Former Valve business chief Jason Holtman joins Oculus

Valve's former business chief Jason Holtman has joined virtual reality headset maker Oculus as its new head of platform.

Holtman worked on the Steam digital platform for much of his time at Valve, helping it become the dominant PC digital distribution platform.

Last year he joined Microsoft to head up its PC gaming charge, but left just six months into the job.

Now he's turned up at Oculus.

"When I was a kid, I loved arcades," Holtman said. "I converted most of my allowance into quarters and couldn't wait to get to the mall on Saturday. For me, it was all about Battlezone - simple, bright line geometry, enemy tanks, and mountains off in the distance. That feeling when you grabbed the dual joysticks and pressed your face to the viewfinder was transformative. It was unlike anything else you could play.

"Battlezone, although simply rendered, made you believe that you were in that world and that there had to be something beyond those mountains.

"Battlezone is widely regarded as one of the first VR games, and looking back, those mountains still excite me. I want to fly, walk across alien landscapes, and nose around the Great Pyramids. And that's the most telling thing about VR: the possibilities are obvious, immediate, and endless.

"So, I'm humbled to become a part of this team. I'm not one of the pioneering scientists or engineers in virtual reality, but I am one of the people that can't stop grinning every time I see something new inside the headset, and I'm looking forward to helping shape the transformative experiences that inspire the next generation of developers."

Holtman will be in charge of business development at Oculus, and work on the partnership side of the platform "with a focus on building the world's best developer and player VR ecosystem".

Might we end up seeing a Steam for Oculus Rift games?

News of Holtman's arrival at Oculus comes alongside the announcement that Words With Friends co-creator Paul Bettner is making an Oculus Rift-exclusive platformer entitled Lucky's Tale.

Lucky's Tale will be the debut game by Bettner's new studio, Playful Corp. The game will be shown off for the first time next week at E3.