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Waitaminute! Is this the same Valve who FIRED Jeri Ellsworth last year because Gabe didn't see any value in the VR/AR work she was doing, to the point that he j

Waitaminute! Is this the same Valve who FIRED Jeri Ellsworth last year because Gabe didn't see any value in the VR/AR work she was doing, to the point that he just let her have the IP rights to her prototypes as she left?

kakugawa 13y ago
Valve had two teams -- Abrash's VR and Ellsworth's AR. They decided to bet on VR and Jeri was the unfortunate result of them focusing their resources.
- teamonkey 13y ago
  Abrash says in the slides they're not actually working on a device internally, except for research. I could be wrong but I remember reading that Ellsworth's team was developing a product.
  - masklinn 13y ago
    They're not working on a production device, but they have an internal prototype which the few third-parties who've tested it consider mind-blowing even compared to OR's Crystal Cove. It might be the result of Ellsworth's work though https://twitter.com/DaveOshry/statuses/423961443889717248 https://twitter.com/DaveOshry/statuses/423961443889717248 (Palmer is Palmer Luckey, founder and CEO of Oculus Rift) https://twitter.com/TheDavidHensley/statuses/423591891171426304 https://twitter.com/TheDavidHensley/statuses/423591891171426... https://twitter.com/TheDavidHensley/statuses/423592847531466752 https://twitter.com/TheDavidHensley/statuses/423592847531466... (Tripwire, Killing Floor & Red Orchestra) http://garry.tv/2014/01/16/steam-dev-days-day-1/ http://garry.tv/2014/01/16/steam-dev-days-day-1/ (Garry's Mod author) http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/1vc9gz/im_a_dev_that_got_to_try_valves_vr_demo/ http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/1vc9gz/im_a_dev_that... (random schmuck who got to try it)
programminggeek 13y ago
Also, there is probably no way to say this without sounding crass, but after listening to her tell her side of the story, it seems like she wasn't a great fit for Valve's obviously very particular culture. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but sometimes it is better if two parties split so they can go do their best work separately.
teraflop 13y ago
According to the presentation, Valve sees tremendous value in VR, but doesn't necessarily want to be the one to develop the hardware themselves. What you describe sounds completely consistent with that.
modeless 13y ago
It's not that they didn't see value in it. Augmented reality and virtual reality are two different things. Valve believes that AR technology will be harder to develop than VR, and consequently that VR will become feasible and popular before AR. They chose to go after VR first, postponing AR for later. Jeri Ellsworth didn't want to wait, so Valve let her leave and take all the IP with her to try AR on her own.
Geee 13y ago
Jeri's CastAR glasses were Kickstarted: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/technicalillusions/castar-the-most-versatile-ar-and-vr-system http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/technicalillusions/casta... Really cool innovation in itself using retroreflectors and micro-projectors.

kakugawa 13y ago

Valve had two teams -- Abrash's VR and Ellsworth's AR. They decided to bet on VR and Jeri was the unfortunate result of them focusing their resources.

teamonkey 13y ago
Abrash says in the slides they're not actually working on a device internally, except for research. I could be wrong but I remember reading that Ellsworth's team was developing a product.
- masklinn 13y ago
  They're not working on a production device, but they have an internal prototype which the few third-parties who've tested it consider mind-blowing even compared to OR's Crystal Cove. It might be the result of Ellsworth's work though https://twitter.com/DaveOshry/statuses/423961443889717248 https://twitter.com/DaveOshry/statuses/423961443889717248 (Palmer is Palmer Luckey, founder and CEO of Oculus Rift) https://twitter.com/TheDavidHensley/statuses/423591891171426304 https://twitter.com/TheDavidHensley/statuses/423591891171426... https://twitter.com/TheDavidHensley/statuses/423592847531466752 https://twitter.com/TheDavidHensley/statuses/423592847531466... (Tripwire, Killing Floor & Red Orchestra) http://garry.tv/2014/01/16/steam-dev-days-day-1/ http://garry.tv/2014/01/16/steam-dev-days-day-1/ (Garry's Mod author) http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/1vc9gz/im_a_dev_that_got_to_try_valves_vr_demo/ http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/1vc9gz/im_a_dev_that... (random schmuck who got to try it)

programminggeek 13y ago

Also, there is probably no way to say this without sounding crass, but after listening to her tell her side of the story, it seems like she wasn't a great fit for Valve's obviously very particular culture. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but sometimes it is better if two parties split so they can go do their best work separately.

teraflop 13y ago

According to the presentation, Valve sees tremendous value in VR, but doesn't necessarily want to be the one to develop the hardware themselves. What you describe sounds completely consistent with that.

modeless 13y ago

It's not that they didn't see value in it. Augmented reality and virtual reality are two different things. Valve believes that AR technology will be harder to develop than VR, and consequently that VR will become feasible and popular before AR. They chose to go after VR first, postponing AR for later. Jeri Ellsworth didn't want to wait, so Valve let her leave and take all the IP with her to try AR on her own.

Geee 13y ago

Jeri's CastAR glasses were Kickstarted: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/technicalillusions/castar-the-most-versatile-ar-and-vr-system http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/technicalillusions/casta... Really cool innovation in itself using retroreflectors and micro-projectors.