Thursday, April 1, 2021

Valve to Release VTuber AI That Plays Your Steam Backlog

 A press release from Valve Software earlier today states that they plan to release a VTuber AI that plays your Steam backlog for you. VTubers, or virtual YouTubers, are live-streamers and video content creators who use a virtual avatar, which is rigged in some way to match a person's movements. They have recently experienced a popularity boom, with over a dozen VTubers passing one million subscribers in the past year alone. This did not go unnoticed by Valve, curators of the popular PC game store Steam and publishers of classic games like Ricochet and Garry's Mod.

 

"After the release and critical success of Half-Life: Alyx, we collectively remembered we can finish and ship products" stated Valve game designer Robin Walker. "However, most of our developer's work time last year was spent watching anime girls swear in broken English. We simultaneously noticed a problem where 91% of users' Steam libraries were games they had purchased in a holiday sale bundle years ago, which they 'swore they'd get to as soon as they wrapped up a few more Netflix shows and their friends got bored of Among Us for the third time'. The AI was a perfect fit."


"We originally questioned the wording of the AI launch button, but we figured honesty was the best policy."