The Apple Vision Pro is an expensive flop. I haven’t heard anyone mention the Meta Quest in months, despite it getting a new model just last year. I can’t even remember the name of Samsung’s incoming Android-based headset. While virtual reality gamers remain passionate, the excitement around the format seems to be slowly dying… again.
And then along came Zeus Valve. Easily the least mainstream of its three — THREE! — hardware announcements yesterday, the Steam Frame is everything I was hoping for. It’s a standalone, self-powered headset with its own software and apps, a la the Quest. With an internal battery, it’s ready to go on the road or just roam around your home without being tethered.
But it can also connect to a gaming PC or a Steam Deck or a Steam Machine (what’s the difference?) to access more powerful virtual reality games and non-VR media. And Valve is setting this up as a central feature, with a low-latency wireless dongle included in the box.
It’s packing the latest VR tech such as eye tracking, pancake lenses, and expansion options for MicroSD and USB-C. It’ll be running on a powerful Snapdragon ARM64 processor, and the software is at least some flavor of SteamOS, giving it immediate access to a huge amount of both VR and standard games.
The VR games I keep going back to all have that same kind of ‘workout’ vibe: lot of activity; short, episodic play. I think that conflict - short play sessions vs expensive gear - is one of the reasons VR is still a niche market. It’s like geek Peloton, but that also keeps devs from building the big, story-rich games that get media attention and get people excited to play. I don’t think anyone wants an Elden Ring or a Silksong like experience in VR. Beat Saber, Gorn, Gorilla Tag are great uses of the platform, but it’s hard to convince someone to drop $1000 for ‘fancy fruit ninja.’
Wasn’t Half-Life Alyx pretty well regarded? Was it more than “fancy fruit ninja”?