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.
The 
competition is getting more intense for Facebook’s Oculus Rift.
Valve Software, the videogame developer and creator/operator of the industry’s largest PC game digital distribution platform, will unveil its own virtual reality hardware next week at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. The company has not yet announced whether the system will see a commercial release, but it is actively meeting with content partners at the show, generally an indicator that it does plan to do so.
Consoles, 
beware: this year, the PC is making a push for the living room. And Valve Software is leading the charge.
Last year Valve announced the Steam Machine, a system designed to let people play games traditionally locked on PC monitors in the comfort of their living rooms. The company showed a bit more of its hand at CES 2014, announcing 13 partners who will be creating Steam Machine hardware and giving press some hands-on time with the controller.
On 
Monday, video game powerhouse Valve Software introduced an operating system based on its Steam digital distribution service. Then on Wednesday, it announced hardware that would run that OS in the living room. So it wasn’t a big surprise when the company’s third mystery unveiling this week was a controller for that system.
Until we saw the thing.
Two 
days after announcing a new operating system based on its Steam digital distribution service, Valve has announced the hardware that will run it.
Steam Machines — the official term for the long-rumored ‘SteamBox’ — will start hitting stores next year from multiple partners, Valve said Wednesday. It stopped short of naming the companies it’s working with on the hardware.
Steam — 
Valve’s popular digital game distribution service — is outgrowing your home office.
The publisher announced plans Monday to launch a Linux-based standalone operating system called SteamOS. Due in 2014, the platform is designed to help further the service’s move into the living room.
You 
don’t have to look too far past the Metacritic scores to know that this year’s Star Trek game was a disaster. Critics decimated it and gamers largely avoided it, shaking their heads sadly and moving on to the next game, never giving the messy movie tie-in a second thought.
For “Star Trek” movie director J.J. Abrams, though, it’s a little harder to get over.
Jason 
Holtman, who spearheaded Valve’s Steam business for eight years before leaving the company in February, has a new job.
The former lawyer has taken a job with Microsoft, with a focus on PC gaming and entertainment strategy. Because he has just started at the position, Holtman declined an interview request, but confirmed the move.
While 
J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Valve Software are planning to develop films around the developer’s “Half-Life” and “Portal” franchises, Trion Worlds and Syfy have a warning for them: It’s not as easy as it looks.
At the D.I.C.E. Summit on Thursday, Syfy president Mark Stern and Trion’s VP of production Nick Beliaeff talked about the collaboration of their companies for the upcoming TV series and game “Defiance” and the changes both had to make in their operational procedures.
Valve, 
the creators and caretakers of the incredibly successful PC game distribution service Steam, has been hinting around its plans to move into the living room for more than a year. Apparently, the company has finally put its money where its mouth is.
Valve has invested in the fledgling hardware company Xi3, the maker of small desktop PCs, to create a mini gaming PC.
Chris Morris: Journalist 