The virtual reality race is heating up, and now a new player has entered the field. Valve Corporation, the creator of the incredibly successful Steam Client and popular game series such as Half-life and Portal, will be showcasing its new SteamVR platform at the upcoming Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2015 in San Francisco.

Valve quietly announced SteamVR on its blog on Monday. In the announcement Valve wrote, “At GDC 2015, we’ll be giving demos of the refined Steam Controller, new living room devices, and a previously-unannounced SteamVR hardware system.”

Valve is also “actively looking for VR content creators,” and developers who will be attending GDC 2015 can sign up to try out the new SteamVR system from March 4-6. Valve notes that “space is limited,” and with GDC 2015 coming in less than a week, slots will fill up quickly.

SteamVR: Sure thing, or huge gamble?

With Facebook Inc’s enormous investment into Oculus and other companies such as Samsung and Sony creating their own VR consumer products, the buzz surrounding VR technology has been rapidly growing. Can a relatively small company like Valve compete with behemoths like Facebook and the already well known Oculus system?

One advantage Valve does have is a massive user base that tends to be more tech savvy and quick to adopt new technology than the average casual gamer. A recent hardware and software survey of Steam users found that many used powerful gaming systems, with over a quarter of users having video cards using over 2Gb of VRAM and over 33 percent using display resolutions of 1920 x 1080 or higher.

By comparison, the recent PlayStation 4 title The Order: 1886, which was praised for its visuals (and not much else), had to cut its resolution down to 1920 x 800 in order for the console to adequately display the game.

Earlier in 2014, Valve stated that it would not be holding a Steam Dev Days this year but would have a “big presence” at GDC 2015, showcasing some exciting new technology.

In addition to the just-announced SteamVR platform, Valve will also be showcasing its Steam Machine consoles, which take a modular, PC-like approach to video game console hardware. The company will also present a finalized version of the Steam Controller.

Image credit: Valve Corporation