A little over a month ago, Valve announced that its SteamVR hardware would be available in the coming months to players of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
This came after the announcement of a free-to-play version of Valve’s PC games platform, Steam Machines, which was available in beta in the last couple of months.
Now, Valve has officially announced that it’s bringing SteamVR support to Steam Machines as well.
“Steam Machines are our next generation VR platform.
They’re going to be available for SteamVR-compatible hardware in early 2018,” Valve CEO Gabe Newell said at the company’s annual investor call today.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity for us to help Valve continue to deliver great VR experiences for PC gamers, especially with the new Steam Machine.”
Newell also mentioned that SteamVR has “some great new features,” including “three-axis tracking,” and “multi-room audio,” but said that the hardware will be limited to “a handful of popular games.”
Newer hardware, like the Oculus C3 and HTC U11, are expected to arrive sometime later this year, and Valve said that its hardware “will be more robust, more capable, and more flexible than anything we’ve seen before.”
SteamVR on Steam Machines will launch at a $50 price point, which is currently $400.
The company also said that SteamOS will be available at a lower price point at a later date, and that the Steam Controller will be able to be used on all Valve-supported PCs.