In 
the looming battle of virtual reality technology, HTC and Valve Software are preparing to square off against Facebook’s Oculus Rift.
At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, both companies announced the Vive, a virtual reality headset that will be made available to consumers later this year.
There’s 
an upside to fighting off Clickers in a post-apocalyptic world. You win a LOT of awards.
The Last of Us, Naughty Dog’s critically-adored survival game, captured top honors at the Game Developers Choice Awards Wednesday night, winning the Game of the Year award along with a pair of other trophies for Best Design and Best Narrative.
Epic 
Games, whose Unreal Engine has powered some of the biggest video games ever made, is making some major changes as we begin a new console cycle — and it could have a ripple effect on the rest of the industry.
The developer unveiled a new pricing strategy for its cutting-edge Unreal Engine 4 at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, abandoning the traditional licensing model for a flat monthly fee and a small percentage of any retail sales.
Middleware, 
post-mortems on game design, and discussions on ways to improve monetization in free-to-play titles generally aren’t the sorts of things that rev up players. And, on paper, the annual Game Developer’s Conference might seem a little too ‘inside baseball’ for the average person.
But in the detail-obsessed gaming world, GDC is one of the highlights of the year. It lacks the pomp and circumstance of E3 — as well as the big game announcements, generally — but it’s one of the best ways to get a sense of where gaming is going.
“Journey” 
is getting used to making the trip to the podium.
After winning big at the D.I.C.E. Awards, in February, thatgamecompany’s “Journey” captured six of the 11 main Game Developers Choice Awards, including Game of the Year, Wednesday evening at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Confab wraps up March 29.
Independent 
filmmakers may have Sundance, but indie gamemakers head to San Francisco.
More than 20,000 are gathered at the city’s annual Game Developers Conference through March 29, looking to generate buzz — and hopefully land distribution — given it’s the only show where smaller titles made by teams of fewer than a dozen people can stand on even footing with deep-pocketed studios.
When 
it comes to video game conventions, GDC — the Game Developer’s Conference, if you’d care to be formal about it — tends to live in the shadow of E3.
Unlike its flashier cousin, which is loaded with new console details and flagship game announcements, GDC is more about how those games are made. While it might not have the consumer pull of E3, however, GDC delivers an unvarnished look at the games business and often tells us where, exactly, we’re all headed.
Here are five topics we expect to dominate this year’s show, which runs from March 25 – March 29 in San Francisco.
Typically, 
the entertainment highlight of the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco is the Game Developer’s Choice Awards – one of the video game industry’s more prestigious award ceremonies.
Those will still be handed out this year, but attendees are likely to be more excited about the announcement that Indie Game – The Movie will be screened at the show on March 5 at 6pm.
In terms of big splashes, the Game Developer
Conference generally pales in comparison to E3. But even though it might lack a circus atmosphere and onslaught of new product announcements, that doesn’t mean there’s a lack of news.
This will be the 25th time industry developers and executives have gathered to network, seek inspiration and learn more about the industry of making games. Started in a developer’s living room in 1988 with roughly 25 people attending, this year’s show is expected to welcome more than 18,000 attendees to the Moscone Center in San Francisco when it kicks off on Feb. 28.
Here are a few of the topics you’re likely to see make the headlines:
Chris Morris: Journalist 