Valve plans to show off its virtual reality prototype and explain what it will mean for Steam at its Steam Dev Days event that takes place in Seattle in mid-January. The schedule for the developer sessions includes a couple of virtual reality-related events aptly titled “What VR Could, Should and Almost Certainly Will Be within Two Years,” and “Virtual Reality and Steam.” Apparently, in addition to Steam Machines and Steam Controllers, Valve is interested in building more gaming hardware.
In the first presentation, Mike Abrash will share Valve’s conclusions about the future of virtual reality. The event description says that the company has already “figured out what affordable Virtual Reality (VR) hardware will be capable of within a couple of years, and assembled a prototype which demonstrates that such VR hardware is capable of stunning experiences.” Lucky attendees will be allowed to try the prototype during the session. Joe Ludwig will explain in the second presentation how Steam will integrate and promote virtual reality games and show developers the Steam Overlay in VR, Steam store changes for VR and the company’s VR plan for Steamworks.
Valve isn’t the only company expanding its virtual reality plans, with the Oculus Rift or Sony’s rumored virtual reality headset for the PlayStation 4 being a couple of alternatives.
