What is Steam VR?
Valve is teasing something for next week's Game Developers Conference, something they call Steam VR. Guess what it is.
It has been years since we've seen the old Valve intro, but with the announcement of Steam VR, it looks like the company's not given up on gaming yet. So when's Half-Life 3 coming again?
The Game Developers Conference has been held for nearly 30 years. First started in 1988, the event had humble beginnings, from first being held at one of the organizer's living room to a Holiday Inn, to its eventual home at San Francisco's Moscone Center. The GDC is an annual event where developers from the world over gather to exchange ideas and organize lectures, panels and discussions about the game industry.
This year, Valve's going to be at the event and from what they've posted up on Steam Universe (where official Steam announcements are made), it seems that the company's continuing to dabble into hardware, in the form of a new VR peripheral.
Dubbed Steam VR, it seems to be far enough along in development that Valve is taking applications for demonstration sessions. It doesn't look like it's going for sale any time soon though, as the units to be used for the demonstrations are Development Kits, which means they're incomplete prototypes meant for developers, not the general public. We assume it's a VR headset, as Valve has shown some interest in the past in that direction but until it's officially revealed, peg that as a rumor. For all we know, it could be a full VR suit that you wear. We wouldn't put it past Valve to try something like that.
Valve's also promising a 'refined' version of its Steam controller to be shown at its booth. Interestingly, the company's made no mention of Steam Machines, which were supposed to be out last year, before being delayed and slated to be coming out sometime this year. The delay caused Alienware to get tired of waiting for the Steam Machines to be ready and opted to launch its Alpha as a normal gaming machine late last year.
Valve's VR headset joins other notable headsets from major companies that are also in development like Sony's Project Morpheus, Oculus' Oculus Rift, Razer's OSVR and Microsoft's HoloLens (although the HoloLens is labeled as a hybrid AR/VR device by Microsoft) though it's anybody's guess when any of them will be released.
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