Interesting that Valve isn't looking for royalties here. Any speculation as to what the strategy behind this release is?
They are not locking down the tracking technology (although in the short-term, you still need HTC Vive base stations, but that's just for now) and the OpenVR standard can be implemented by anyone and there are already integrations not just for the Vive and Rift (with SteamVR), but also OSVR.
They're pushing for an open vr ecosystem, as they realise both that it's important to the medium as a whole as it encourages experimentation through greater access, and equally importantly, they realise that that matters to you.
At this point they're setting up a playing field where oculus will be pretty much compelled to put down their dreams of platform and exclusivity, and all will benefit, particularly the guys who run the ubiquitous game marketplace. Oculus can have a glorious future as a hardware manufacturer, which is where they started, too.
They likely have a clause you need to make a steam game to get access.
A. Yes, you can sell your own products wherever you want. No, you don’t need Valve’s review and approval to ship your product, but you do need to comply with the license to be able to use our technology, brands, names, or trademarks.
Source: http://steamcommunity.com/app/507090/discussions/0/360671247...