Valve will be hosting the Steam developer conference in mid-January 2014. At the conference they will reveal “what virtual reality could, should, and almost certainly will be within two years”. Valve says they have a prototype that is “capable of stunning experiences”.

Valve: VR is coming within two years
You already know about the Oculus Rift, which is widely expected to revolutionize the virtual reality scene, when it hits sometime in 2014. But Valve – the company behind Steam – is also working on a VR device.


This is the Oculus Rift, but Valve is also working on virtual reality

Valve has invited developers to “Steam Dev Days” on January 15-16 in Seattle, and they will bring a virtual reality prototype that they have been working on. Valve says:

”We’ve 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. This type of hardware is almost certainly going to appear in short order, and the time to starting developing for it is now. This talk will discuss what the hardware is like, and the kinds of experiences it makes possible. A few attendees will be randomly selected to try out the prototype following the talk. “

It is clear that Valve expects virtual reality to be a thing, and they are guessing that it will happen within two years. Valve says that they will tell developers more about their plans to support virtual reality through the Steam platform. It all sounds very concrete, and Valve promises to help developers port existing games to VR.

Valve has shown interest in virtual reality in the past, and has already integrated support for Oculus Rift in Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2. Valve also recently unveiled their plans for living room game consoles, so-called Steam Machines. We will learn more about the Steam Machines at CES 2014, Valve promises.

- Source: Steam Dev Days via Engadget