Valve is officially debuting its long-rumored Source 2 engine at GDC this week alongside a host of other new technologies, and it's expected to launch at a competitive price: free.

While it's unclear when Valve will roll the technology out to developers, the news of its release coincides with Epic making Unreal Engine 4 free-to-download and Unity announcing a full-featured free version of Unity 5.

In the space of a few days, developers have been promised access to a remarkable array of fresh development tools with no upfront cost. But Valve is making a show of marketing Source 2 not just to developers, but game creators of all stripes -- including Steam Workshop creators.

"With Source 2, our focus is on increasing creator productivity," stated Valve engineer Jay Stelly in a press release confirming the launch. "Given how important user generated content is becoming, Source 2 is designed not for just the professional developer, but enabling gamers themselves to participate in the creation and development of their favorite games."

It's worth noting that Valve also plans to release a version of Source 2 that's compatible with Vulkan, the open-standard graphics API that's considered heir apparent to OpenGL.

Gamasutra has reached out to Valve for further details on Source 2 and where developers can go for more information. For now, the best we can do is point you towards Valve's Steam Universe page.