And that's full as in not extended prototypes or demos created to help sell the concept of VR gaming. That's three "full games" developed using both Source 2 and Unity. According to Valve boss Gabe Newell, this experimentation and transition to hardware across VR headsets and VR-specific controllers has meant that the company can utilise hardware design to inform software, and vice versa.

A handy tool that according to Gabe, has been in famed Nintendo designer Miyamoto's arsenal for many years now.

"So one of the questions you might ask us is 'Why in the world are we making hardware?' So right now, we're building 3 VR games. And what we can do now is to be designing hardware at the same time that we're designing software. This is something that Miyamoto has always had, right? He has had the ability to think about what the input devices and the design of systems should be like while he's trying to design games. Our sense is that that's going to allow us to actually build much better entertainment experiences for people."

A design philosophy that is very much in the Nintendo wheelhouse, where hardware serves to highlight innovations in software. And if there's any area where this could ring true over the course of the next year or so, it's with VR. Newell continued,

"It feels like we've been stuck with mouse and keyboard for a reeeaaally long time and that the opportunities to build much more interesting kinds of experiences for gamers were there, we just need to sort of expand what we can do. But it's not about being in hardware, it's about building better games. It's about taking bigger leaps forward with the kinds of games that we can do."

Whatever Gabe and the people at Valve are cooking up expect it to be something new and interesting, as the company is also working on a new VR controller in addition to games.