This is Valve and HTC's Vive dev kit, unboxed

The Vive development kits have begun to land at select developers, and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of non-disclosure agreements or secrecy; developers are wasting no time in sharing details and releasing unboxing videos. If the manual is already this cool, how is the real thing? Let's take a look.

This is the unboxing video from Cloudhead Games, creators of The Gallery: Six Elements.

You can see how they're using the hardware in this look at the company's GDC demo for the game; you actually get to walk around the environment and use both hands to interact with the objects around you. Having done the demo myself, I can assure you it's just as cool as it sounds.

Here's an unboxing video of Crystal Rift developer Jon Hibbins opening his hardware, along with a great look at those controllers.

One more from Vertigo Games, including a comparison of the older Lighthouse boxes with the new hardware. These are the pieces of hardware that have to be mounted on your wall or ceiling, allowing for positional tracking on the headset and the controllers.

The Lighthouse boxes also have a standard female connector on the bottom so you can mount them on a tripod or any other stand.

The Vive continues to look like an amazing piece of equipment, but that's still a lot of hardware and a large space commitment for the walking-around style of games. The retail hardware will be released by the end of the calendar year, and we're hoping to get pricing details and game support information at E3.