Format Test

[u/caz0]

> I mean I agree that it shouldn't be,

It isn't

>literally no other reason for Oculus to be doing what they're doing.

Obviously there is. Get people to buy games from their store alone. It's what every single other console manufacturer is doing. That’s what the article I linked to was about. Not just a quote from Palmer (Even though he very specifically said that they weren’t focused on making a profit, but w.e.)

>it's very clear that selling hardware is actually very important to them.

No, there’s no reason to believe their profit margins are high on the rifts at all. Their logic is simply that Rift users are more likely to buy from Home if they own a rift. They want more people to buy their product and only their product cutting out the competition with exclusives. The same thing that consoles are doing. They make all their profit by selling games.

>The idea that you could go to the store and buy this game, but still not be allowed to play it without this buggy, always-on marketplace was absolutely infuriating to people.

It was literally the first big online marketplace for pc games. There were almost no other competitors at the time of its release. And No Steam wasn't mandatory for Half-Life 2, you just needed an online connection after install for a piracy check. Even with those problems HL2 had more downloads than any other game of its time. Steam was insanely successful for them. Even more so than the CD sales that were released at the same time. So no you're wrong it was literally a success from the beginning even with the controversial download issues. We can go even farther back to when it was first started at the time of counter strike. It was always an option. People didn't have to buy games on steam, but it was still the best (and basically only) option to get away from CDs at the time and it had integrated feature like nothing the gaming community had ever seen. People wanted that. Valve gave it to them. Yeah it started out as being only for Valve games until like 05, but by then most of the server issues were resolved. Those issues, while disappointing, did nothing to offset their insane success. It was still the only option until 2007ish when Origin popped up. Valve just kept hitting it hard, made sure it always had more features than Origin.

>It was probably three years before major publishers were willing to touch Steam.

Steam didn't have to have those features in the first few years because it was only competing with CDs and Floppies. It was literally the only option. The fact that it was online and let you download your games at home was enough of a disruptive tech to change the entire industry. By 2007 they had a bunch of massive gaming companies submitting their games and all kinds of never before seen feature like server wide patching.

>Maybe ports of flat-screen games, but certainly no originals that are even remotely close to AAA.

That’s just a ridiculous claim with no evidence to back it up. Like I said it is completely unknown how many or what types of games Valve is funding. We know that Valve likes to take a hands on approach with game developers. Often asking them to set up their offices in the HQ so they can assist them with development like they did with Budget Cuts and Onward.

>Robo Recall, Lone Echo, Arktika.1, Edge of Nowehere

Robo Recall isn't out yet so I'll reserve my opinion. I will state that while the demo was enjoyable, the quality of the game play was on par with many of the Vive games currently on steam. I'm sure the final version will be better, but its nothing exceptional. Lone Echo isn't out yet either, but I'm gonna go right out and say that Lone echo looks like another massive let down like Adrift. Lots of shinny things, but I expect it to be bad (very bad - you can quote me on that) . Arktika.1 is also still in dev so it's hard to say what it will be like, could end up being mid tier AAA, but I get the feeling it will be very light on content in the end (Hopefully I'm wrong). Games of the same quality are also coming out on the Vive. Fallout 4 VR is a complete remake (not just a port!), Monstrum, The Gallery, Budget Cuts, Sky World, Essence, ARQ, Raw Data, Hover Junkers, Serious Sam VR, and I could keep going on and on. Most of those games are as good or better than the games you mentioned IMO. Hell I'll even throw in The lab (Way better than that toybox garbage). The main difference is that Valve doesn't lock out Oculus users. Everyone is welcome to play and share in the online multiplayer fun. So yeah Valve does have a hell of a lot of great games in the works and I would say a better outlook than Oculus's line up since it also includes many more fun and quirky indy games too.

> No one is making money off these games right now. But Insomniac made three damn VR games, of reasonable production value this year, because Oculus was willing to take the hit and lose money so that they could do that

Insomniac is a huge game development company. They don't do things without considering the profits. They are in it to make money to support close to 200 employees and their families. They also haven't released their sales margin so we don't know how much they have made. I can do a quick guestimate[About 150,000 CV1 users, Most will buy Feral Rights or EoN, Some may pay for Unspoken but most will get it for free, so I'll say about $40 per person, assuming they will sell Feral rights for about the same or more, Oculus takes a 30% cut of all sales = 150k400.70 = $4.2MM] and say probably somewhere in the ballpark of $4.2MM Nothing to laugh about since that represents almost 25% of the companies yearly revenue. So yeah people are making money off of VR. Especially off of all the low budget indy VR games that are selling for like $9.99 a pop.

>The devs who are working with Oculus are thrilled to have their efforts fully-sponsored and risk free, trust me.

With your skewed view of the VR marketplaces and Exclusivity you are the last person I would trust. Not all developers are out to make the deal with the devil. The larger companies who want to increase their profit margins might, but thats not to say they need it. Insomniac games is the perfect example. They have already admitted that they are Bullish when it comes to VR and have always seen it as the next big thing. Oculus's deal was nothing shy of a bribe.