While Kudo Tsunoda, development head of Xbox, revealed that the company is “working closely with Valve” to offer Windows 10 as the optimal gaming platform for the Vive Developer Edition of Valve’s SteamVR virtual reality system, which is to be released in spring 2015, Valve was not at E3’s first-ever PC Gaming Show on Tuesday, June 16.
The company made this decision despite E3 2015 being referred to as “the VR (virtual reality) E3.”
The PC Gaming Show’s website states, “PC gaming is in a golden age with more powerful and affordable hardware than ever before, thousands of games available through Steam, Origin and other platforms, and millions of viewers regularly watching esports online.” Since Valve’s digital distribution service Steam is explicitly mentioned here, gamers might have expected the company to be present.
However, unlike other developers, Valve does not tend to use E3 to advertise its projects. Valve’s last E3 appearance was in 2010, when CEO Gabe Newell revealed puzzle-platformer Portal 2. Also, as a distributor of games online, the corporation allegedly gets 30% of the revenue that developers earn from titles sold through Steam.
Speakers for the PC gaming show included AMD Chief Gaming Scientist Richard Huddy, Blizzard Executive Producer Chris Sigaty, and Xbox Head Phil Spencer. Twitch streamed the event, which can be viewed below.
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