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.
No.
Because the biggest problem with VR isn’t the god damn hardware. It’s the lack of games. The Frame looks pretty great; but what would save VR gaming is a truly killer app. Or ten.
There is actually quite a backlog on VR games by now. Admittedly mostly by b-grade studios, so not reaching the quality of HL:Alyx or so, but not bad either. Stuff like
BoneworksBonelab or the Alien and Metro games are genuinely quite good and came out recently.Boneworks will be 6 years old next month
I meant the successor Bonelab 🤦
No.
Because the biggest problem with VR isn’t the library. It’s the price. The Frame looks pretty great; but what would save VR gaming is if people could afford a headset. Or two.
There are already at least 5 VR sets that are under $500 right now. But all but one (PSVR) is sold by Meta and ByteDance. It definitely is not just about the cost of entry.
It definitely is not just about the cost of entry.
Not for people of your economical status.
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.
You mean “broke motherfuckers?” Cuz I’m a broke motherfucker.
I think Valve will have to somehow help developers migrate from the Meta’s software store, as I feel like in the past few years, most VR games that aren’t AAA have only came out on Quest.
Well they’re saying you’ll be able to install Android APK files on the Frame, which pretty much confirms this is exactly what they’re going for. Meta headsets run Android and the games are APKs.
Oh yes, I know, but we cannot expect everyone to side-load APKs. My point was that nowadays Meta’s catalog way surpass Steam VR’s and that Valve should entice developers that published on Meta’s marketplace to publish on Steam.
No I’m saying that I’m pretty sure side-loading is just a side effect of them making it compatible exactly so that it’s very easy for devs to port Quest games.
Oh sure! But wouldn’t that mean that some VR games sold on Steam would only run on the Frame? That seems so not like Valve.
Would it? Maybe just because of the walled garden approach if other hardware developers, and that would be their own fault and not Valve’s. If they had some sort of proprietary format that only worked on Valve hardware, maybe. But that doesn’t seem to be what’s being discussed.
They would need to start churning out great VR games. They may be the only company that could. Being able to play existing games on a virtual 3DTV would also be fun.
Interesting!
I wonder what type of soft could break the stalemate. Simplicity is already a good plus, but maybe not enough?
I’d probably play some very immersive “MMO” - RPG.
Since the steam frame is an entire pc, you can run third party motion trackers on the headset itself like SlimeVR so every Steam Frame has the potential for full body VR for cheap.
Also it could run waydroid to potentially run android based VR games.
Also since it’s is a PC, it would probably simplify game dev for VR games. And potentially run the same exe with a LOD/Quality slider to transition between pcvr and standalone.
Further, it may enable other companies like HTC to make steamos based headsets to escape Google.
I haven’t been following the VR discussion since the release of the Oculus Dev kit2
Have they figured out how to let people who wear glasses use it yet?
I’ve got some prescription lens inserts for my reverb which work wonderfully.
I think Valve has mentioned the intention of the same for the frame, but nothing concrete yet and I’m not sure how they would work with the eye tracking.
That was an issue solved quite some time ago. Either you get custom prescription lenses for the headset, or you have a spacer (modern sets have an adjustable shroud built in, including the Frame).
I use the Valve Index with my glasses just fine. Probably depends on the specific anatomy of your face and geometry of your lenses. There’s also a bunch of options for prescription lenses for (at least some) headsets.
For me, the limitation of VR is the actual physical effort - standing, limited movement, swinging your arms - a couple hours of that, especially on a warm summer day, is just about enough. It’s far easier to lounge in a chair clicking buttons on a controller for hours. Like, Skyrim VR is amazing as an experience, but I just can’t get into it the same way as Skyrim flatscreen.
Yeah but Beat Saber is a pretty good workout routine, and you don’t want to be doing that for 7 hours a day anyway!
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 $1000 for ‘fancy fruit ninja.’
Wasn’t Half-Life Alyx pretty well regarded? Was it more than “fancy fruit ninja”?
One big problem is that people are probably used to meta’s pricepoint for the quest systems… which Valve can’t possibly compete with.
I’d love to thee it selling for about 500$, but according to interviews, it’s probably going to cost about 1k$, which is simply too much for many people (in this economy, etc.).
It’s sad that the majority either won’t or can’t pay full price for products, and go for those that are discounted due to vendor lock and/or built-in ads.
If the Steam Frame ends up costing only $1k I think that’s a relatively good price, feels like everything else has doubled in the time since the original Vive was released. Obviously I hope for lower but I kind of expected it to cost at least $1.5k
1k is still way more than the average consumer is ready to pay for a console. Especially with the mostly single player nature of a headset.
Only personal experience but I have friends newly excited about VR woth this announcement
