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.
Back 
in May, virtual reality pioneer Oculus was served with a scathing lawsuit over accusations that it stole technology from ZeniMax Media, the parent company of gaming powerhouse, Bethesda.
Now, Oculus is firing back.
While 
it’s still anyone’s guess as to when the Oculus Rift or Sony’s Project Morpheus will be commercially available, this year’s E3 made one thing clear: there’s nothing virtual about the fun these devices deliver.
VR may not have been front and center at this year’s show, but it certainly created a lot of buzz. Sony saw huge crowds queing up for Morpheus. The line stretching around the Oculus booth was several hours long.
I tried out a lot of VR games at the show. Here’s what stood out.
The 
world of virtual reality, essentially barren three years ago, is suddenly the Hot New Thing.
Samsung is reportedly working on its own VR headset, which would compete against the Oculus Rift and Sony’s “Project Morpheus.” Even crazier? It could ship sometime this year.
One 
of the video game industry’s highest profile publishers is accusing Oculus of stealing its intellectual property to create the Rift virtual reality headset.
ZeniMax Media filed suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Dallas, saying Oculus and founder Palmer Luckey “commercially exploited” ZeniMax computer code and trade secrets for their own gain. And it was that software that led to the $2 billion purchase of Oculus by Facebook in March.
The 
battle over VR is getting ugly.
After making legal threats earlier this month, ZeniMax Media — the parent company of game publisher Bethesda — has filed suit against Oculus, saying the maker of the anticipated virtual reality Rift headset illegally used software developed by the game maker to create the device.
The 
parting of the ways between rock star developer John Carmack and Bethesda Games parent company ZeniMax Media has gone sour.
Carmack’s former employer is accusing the now-CTO of Oculus of taking intellectual property with him when he left to join the virtual reality startup.
While 
the Internet of Everything is relatively new to many, the video game industry has been dabbling in it for nearly a decade.
In 1995, developer Namco began using motion capture to create more lifelike movements in its game Soul Edge. Then, in 2009, Microsoft unveiled the system we know today as the Kinect peripheral for the Xbox 360. The motion sensing camera introduced a new way for people to interact with games, movies and their consoles.
As 
cancer began taking its toll on Roberta Firstenberg, it started stealing things she had long loved and taken for granted. Chief among those was the ability to take a simple walk around her yard.
Granddaughter (and game artist) Priscilla Firstenberg, though, managed to outwit the disease and give Roberta a few final strolls using an Oculus Rift headset.
Chris Morris: Journalist 