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.
Gaming devices, be they console, PC, or even mobile, are going to cost more than a few bucks if you want to do anything more than text based adventures. A few hundred dollars for a gaming device is baseline.
And for a peripheral device?
Standalone sets like the Frame and the other affordable VR options on the market (again, except the PSVR) aren’t just peripherial devices; they’re an entire console/PC strapped to your face. They don’t need to connect to another machine, but they still have the option to do so.
If someone were to make a headset that was nothing more than the display and some sensors for motion and wireless connectivity to make it way cheaper, that would be cool… But there’d still be little to play on it if you’re looking for real solid gaming experiences and not just virtual interactive art pieces and gimmick apps.