everybody's comparing the jump to vr to physics engines or seamless storytelling, but that's really not an accurate comparison; for some fucking reason all of you are missing the really big important comparison here though:
hl2 required you to download steam
think about it, steam is to hl2 what vr is to hla
- brand new, mostly-unproven technology
- significant amounts of people complained about it
- had a fair amount of launch problems
- lots of speculation that it was risky on valve's part to push a new technology using a long-awaited half life sequel
and then steam went on to start the digital distribution gold rush, started killing off physical retailers, made valve assloads of money, completely changed how the industry approached selling games, and all the uproar about steam being terrible is long forgotten
hell, many big AAA companies have stopped doing physical discs at all, it's just a case with a digital download code inside; many more are developing their own digital distribution platforms
it's still up in the air whether or not vr will play out the same way, and with steam you didn't have to pay $300+, but why wouldn't valve try to bank on the same sort of thing happening again?
