Valve's GDC 2015 Announcement

[-smash-]

Hot off the press! Valve has just announced their plans for next week's GDC 2015.

In a press release from Doug Lombardi, he states that Valve will be demonstrating "Steam Machines with the final Steam Controller, new living room devices, and a previously-unannounced SteamVR hardware system."

Click to read the entire press release:

Spoiler

VALVE TO ANNOUNCE NEW HARDWARE PRODUCTS

Leading Entertainment Platform Surpasses 125 Million

February 23, 2015 - Valve will show a family of new Steam devices at next week's Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, CA. Products being demonstrated at GDC include Steam Machines with the final Steam Controller, new living room devices, and a previously-unannounced SteamVR hardware system.

Developers and publishers interested in experiencing the new SteamVR hardware may request to schedule a GDC demo at http://www.steampowered.com/universe.

GDC 2015 will mark the 13th anniversary of Valve's first public announcement of Steam, which has since become the leading platform for PC, Mac, and Linux games and software.

In the last year, Steam added new services and features - including In-Home Streaming, Broadcasting, Music, and user created stores - as it grew to over 125 million active accounts worldwide.

Steam now offers 4500 games, with 400 million pieces of user-generated content contributed by members of the Steam Community.

We've known that the Steam Machines and the final Steam Controller would be making their appearance, but there are two new elements of note:

1. "New living room devices," which sounds separate from our current knowledge of the Steam Universe.
2. There will be a demonstration of a new "SteamVR hardware system."

We have zero details on this new bit of information and we'll have to wait for GDC to roll around to find out more.

If you (or know someone that is) are attending GDC, Valve invites you to stop by their booth to demo all of their hardware that will be on display, including this new SteamVR hardware. You can make an appointment @ http://www.steampowered.com/universe.

There is also now an official Twitter account for SteamVR @SteamVR.

In other news, Doug also released some new staggering Steam stats! As of today, there are:

• 125 million active Steam accounts
• 4500 games
• 400 million pieces of user-generated in the Steam Community

That's all for now. Stay tuned, folks!

 

[MFL]

Think it'll be the contacts? http://www.valvetime.net/threads/is-this-valves-secret-vortex-project.243251/

Also, just so we can get some interesting perspective once the specs (hehe) start rolling in, this is where Valve thought they would be as of last year.

 

[User With No Name]

Perhaps this is why the Steam Machines were taking so long to come out, Valve was also building some form of VR hardware of their own that just might couple said machines. I wonder if it will be more of a compliment or a direct competitor towards the Oculus. I didn't want to get myself overly hyped for GDC and end up disappointed, damn my excitability.

 

[MFL]

Valve supposedly starting working on VR sometime around 2011, if I remember correctly. Some others might be able to narrow down the exact timeframe.

 

[Omnomnick]

Can I say I told you so yet?

Jump to 13:46 in this video for my word-for-word prediction only two months ago.

 

[Rurre]

In other news, Doug also released some new staggering Steam stats! As of today, there are:
125 million active Steam accounts

Wonder how many of these are scammer bots and cheater throw away accounts.

 

[rikt]

Wonder how many of these are scammer bots and cheater throw away accounts.

lol, sadly it's probably very true.

 

[Omnomnick]

Wonder how many of these are scammer bots and cheater throw away accounts.

That probably depends on Valve's definition of "active", which I would assume means has played at least 1 game in the past 30 days, which bot accounts don't really do. However, given it's always used as marketing, it's probably a very loose definition, with "active" meaning has been online in the past month. Hopefully they don't include accounts identified or banned as being a bot.

 

[Emnu]

That probably depends on Valve's definition of "active", which I would assume means has played at least 1 game in the past 30 days, which bot accounts don't really do. However, given it's always used as marketing, it's probably a very loose definition, with "active" meaning has been online in the past month. Hopefully they don't include accounts identified or banned as being a bot.

The bot accounts I've seen have something like Dota 2 downloaded and few mins in it.

Also,
Praise Gaben

 

[-smash-]

Discovered at http://store.akamai.steamstatic.com/public/images/promo/livingroom/signup/00_HeadsetOutline.png​

 

[MFL]

Let's see here...
HDMI, USB, and audio jacks.

 

[Omnomnick]

Let's see here...
HDMI, USB, and audio jacks.

But where is the slot for the cable I plug into my brain so I can live inside virtual reality forever?

 

[User With No Name]

Let's see here...
HDMI, USB, and audio jacks.

That's three wires. We know what this confirms, folks...

 

[-smash-]

Let's see here...
HDMI, USB, and audio jacks.

Someone suggested 2 HDMI - one for each screen.

 

[Vegeta897]

None of those look like audio jacks, actually. At least not TRS. Unless it's one of them new fangled low profile designs.

 

[-smash-]

Why would audio come from the HMD anyways? I think it would come from the PC.

 

[MFL]

I would say because of headphones... but it doesn't have any on the icon.

 

[-smash-]

Yeah but the HMD doesn't output audio, does it? HMD does...

• OUTPUT: video
• INPUT: translations & rotations

...afaik. Audio's done from the PC as usual.

The Rift DK2 has two cords coming from it, each HDMI.

​

I'm starting to think this silhouette is of an older prototype and doesn't represent the public SteamVR dev kit.


/edit: boy was I wrong

 

[User With No Name]

I'm starting to think this silhouette is of an older prototype and doesn't represent the public SteamVR dev kit.

So my dream of owning Oct-angular VR devices with a plethora of stylish polka dots delicately graced across the front can still be a reality?

 

[TheWiktor]

(from steamdb.info's blog)