GDC 2017: LG Headset Prototype Will Be Shown At Valve Booth

GDC 2017: LG Headset Prototype Will Be Shown At Valve Booth

We just had a juicy bit of information dropped on us by Valve — LG is showing a headset prototype at the company’s booth.

Very little is known about the device right now, though Valve did confirm to UploadVR that this is a SteamVR tracking headset, making it the second such device to be revealed, two years after HTC first introduced its Vive headset and nearly a year after it was released.

According to a statement from Valve, the device will offer a “high fidelity, next generation VR experience.” Though not confirmed, we assume that makes it another PC-based device rather than another mobile-based headset, with LG has dabbled with in the past. The company intends to meet with developers during the event to showcase its prototype and collect feedback. Final pricing and launch dates are not being revealed at this time.

Don’t expect this to be the last SteamVR device; last week Valve dropped requirements to attend a $3,000 class for its platform and 500 companies having signed up to work with its Lighthouse tracking technology, be they new headsets, controllers or otherwise.

SteamVR isn’t alone in licensing VR technology, however. Microsoft is also working with companies like Dell and Asus to produce its own VR headsets using inside-out tracking and running on its Windows Holographic OS.

There are still a lot of questions about this headset to be answered, then, and we’ll be sure to hunt answers down during GDC week.

Here’s the statement from Valve:

LG Electronics will unveil its first VR HMD prototype at this year’s GDC in San Francisco, CA. Being shown in Valve’s GDC booth, the LG HMD prototype is designed to deliver a high fidelity, next generation VR experience.

During the show, LG will be meeting with developers to collect feedback and impressions as part of its effort to define the first commercial units. Pricing, launch dates, and territories will be announced at a later date.

 

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GDC 2017: Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney Thinks Social Interactions Will ‘Be the Number One Use’ of VR in the Future

GDC 2017: Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney Thinks Social Interactions Will ‘Be the Number One Use’ of VR in the Future

Given that Unreal Engine powers dozens of VR games, experiences and toolsets, it’s no surprise that Epic CEO and Founder Tim Sweeney is excited about the future of the medium. But what does he think will be the killer app for VR?

“I think social interactions are the thing that everybody’s underestimating,” Sweeney affirms. “The applications of VR to mass market social experiences that everybody participates in is going to be the number one use of the technology.”

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” continues Sweeney. “Even if you’re only seeing a low-fidelity approximation of them, you feel like you’re there. We did not have that prior to VR.”

But Sweeney also admits that the technology has to be convincing enough to not be off-putting or grotesque.

“We’ve undergone millions of years of evolution that causes our brains to pick up on very subtle queues on how humans communicate, and keeping digital humans out of the uncanny valley is a big challenge for all game engines, and one we’re investing in heavily.”

The promise of hyper-realistic social experiences that erode distance are both far-reaching and uplifting, and the impact it can have for family members and friends living far apart are life-changing. Seniors who live across the country or perhaps in a completely different hemisphere can spend holidays with relatives. Old friends can participate in emotional reunions. And on-duty military service members don’t have to miss the birth of a child.

However, along with these amazing experiences, Sweeney cautions developers and creators to think about the negative implications that may come along with the technology and design accordingly.

“VR is a completely new medium with the level of realism that’s unprecedented. I think it has immense potential to be used for both good and evil, if we’re going to look at it that way. Game developers are going to have to be very thoughtful about how we approach this, both in our digital work and products we choose to create and also the way we expose social experiences to players. Griefing and harassment are things that are going to feel a lot more real in VR than if you’re just hearing somebody’s voice or they’re just typing text at you. These are real challenges for the whole industry, and we’ve been very thoughtful about that at Epic.”

Sweeney even suggests realistic virtual avatars could end VR harassment.

The transformational and transportational aspects of VR are certainly exciting, and ones that also mean travel times can be reduced from hours or even days to nearly instantaneous.

“It’s teleportation,” Sweeney quips with an enthusiastic smile. “John Carmack said at a certain level of technology, VR is going to be a super power, and he’s totally right.”

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GDC 2017: Genvid Unveils Interactive VR Streaming

GDC 2017: Genvid Unveils Interactive VR Streaming

The VR revolution is taking place just a little behind another major leap for the games industry; streaming. Mixing the two together is a logical step, but Genvid Technologies is going one further.

At the 2017 Game Developers Conference this week the company will showcase interactive streaming of a game inside the HTC Vive. Monster battling game Super Kaiju will be on display, and viewers on sites like YouTube will be able to switch between multiple in-game angles during the stream as well as cheer players on and rewind footage. These aren’t exactly features that would be specific to VR but they do give people without VR headsets a way to interact with the worlds of people that do.

We could see the tech being useful to a lot of VR games out there looking to get a little more interactivity going with fans. The showcase is taking place on March 1st at 11am PDT, and show attendees will have a chance to go hands-on with the tech later in the week.

Genvid’s technology is already available in Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4, but a plug-in for Unity is also being released. The SDK allows developers to map viewer interactions in a game, the data for which they can use to advertise to streamers.

This isn’t the only avenue of VR streaming being explored right now. Others like NextVR are looking to streaming in VR itself with 360 videos that bring you closer to live events, while some companies offer in-VR streaming of non-VR game. For many developers this is going to be an important way of marketing their games in the future, so integrating the latest innovations for both VR and non-VR games is an important step.

Check back all this week for the latest on VR and AR at GDC from UploadVR.

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HTC Congratulates Sony On PSVR Sales, “Very Proud” Of Vive Sales

HTC Congratulates Sony On PSVR Sales, “Very Proud” Of Vive Sales

Sony became the first of the three high-end VR headset makers to reveal official sales stats this weekend when it announced PlayStation VR (PSVR) had sold 915,000 units. How does Vive headset maker HTC take that news?

“I think it’s a very healthy sign,” Alvin Graylin, President of Vive in China told UploadVR at the 2017 Mobile World Congress today. “I mean at the end of the day, the more VR experiences out there, the more users that are using VR the faster this industry is going to grow. So we’re really happy for Sony, we think they’ve done a really good job.”

In terms of HTC’s work with the Vive, Graylin declined to provide official sales stats but did state the company was “very proud” of the numbers the headset had sold thus far. “We’re comfortable with where we are and the numbers that are going out there and showing people are paying real dollars for high quality VR,” he said.

Asked how HTC might convince PSVR users to come over to the PC-based VR headset, Graylin said trying to do so “doesn’t really make sense” for the company as PSVR owners are “a different class of users” and not the company’s “target audience.”

“I think for PlayStation it makes sense for them to target their existing PlayStation install base,” he said, later adding: “We’re going to attract the best users for our best content for the best experience. As all the awards are showing, we are the leader out there and when developers choose, they choose us. When users choose and they go for where the best experience is they choose us.”

Though PSVR and Vive are both considered high-end systems, there is a lot of difference between the two. The $399 PSVR uses a single camera for positional tracking, running on PS4s that start at $250. Vive, meanwhile, uses two-sensor system for room scale VR, which isn’t possible on PSVR, and includes position-tracked controls, but costs $799 and runs on more expensive PCs.

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GDC 2017: Vive Tracker And Deluxe Audio Strap Cost $100 Each

vive tracker

Last month HTC announced two big products for the HTC Vive in an add-on Tracker and optional integrated audio headstrap. Today, both got vital release information.

The Vive Tracker will be “available to order” to developers on March 27th for $99.99, the company confirmed just before the doors to the 2017 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona opened up, where it’s exhibiting the device. The kit is essentially another peripheral that’s tracked by SteamVR but can be attached to real world objects allowing you to bring virtual representations of them into your VR experiences for the first time. We’ve tried it with apps like a baseball simulator, local co-op first-person shooter, and even a fire fighting simulator, while other developers hope to use it to enable full body tracking in VR and more.

The device has a lot of potential, though you need tings to actually attach it to in order to use it, which is why a developer release first makes a lot of sense.

Though this initial release seems to be aimed at developers, it’s not yet clear if consumers will be able to get their hands on it, much in the same way they could easily buy a development kit for the Oculus Rift by labeling themselves as a developer. HTC did say that “general consumer availability” would be available later in the year. Earlier this month the company started to roll out 1,000 free developer kits to select teams that applied for one.

We’ve asked HTC if the price will be the same for the consumer edition.

The audio strap, meanwhile, is launching pre-orders on May 2nd for $99.99, with deliveries set to arrive in June. As the name suggests, it includes a pair of integrated headphones similar to the Oculus Rift. Previously users would have to plug in their own pair of headphones, and many fans had requested an integrated option. The strap is also being integrated into the Business Edition of the HTC Vive for no extra cost.

Neither is quite hitting the initial Q2 release window we were expecting, then, but they’re still on track for 2017.

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GDC 2017: HTC Vive Payment Plan Revealed

GDC 2017: HTC Vive Payment Plan Revealed

VR headsets are expensive, especially the $799 HTC Vive. It’s certainly not something just anyone can afford upfront, but HTC and retailer partners are now giving consumers more options.

Last year we reported that UK games seller Game was offering a chance to get the Vive through monthly payments. Now other companies are taking that on board. In America, JD.com will sell the Vive with a 0% financing scheme with monthly payments of $138 (plus tax and shipping) over six months, or $66.58 over 12 months. A 7.99% plan for $40.13 a month over two years is also available.

In China, meanwhile, three 0% financing schemes are on offer. One is for three months at ¥2,296 ($334.05), the next is for six months at ¥1,148 ($167.02), and the final is over a year at ¥574 ($83.51).

This may be a key way of getting VR into people’s hands, though that money still doesn’t get them the expensive, high-end PC needed to actually use a Vive. It’s one of several varying business models the company is trying for its kit, the other including upcoming subscriptions for content services, and offering software to location-based arcades. Just how well any of these schemes stack up to more traditional business models remains to be seen.

Updates on this story to come.

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Community Download: Who Will Have The Best VR Games at GDC 2017?

Community Download: Who Will Have The Best VR Games at GDC 2017?

Welcome to the community download. This is a place for people from all different walks of life to come together as one and disagree on the room-scale capabilities of different VR headsets. In all seriousness though, this is a post meant to inspire thoughtful, informed discussion about virtual and augmented reality. Today we stand on the cusp on one of our industry’s most significant times of year. Next week, the Game Developers Conference (GDC) will be getting underway in San Francisco and this year’s show should be a big one for VR.

Last year, going into the event, the only headsets we had commercially available to us were powered by smartphones. This year, the gaming PC your friends all said you’d “never use” is now happily humming away, powering your eighth straight hour of Space Pirate Trainer without a bathroom break.

Last year’s GDC was all about teasing an amazing new era of gaming. This year, it’s all about delivering on that promise. We’ve already ran through what we expect to happen at GDC, so now our question for all of you this week is this: out of all the VR studios, manufacturers and conglomerates attending GDC this year, which do you think will be bringing the most exciting VR games?

Before you answer let’s consider your options.

HTC/Valve/Vive: The double threat of VR companies, HTC and Valve worked together to release the Vive VR headset. Thanks to an early emphasis on room-scale VR and hand tracked controllers, the Vive has become the best selling PC-powered VR system on the market today, according to third party estimates.

Since last year Vive has started Vive Studios, an organization with the sole purpose of finding, supporting, and developing the best VR games it can. On top of that, Valve itself has recently teased that they it will be releasing not one, not two, but three new VR games in the near future. What better time than GDC to shine a light on these mystery projects?

Sony: Sony is a GDC veteran. These guys were likely running keynotes at the Moscone Center back when VR meant the virtual boy. Sony knows how to make great content and how to communicate it to the world. Its PSVR headset is projected to be quite a hot seller already, but there hasn’t been a huge amount of high profile games lately other than Resident Evil 7, or rumors that there will be more on the horizon.

GDC is Sony’s chance to prove its commitment to PSVR and remind us all who the video game legend in the room really is. Fingers crossed its got some tricks up its sleeves.

Oculus: GDC has been around since before Oculus was even so much as a glimmer in Palmer Luckey’s dad’s eye. However, Palmer Luckey has a new dad now named Mark Zuckerberg. And Daddy Zuck has very deep pockets.

Oculus has already made a name for itself as “the platform with the AAA content” but that content has come at a price. At OC3 Zuckerberg announced that Facebook has already spent $250 million facilitating high quality VR content. He also revealed that his company would spend at least that all over again on even more content for the future. Now’s the time for Oculus to show us what that big war chest can do.

What do you think? Which of these companies, or any other company, is going to be keeping you glued to livestreams next week? Let us know in the comments below.

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GDC 2017: The 3 VR Tools That Got Us In

GDC 2017: The 3 VR Tools That Got Us In

There’s beauty in the chaos of a startup’s early days when the team decides to roll the dice. For virtual reality entrepreneurs there are some amazing tools which help amplify this mindset, allowing you to move fast and, hopefully, make things. With these tools, a little luck, and a lot of tenacity, our six-month-old VR startup is heading to the Game Developers Conference to present our new game at Valve’s booth.

I’ll tell you how we did it.

We learned that Valve was offering space at its GDC booth for a few VR developers with something new to show. New features on existing games didn’t qualify, so we had only one option: Get our new idea ready for prime time. But we had barely locked our game development document. To be considered for GDC, we had to make a complete demo and show it to Valve… in two weeks.

Our new game, Kiss or Kill, is the first room-scale VR game show. It’s a 1v1 trivia death match with weapons, hi-jinks, and shenanigans. The winner of the game is faced with a big decision: Take the safe route and kiss the loser, or go for double points in a fight to the death. In Kiss or Kill death is permanent. If you lose the fight then your global rank, upgrades, and character are gone forever.

We were confident in the core concept after simulating it in real life, but there’s a big difference between pretending in your office and actually playing the game. To hit the deadline, fast tests and prototyping were mission critical.

Just a year ago, the concept of Kiss or Kill would have required months to translate into something playable. Luckily, amazing tools like VRTK, PlayMaker, and Photon have enabled creators like us to do the formerly impossible, impossibly fast.

VRTK

VRTK, the Virtual Reality Toolkit, is a collection of foundational VR elements for Unity. Out of the box it provides locomotion, interaction, body physics, buttons and a lot more. It provides most of the elements of ‘reality’. You’d be surprised at how difficult something as seemingly simple as grabbing an object in virtual space can be. With VRTK, it just works. And did I mention that it’s free?

Using VRTK gave us the breathing room to work on more critical elements like the fight mechanics.

PlayMaker

PlayMaker allowed us to quickly prototype core gameplay mechanics without needing to code them. Using Play Maker we can understand whether a concept works before spending hours coding it. It’s also a more efficient way to show our developers how something should function. Instead of telling them how a big hammer should function as a weapon, which can be interpreted in a million different ways, we can download a hammer from the Unity Asset store and script its rough functionality within Unity. It is $65 well spent.

Photon

Finally, Photon gave us a complete multiplayer package providing everything from logic to servers. Just like with VRTK, if Photon didn’t exist, we wouldn’t exist. The months required to stand up servers and code all the logic for multiplayer would have been a showstopper. Photon is free for up to 8,000 monthly active users, then it is tiered pricing for more users.

With the help of these assets (plus, of course, Unity) we had networked players interacting with objects in a scene within hours. Days after committing to a demo date with Valve, we had a rough game. Late into the night we did our first complete playthrough.

It was glorious.

Big risks often have conclusions that come down to the wire, and ours was no different. On the day of the Valve demo, the Steam build wouldn’t run (still not sure why), and the Dropbox file wouldn’t connect (ports blocked at Valve). But finally, all three players were on the set of Kiss or Kill.

The game was a bit clunky. The music manager misbehaved. But the game worked. Valve was excited at what we had made.

And we were invited to GDC.

This wealth of resources allowed a six-month-old startup to execute on a previously impossible goal and we are but one example. Ultimately, enabling creators to express their visions in innovative ways is exactly what a new medium is meant to do. Our path to GDC is a step in that direction.

Nick Robinson is co-founder of RLTY CHK. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter.

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What to Expect From VR at VRDC and GDC 2017

What to Expect From VR at VRDC and GDC 2017

The 2017 Game Developers Conference (GDC) and accompanying Virtual Reality Developers Conference (VRDC) are right around the corner. Just like last year, they will run essentially concurrently again in and around the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. Panels and discussions kick off Monday 2/27 through Friday 3/3, with the Expo hall itself opening from Wednesday 3/1 until the end of Friday 3/3.

Whether you’re attending the show or just scoping out the news and events from home, we’ve got you covered. If you’re attending, then you should absolutely check out these 12 talks that we’ve selected as some of the most important VR-focused discussions of the entire week, as well as this massive list directly from GDC. But beyond that, what about the news? What about the announcements? The demos? The tech? The games?

There’s a lot going on at GDC every year, but with VR’s first big consumer year in the books last year, 2017 should be bigger than ever for our industry. The Oculus Rift and Touch, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR (PSVR), Google Daydream, Samsung Gear VR, and so many other headsets are all available for purchase. It’s a crazy time to be alive. But if 2016 was VR’s debut year, then 2017 needs to be the year of VR content.

We’ve put together this article to run down what we think are the biggest things to keep an eye out for coming out of VRDC and GDC this year. We might be wrong on some points and we might miss some surprises that we could have never predicted, but let this serve as a preview into where our heads are at heading into next week for the major providers and other segments of the VR industry.

What to Expect from Oculus

Oculus always has a big showing at GDC and they will again this year, especially since they were mostly quiet at CES. Last year they had a big Media Day before GDC officially started and this year is no different. On Sunday 2/26, members of the press (UploadVR included) will attend a full-day long set of demos of all the latest upcoming games, but we can’t talk about them until Tuesday 2/28. Last time, GDC was just before the launch of the Rift itself, so we had a good idea of what we were getting, but this year the event is mostly shrouded in mystery.

At Oculus Connect 3 late last year, we had the chance to try out a ton of Oculus Touch titles ahead of the device’s launch and a few of those games still aren’t out yet. This means we fully expect to get hands-on time with titles such as Killing Floor: Incursion, Robo Recall, Arktika.1, Lone Echo singleplayer and multiplayer, as well as many others. The VR company recently promised “months of high-profile rollouts” and that likely starts at GDC 2017.

On the hardware side, we don’t expect much news. The Rift CV1 will likely continue its run with mobile VR picking up some fun titles here and there, such as SingSpace from Harmonix. We saw Santa Cruz at OC3, but it probably won’t be at GDC.

What to Expect from HTC

CES was a big show for HTC. They showed off the Vive Tracker accessory, a new headstrap and audio solution, and solidified excitement for the TPCAST Wireless Accessory. As a result, GDC will likely be a much more reserved show for the company.

There will be new content from Vive Studios on display, as well as developers demoing their projects from their booth, but you won’t see a massive day-long Media Extravaganza like Oculus is doing the day before the show starts.

What to Expect from Valve

Valve is likely in a similar boat to HTC. We know they are working on brand new base stations, shown in the image above, as well as experimental controllers they teased at Steam Dev Days last year. We also know the company is working on three VR titles right this very second. We do not, however, expect to learn much more about those things just yet.

If they decide to turn back the curtain on those projects this year, that will likely happen at E3 or a dedicated event of its own. It would certainly be a wonderful surprise next week and Valve does have its own booth space, along with developers showing games out of their area too, but if we had to put money it, we would bet against new Valve-developed titles being on display at GDC this year.

What to Expect from Sony

The long and short of it is that you shouldn’t expect much from Sony at GDC this year. They have some impressive-sounding NPC technology that will be showcased a bit, but there likely will not be new game announcements or flashy demos that we haven’t heard about or played already.

Last year Sony had a massive GDC presence, announcing the price and release window of the PSVR headset, as well as demoing a litany of titles to members of the press. We tried out a ton of them at the event, but we don’t expect anything like that this year — all that stuff is out or is coming soon. Resident Evil 7 just launched in VR and other titles like Farpoint are on the horizon.

What to Expect from Microsoft

With 2017 now in full swing and Microsoft moving their conference to a full day earlier at E3, we can expect that Scorpio and its VR functionality are likely being saved for that show too. HoloLens continues to gain traction in the development scene, meaning some demos will likely be on the show floor, but we likely won’t see any huge news on that front.

The biggest thing that we expect to learn more about is the impressive Windows Holographic platform that was first announced at the Intel Developer Forum last year. It’s slated to arrive on Windows 10 PCs later in 2017. Also, we know Microsoft is partnering with several manufacturers on VR headsets of its own, so we may learn more about some of those as well.

What to Expect from Epic

Robo Recall. It’s one of the most-anticipated releases of the year and is expected to arrive sometime very soon, for free, exclusive on Oculus Home for Rift and Touch users. We’ve been nothing short of blown away each and every time we’ve seen or talked about the game, so you should expect, at the very least, a release date for this exciting shooter.

Additionally, Unreal Engine is one of the premier VR development ecosystems and new advancements on the technology side of the company will likely be announced as well. Don’t be surprised if they’re working on other stuff, too, seeing as how Robo Recall is just a beefed up and overhauled version of Bullet Train. We’re still waiting for an Unreal Tournament or Gears of War-caliber game from Tim Sweeney and company.

What to Expect from Ubisoft

In 2016 Ubisoft quickly emerged as one of the premier publishers of virtual reality games. With Eagle Flight and Werewolves Within all achieving quality launches with full cross-platform multiplayer on PSVR, Rift, and Vive, it’s exciting to think about what they could be cooking up next. Chief among the things we know about is Star Trek: Bridge Crew.

The game was recently hit with another delay, along with the promise of new content, so an updated look at the game with some fresh announcements — or maybe even a brand new VR title in the works — would be awesome news to come out of GDC.

What to Expect from PC Hardware Companies

GDC is always a big event for companies like Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA, among others, but with CES wrapping less than two months ago, it may not be time for any earth-shattering news to come out from the woodwork just yet.

We’ll likely hear about incremental advancements and new hardware for high-end users that can continue to push systems to new levels, but with the current generation of VR hardware less than a year old, major jumps in fidelity or performance aren’t likely.

What Else to Expect

Those are the big names to look out for in headlines, but there will be plenty of other stuff going on too. GDC is one of the best conferences to discover indie games that were previously unknown, which is great for us here on the Editorial Team at UploadVR. It’s a great networking event for meeting people in the game industry. There’s more going on than we could possibly know about, so expect to see lots of interviews and hands-on demos from us throughout the next few weeks summarizing our time at the show.

What are you most excited about for GDC and VRDC? What are you expecting?  Let us know in the comments below!

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Sony Showing More Believable VR Characters In PSVR GDC Tech Demo

Sony Showing More Believable VR Characters In PSVR GDC Tech Demo

Creating more believable virtual characters will play an essential role in further immersing us in single-player VR experiences in the future, and Sony intends to demonstrate that on PlayStation VR (PSVR) this GDC.

The company’s headset traditionally has a big showing at the event, having been revealed there in 2014, but this is the first iteration of the show in which the device is already on the market. Instead of focusing on tech specs and release details, then, the company is showing more to do with VR development. One big part of its showcase will be a new VR tech demo from PlayStation Magic Lab, the division of the company that’s worked on the headset for the past few years.

This demo will focus on “simple 3D prodcedural spatial behaviors for VR characters.” That roughly translates to virtual characters that understand the spaces they’re standing in and their position in relation to the VR user. According to Sony they “imbue a sense of shared space”, reacting to both sound and motion created either within the area or by the player. They can also register the direction in which a user is looking and adjust their eyes, head and body in response.

These characters will only react to things they see inside their own field of view, and also blink and breathe in response to your actions. Attendees will be able to switch the feature on and off to compare it with more traditional non-playable characters that we see in games today and get a sense of what a difference it makes.

While it doesn’t look like Sony is revealing any big new VR games next week (they’ll likely save that for E3), the company will also debut VR Trace, a new tool designed to fix common issues that spring up in multiple VR applications. There are scheduled Unreal Engine 4 and Unity Engine PSVR demonstrations too. They’ll also be showing off the upcoming PSVR Aim Controller ins conjunction with its first game, Farpoint. A new talk based on the controller has been scheduled too.

GDC is, as usual, going to be a massive event for VR. We’ll be there all of next week to bring you the latest from the show.

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