Ever since VR first started taking the world by storm, the focus has been on a few select companies. Those that come to mind, of course, are Facebook’s Oculus Rift and HTC’s Vive headsets, supplemented by the newer PlayStation VR. One other entrant, however, is the OSVR initiative headed by Razer and Sensics which is starting to get under way. In the latest milestone, the platform has just been approved by Valve for Steam.
“This is a great milestone for VR, giving users access to more hardware and content and driving Valve’s and OSVR’s shared vision of totally open VR content to everyone” -Razer
By adding support for OSVR hardware and software, Valve is opening up the doors to the largest PC market for VR. The new filtering support means users can now see which games support OSVR hardware and are compatible. In addition to the filtering, Valve has also added in an OSVR icon to show that a game would be compatible, right next to the OS and other VR icons. There are currently 32 titles that are compatible on the Steam store.
“We are delighted to announce support for OSVR titles. Steam is an open platform for all developers, and adding support for OSVR further expands the massive content offerings for the millions of gamers on Steam.” -Valve
While OSVR has been the last one out of the gate, their open platform promises more potential. The open platform will likely allow more headsets made by smaller vendors to make their way into the VR market. By grouping together, they can address a common software market. The same goes for game developers as OSVR compatibility means the title will work across what will hopefully be a wide range of headsets. With $5 million available for developers, it will be interesting to see where the platform will go and whether other vendors will jump on board.
