steam-vr-support-oculus-rift-games

Steam, Valve’s digital distribution platform, now includes a ‘VR Support’ category, making it easy to search the entire Steam library for Oculus Rift games. Currently four titles are listed as part of the category, with many sure to follow as Rift game developers mark their games with VR support.

Ahead of a talk at Steam Dev Days on changes to the platform that will “support and promote virtual reality games,” Valve has added a ‘VR Support‘ category to Steam game listings. Users of Steam, Valve’s digital distribution platform, can now sort by games that have virtual reality support. ‘VR Support’ seems to be synonymous with “Oculus Rift Support” for now—though the category will likely need further demarcation to deal with future VR headsets.

As of this writing, only four Oculus Rift games are listed under the VR Support category: Team Fortress 2, Lunar Flight, Strike Suit Zero, and No More Room in Hell.

We know for a fact that there are a number of Oculus Rift games available through Steam not currently appearing in the list—likely because the developers need to mark their game as being part of the newly available category. Even Valve’s own Half-Life 2 has yet to appear in the VR Support category, despite offering Oculus Rift support.

Hat tip to reddit user yomerb for pointing this out!

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Andreas Aronsson

    Uhm, the first paragraph seem to sum up the entire article? Haha. Anyway, this is great news :) Saw it on reddit and was like: orly? alrdy?

    That Half-Life 2 is not on there might be because it’s not a finished implementation yet, or at least that’s what I think, aren’t people still forced to run the beta to get it? That’s what I am doing anyway, haha.

    • Mageoftheyear

      I get the feeling that that state will only change for HL2 once the consumer Rift is released.
      Emart and a few others have mentioned that there is a 30 minute barrier you reach where it’s just like “yup, feeling ill now, time to quit.”
      He stated that while the HL2VR Mod was a big improvement, the sickness consistently hit at 30 minutes in whether in the mod or through native support.
      No doubt Valve will also put more VR polish on it – as much as can be expected for something that isn’t made for VR.

      • Andreas Aronsson

        Personally I have done 3h sessions in HL2 :) But then I’ve had the Rift since May so I’ve had some time to get acclimated. This even while I easily get motion sick in vehicles, color me surprised.

        But yeah, there’s really no reason to try and push for your VR product until the consumer model is out on shelves. And boy, how I long for that time to come!

        • Mageoftheyear

          Interesting. I know he’d got his VR legs before his HL2 playthrough, but his VR playthrough was also the first time he had played a Half-Life title.
          Perhaps some experiences are unique enough that you need to acclimate yourself to their particular flavour of VR?

          In any case I’m encouraged to hear that you’re not having the same problems. I know that they’re not “built for VR” but Black Mesa & HL2 are at the top of my most anticipated list.
          Strange that no other FPS’s are.