14 DAY TRIAL // Virtual reality is set to be one of the technologies that will dominate 2016 and the team at Valve is announcing that it is planning to boost the concept's chances of success by launching a new set of VR experiences called The Lab, which will take gamers back to Aperture Science, the setting of the Portal titles.
The company says that it will deliver a compilation of virtual reality experiments that will take place in a pocket universe of the facility, which probably means that major characters like Chell or GlaDOS will not be featured in any way.
Valve also explains that its focus is on full room scale applications for VR, which can show off the full list of capabilities that the coming Vive platform will offer.
The Lab will be launched for free later during the spring on the Steam digital distribution service and more information about it will be introduced during the coming Game Developer's Conference 2016.
Valve has recently used the Portal universe to power the SteamVR Performance Test tool, which is designed to allow gamers to see whether their machine is powerful enough to run virtual reality experiences.
Virtual reality requires solid launch titles to succeed
The Vive, which is created by Valve in partnership with HTC, will be offered starting on April 5 and can be pre-ordered at the moment by all those who are willing to pay the 699 dollars or Euro price tag and have the computer power to run virtual reality titles.
The two companies need to offer a solid slate of interesting experiences for the platform to convince players to pick one up despite the relatively high price.
The Vive will offer tracking via two Lighthouse base stations and a separate feed from a front-mounted video camera will make sure that gamers always stays safe.
Valve and HTC have said that the tech can evolve based on the initial experiences that gamers report with the titles that will be launched in 2016.
The Oculus Rift is also pricier than fans have been expecting and will begin to arrive in March, with the company saying that around 100 titles for it will be introduced before the end of the year.
Sony is also working on a virtual reality system called PlayStation VR, which will only work with the PlayStation 4, while Microsoft is more interesting in augmented reality, with the HoloLens now offered in the form of a very expensive Developer Edition.