Back near the end of March 2015 we reported on HTC and the fact that they would be offering developers a chance to apply for a free Vive Developer Edition virtual reality headset which they can use to develop games for. The only thing that developers were waiting for was to have HTC launch their official website that developers would be using to sign-up for the headset.
Well it may not be an official website, but Valve and HTC have finally got the sign-up page live so developers can try and get themselves a free headset to develop for. However, there are a few steps that HTC/Valve will be taking to ensure that they can get headsets into the hands of as many developers as possible.
Our goal is to support as many VR content creators as possible and, to that end, we will be distributing dev kits continually, with new units going out every couple weeks. However, supplies may be limited.
So from the sounds of it, headsets will become available in ‘waves’, with a new wave going out every couple of weeks. When you sign up, you will have to tell HTC/Valve about your team and about the ideas you have in regards to games/apps that you want to make for the Vive headset. You will need a Steam account to access the sign-up page, so if you don’t have one, you will need to get one. If for some reason you do not get a headset, you can still follow everything over at the official Steam VR Developer Community. This community is for active developers only and you can read messages and follow along with development
There is a general Steam VR community that everyone who isn’t a developer can be a part of as well. Let us know if you get a Vive Developer Edition headset. We are always interested in learning about upcoming Android games and that includes virtual reality ones.
Official Websites: HTC Vive Developer Edition Sign-ups | Steam VR blog
