deserve more credit)?

I distinctly remember Jeff suggesting "I feel like the only way Valve can make good on Half Life 3 now is if they make it some awesome VR thing, or something".

It was in a Bombcast, Unprofessional Friday, or similar.

It was the first time I heard this suggestion and it made me go "Yep, that's perfect".

I'm sure it was a while ago but when I commented on the YouTube video I got a bit of flak ("Obviously, everyone knew this").

No problem if I was simply late to the party - definitely the first time I heard it anywhere, maybe my bad - but was GB late to this, or am I the only one who first heard this suggestion and thought "Yeah, didn't occur but that would be about right"?

I thought it was one of those things everyone kinda assumed because HL1 and 2 pushed boundaries and another HL would be expected to as well so VR made sense.

i can't remember where i first heard it (it actually might have been on tested from will or norm) but i've seen a lot of pundits over the years saying something equivalent to 'valve uses games as proof of concept for tech they're passionate about.' i think HL2 had a lot of surrounding tech demos that preceded launch. not to mention it was everyone's reason to even try steam.

in that vein, i think most believed that if valve was all in on VR, there HAD to be an associated HL release to prop it up.

Yeaaa, I don't think its some amazing feat for Jeff to suggest that. After HL2 released, it established that series as ground breaking technical and design achievements that raised the bar for the industry. I'd say it was on a Bombcast when Vive was announced. Or before. I can't remember.

When VR first started gaining steam, and almost certainly when the Vive was announced with Valve attached, it seemed like everyone who had tried VR could agree that there is something to this format that defies expectations and can also not really be explained or shown. You have to try it for yourself. Considering all that, VR was the logical next hurdle for game design, and thus Half-Life fits the mold perfectly.

On a personal note, I don't know why people are so attached to the Half-Life story. I think the Half-Life series made critical leaps in story telling, as in technically and design, but not like.. writing? I don't even really remember what the story was.

Fair enough. God knows I'm slow enough in real life.

I am curious if anyone can find the first suggestion of this on GB though?

i think that was the talk as soon as the new wave of VR was incoming. Valve has always been a company that creates games not so much as artpieces, but as a way to implement technically cool ideas (physics / gravity gun, portal gun, game director, spectator modes, music packs, automatic replays)

@broddity: If you or other people want to look, I'd say anywhere around the time Vive was announced or.. Literally any time the "Half Life 3 is the only long standing where-is-it game that still hasn't happened" joke that they've discussed a whole bunch on the Bombcast over the last decade. I'm certain it happened at least once around the announcement/announced release date of The Last Guardian. Pretty sure that conversation would've also happened around Final Fantasy 15 being announced/released. Albeit more recently, it would've been discussed when Mark Laidlaw did that blog piece about Episode 3. Jeff just mentioned it on this last bombcast that it was a couple years ago? They definitely discussed the future of half-life around that.

There was an interview with Gabe Newell and Geoff Keighley a few years ago where I remember Gabe saying something along the lines of 'our franchises only exist to push new tech' obviously i'm paraphrasing but I remember being pretty demoralized by that sentiment. So yeah the writing was on the wall for awhile that if there ever was going to be another Half-Life it would be less of a passion project and more of a tech demo. Obviously theres no reason it cant be both (Half-Life 2 could be seen this way) but I cant help but be cynical about Valve these days.

@boozak: despite this sentiment maybe feeling like a downer, it is exactly what we ask of developers and publishers: to innovate.

It's been a rumour for years, i think i remember some files titled hlvr being found either in a Steam database or some other update but it's been around for a very long time.

@rahf: Sure, it's just that VR has always seemed like a gimmicky form of innovation akin to the Wii to me. If they were touting groundbreaking AI or something like that I would be much more excited.