It seems to be based on entirely new tech

Feb 24, 2015 00:17 GMT  ·  By

The team at Valve in charge of virtual reality announces that it is planning to introduce a new piece of hardware at the coming Game Developers Conference and says that all those interested in getting a first look at it should contact the company in order to get an appointment.

The official announcement states, "Steam is bringing the best games and user-generated content to exciting new destinations. At GDC 2015, we’ll be giving demos of the refined Steam Controller, new living room devices, and a previously-unannounced SteamVR hardware system."

The company seems to be unwilling to offer any more details before the actual event, but the wording is interesting because it suggests that the new virtual reality device will be the most important element of the GDC presentation.

Valve has previously said that it will also place greater emphasis on the Steam machines, which were hyped last year but failed to make an impact since then.

A virtual reality concept was shown during the Steam Dev Days in 2014, but the company then said it was just a prototype that would not be used for commercial hardware.

This new announcement also does not say whether Valve plans to turn the newly revealed VR hardware into a product that will be sold to players or if it only wants to show developers and other companies the possibilities of the tech.

For the time being, its official position is that it does not want to compete with Oculus Rift, with which it has a tech sharing understanding.

GDC will take place between March 4 and 6 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Virtual reality is a revolution that has stalled

At the moment, the most advanced virtual reality hardware is the Oculus Rift, which is available to developers and is constantly improving its tech and its design.

The company does not yet have a timetable for the release of a consumer version of its VR tech.

Sony is also experimenting with Project Morpheus, which is linked to the PlayStation 4 and is also not planned for a consumer release.

There are also rumors that Microsoft is aiming to create a full virtual reality solution that can be easily integrated with the Xbox One home console, but no official details about it have been offered so far.