Noted for its recurring segments like tutorials, “rant” panels, and the Game Design Challenge, GDC is also a famous spot for new game and hardware reveals. This year, Valve has some exciting announcements to make, and, before you ask, Half-Life 3 unfortunately isn’t one of them.
Valve had promised a big presence at GDC after cancelling Steam Dev Days at this year’s CES, and it appears they will deliver. At the event next week, the company will be demoing its very own virtual reality hardware system called SteamVR. Confirmed in a statement posted on the Steam Universe page, the studio also plans to demo a new, improved Steam Controller and some “living room devices.”
Valve has shown heavy interest in a VR solution in the past, teaming up with OculusVR to help accelerate virtual reality efforts for PC gaming. Last year, it even launched a beta for an experimental VR mode for its digital game distribution hub, Steam. It also pushed to port its own developed games, like Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2, to virtual reality displays, and demoed DOTA 2 on a VR headset at a meet up in Boston last June.
Given this information, and the fact that prototypes of Valve’s own VR headset have popped up at events over the past couple of years, this announcement, though spontaneous, doesn’t come as a surprise to many gamers. No other information was included with the announcement, however, it did mentioned that Valve will be holding scheduled demos during GDC, and that the studio is actively seeking VR content creators to test the SteamVR Dev Kit.
As for the other announcements, Valve has been working SteamOS-powered, third party Steam Machines since 2013. Originally expected for a 2014 release, the consoles were delayed in order to ensure that gamers were getting “the best gaming experience possible.” These machines are expected to hit shelves this year, so it’s likely that Valve is using “living room devices” to reference them. Along with that, the developer will also be demonstrating the refinements it has made on its long-awaited Steam Controller.
GDC takes place March 4-6 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. If you’re a developer who is attending the conference and wants to play with the dev kit, simply register on the same page of the statement.
