I think Valve’s plan is that some of their engineers wanted to make the device. That was the plan.
I also think they just couldn’t justify selling the valve index anymore because of the current state of technology, but didn’t want to discontinue offering VR entirely. A large percentage of Steam sales are back catalog games. A game being 7, 10, 20, 30 years old doesn’t mean it’s bad or that someone won’t buy it.
Another aspect here is “steam store on everything” is a strategy. It doesn’t matter if it’s a niche, because the mere presence of endless hardware options adds value to the Steam store. You can be confident in buying lots of games on Steam because you know they’ll run on more stuff than games you buy on PS5 or Switch or the Microsoft Store.
They’re not a public company, they don’t have to make stock price go up. At the same time, this thing existing is a net positive for them.
> I think Valve’s plan is that some of their engineers wanted to make the device. That was the plan.
I don't buy that Valve is actually that much of an adult daycare center as you imply. Their past projects haven't just been whatever the employees want to do but part of a larger strategy, e.g. their Linux efforts are a hedge against being fucked over by Microsoft. Employees are still evaluated based on their performance towards company goals.
I also think they just couldn’t justify selling the valve index anymore because of the current state of technology, but didn’t want to discontinue offering VR entirely. A large percentage of Steam sales are back catalog games. A game being 7, 10, 20, 30 years old doesn’t mean it’s bad or that someone won’t buy it.
Another aspect here is “steam store on everything” is a strategy. It doesn’t matter if it’s a niche, because the mere presence of endless hardware options adds value to the Steam store. You can be confident in buying lots of games on Steam because you know they’ll run on more stuff than games you buy on PS5 or Switch or the Microsoft Store.
They’re not a public company, they don’t have to make stock price go up. At the same time, this thing existing is a net positive for them.