Valve has confirmed that it plans to showcase a range of hardware from its Steam family of products at the Game Developers Conference (GDC 2015) next week. The company will demonstrate "a previously-unannounced SteamVR hardware system", as well as new Steam Machines and the refined final version of the Steam Controller.
Although Valve had previously promised to give Steam Machines a "front and centre" presence at GDC, the focus will not be placed solely on them as the company is preparing to bring a family of "new living room devices" to the show. In addition to the new products, Valve is determined to deliver the delayed SteamOS and controller, which have been in development for a long time now and were originally slated to launch in 2014.
On the virtual reality front, Valve has past experience of working with Oculus in attempts to drive PC VR forward, but its intentions in the VR space have always remained ambiguous. Even though the company added support for the Oculus Rift to its Steam client early last year, unveiling SteamVR is actually the first confirmation that it is planning to launch its own virtual reality product.
The decision to show off SteamVR at GDC doesn't come as a surprise given that it is one of the best places to grab VR specialists' attentions. Valve says it is "actively seeking VR content creators" to work with the new hardware, and the company will be giving demos and taking bookings for hands-on time with its VR system development kit during the show, in hope to lure developers and publishers to come onboard.
Although information is slim at this point, the good news is that we will only have to wait until next week to see what Valve has in store for us. GDC 2015 is scheduled to take place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco between the 4th and 6th March.
