The fact that Valve is working on their own VR headset should not be surprising. When Oculus was first making headlines they took a look at the technology and we are sure it was very interesting to them. If you recall Gabe Newel made statements about touch and gaming when Windows 8 was launched. He already indicated that they (Valve) were not seeing touch as the next evolution in gaming or even in PC/System interaction. Instead they were already working on what they saw as the next step towards making a game more interactive for players.

The device that Valve showed off is a dot covered headset that seems to be capable of more than just showing the wearer game images. He dots act in the same way that motion sensors do in that a camera tracks the movements of the headset inside its viewing area. This can be transmitted into the headset or, we image, used to pinpoint a location inside a larger gaming area.

Right now this new device from Valve is in the very early stages so do not expect a launch anytime soon. After all there are little to no games or other media that can make use of this type of technology so why put too much effort into it before the eco system is properly built. The good news is that in the hands of a company like Valve the software ecosystem could get a push in the right direction. We envision this product being a big part of the much larger SteamOS based system with the option to use it in the traditional Microsoft Windows environment.

Who knows, maybe this ugly headset is one of the real reasons behind Valve’s delay of the Steam Machine and not the controller as they have been claiming. Personally we imagine that the real reason for that delay is a lack of AAA titles for the new OS, but that is just us.

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