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Beyond whatever psychic toll that comments like those may have caused, there was also a practical cost to the boondoggle perception. Because at Valve, a significant portion of employee compensation came from a peer review system; so working on projects that didn’t create a tangible benefit was unlikely to be rewarded; and with less a chance of being rewarded, it made it that much harder for Abrash to recruit colleagues and—as per the employee handbook—get them to “vote on projects with their feet (or desk wheels).”

... So where did Valve stand? Did they actively want to push forward a VR revolution? To find out once and for all, Abrash and Binstock spent the first week of March meeting with Gabe Newell and Valve’s board of directors.
The following week, in a surprise to most, Atman Binstock decided to leave Valve and accept Iribe’s offer to join Oculus. When asked by a colleague what had led to this decision, Binstock explained with a sigh that, ultimately, “Valve is like this jolly fat man who just keeps getting more money and jollier but isn’t willing to take any risks. They aren’t pushing for VR to happen; in fact, I’m not even sure if they care at all whether VR succeeds or fails. Whereas Oculus is different. Oculus is this rocket that is either going to deliver VR or explode spectacularly. And I want to do everything in my power to help ensure the former.”