E3 2015: Microsoft and Valve Partner Up for VR

[-smash-]

During today's Microsoft E3 press conference, Microsoft development manger, Kudo Tsunoda, revealed that Microsoft and Valve have teamed up to bring the best VR experiences to Windows 10.

The story is brand new and still developing, so nil else is known about the extent of this partnership.

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It was revealed a few days ago at Oculus' pre-E3 event that Microsoft and Oculus have also partnered up to create VR experiences for the PC. Details of this partnership include the bundling of a wireless Xbox One controller with every Rift headset, and native Windows 10 and DirectX 12 support. Oculus Rift owners will also be able to stream Xbox One games to their headsets.

We'll have to wait and see exactly what the Microsoft and Valve VR partnership means for us and the PC gaming ecosystem.

 

[Aizawa]

I think it means nothing. Valve VR was on PC anway and Steam works on Windows 10 sooo...

 

[mooki]

Interesting..... maybe this could just be Valve making SteamVR optimized to it's fullest potention on Windows 10 and DirectX12. I don't know. It's hard to think of what this partnership could entail

 

[-smash-]

Agreed, this is probably more of a technical, back-end, and a strategic partnership.

 

[Pikminiman]

I just hope this is indicative of some sort of low-level standardization for VR across platforms. It'd be great to have the option to use whatever VR headset you want with any given VR game. I know there will always be hardware-specific limitations, but here's hoping for hardware choices rather than exclusivity.