Cliffy B – ‘Valve and Facebook Need to Pay for Better VR Games’

Always outspoken, Cliff Bleszinski – aka Cliffy B – isn’t happy with the current state of VR. Initially, Gears of War creator supported the technology. Back in 2012, when the Oculus Rift Kickstarter launched, Cliffy declared himself “a believer”. However, since then his enthusiasm waned significantly. As a result, he declared “I’m starting to get over [VR]” at E3 2017. Now, he is speaking about why he thinks VR is losing its way. Particularly, he criticises VR platform holders – such as Valve and Oculus owner Facebook – for failing to invest in games.

Bleszinski to Valve and Facebook: “Cough Up Money”

VR is stuck in a paradox, Bleszinski explains. The VR install base is small therefore publishers are reluctant to invest in games. But, unless publishers invest in games, the install base will remain small. Bleszinski told TechRadar:

“There’s this chicken and egg that’s happening with VR where platform holders aren’t eating the cost.

A game like Uncharted is not really feasible to be profitable. It’s because Sony owns Naughty Dog and they’re willing to pump an infinite amount of money into that to sell PlayStations to sell their other games. It’s called a loss-leader.

So Facebook and Valve, HTC, and all the platform holders, they need to cough up money to get real games.”

“Games Are Way Cooler Than Movies”

On a tangential note, Bleszinski also complained about gaming’s obsession with movies. Why, Cliffy B argues, when “everybody knows games are way cooler than movies”? In the same interview, Bleszinski sighed:

“When the Gears movie was potentially going to happen…the number one question I’d always get from the employees [at Epic Games] was ‘What’s up with the movie?’’

For some reason the employees at Epic didn’t feel validated until their IP had a movie, which is really dumb and short-sighted because everybody knows games are way cooler than movies.

There’s a reason why James Gunn worked on Lollipop Chainsaw or why Gore Verbinski was at the Dice summit a couple of years ago trying to do the Bioshock movie. It’s because all their kids wanna make games! They don’t wanna make films.”