Valve's interest in virtual reality has been reported already, when it was discovered that they'd be speaking at the Game Developer's Conference about the subject, later this month. But, as it turns out, they're also the developers behind the Oculus Rift's first official game.
Engadget reports that the free to play first person PC shooter, Team Fortress 2, will be coming to the crowdsourced funded VR headset. According to Valve programmer Joe Ludwig:
"This is a mode that everybody who has a Rift dev kit and access to Team Fortress 2 will be able to play, just on public and in the same servers that everybody else is playing in."
Though, as one might guess, as Engadget also points out, everyone isn't actually everyone. Mac and LInux players will be included, at least initially:
"We don't have a Mac or Linux SDK from Oculus quite yet, but once we get those, we'll get it ported over to those other platforms."
The Oculus SDK will only support Windows at launch, but according to an Oculus VR rep. Mac and Linux support will come eventually.
Earlier today we reported that the special Rift-enabled version of Doom 3: BFG Edition will not be available when the Oculus Rift dev kit ships. Which was a bummer to hear, so hopefully those who actually considered going with the most extreme consolatory option offered by Oculus VR, that being a total refund of one’s pledge, might have a reason to reconsider.
And perhaps Valve will talk about what it takes to turn Team Fortress 2 into a VR experience at GDC? It’s a safe bet.
