Valve uses Source 2 engine for free

Valve officially announces that it is working on a new version of the Source engine. Also, Valve makes the use of Source 2 free. In addition, the studio announces Steam Link, a box with which games can be streamed to other devices in the house.

Valve is announcing the arrival of Source 2 at its Game Developers Conference, being held this week in San Francisco. Valve hasn’t released much about the new game engine yet. The studio only announces that the engine can handle Vulkan, the graphics API that was until recently known as Next Generation OpenGL.

In addition to announcing Source 2, Valve has announced that use of the new engine will be free. In doing so, the studio follows the example of Epic and Unity Technologies. They previously made the use of Unreal Engine 4 and Unity 5 free. The CryEngine is also free to use.

The announcement of Source 2 is not entirely new. Gabe Newell, director of Valve, already let go in 2012 that a completely new version of the Source engine was being worked on. Newell stated at the time that he did not yet know for which game the new engine will be used. Even now, Valve has not yet released what it will use Source 2 for.

Valve also announced Steam Link, a box with which games can be streamed. With the Link, games in 1080p and 60Hz can be streamed from a PC or a Steam Machine. Games can be controlled with Valve’s own Steam Controller. The device will be on sale from November. The American price is 50 dollars, converted about 45 euros. Valve only supplies the box for that. The studio also asks $50 for a Steam Controller. Valve will announce later what the products will cost in Europe.