Valve’s Steam Frame is one of the last of a dying breed, an honest-to-god interesting example of gaming-focused headset tech in what’s become a slow drought of virtual reality. To save VR, Valve will have to pull out all the stops, and its saving grace may have something in common with many of the celebrities at the Emmys: accessories, accessories, accessories.
The Steam Frame is built for wireless VR play, even though that’s diminished by its limited battery life when playing both 2D and virtual reality titles natively. It’s also an awkward device for any AR (augmented reality) content with its monochromatic IR passthrough cameras. However, we may be only scratching the surface of what we can do with the Steam Frame. Valve’s headset is secretly incredibly modular, and not just because it’s effectively a Linux PC you can wear on your face.
At launch, the makers of Steam promoted a $150 plug-in accessory made by Arcturus that adds RGB color passthrough and 3D video capture capabilities. This extra doohickey is plugged into the front of the headset through its PCI-E expansion slot. You can see for yourself in hands-on videos how this accessory could allow for more mixed reality game options. More than that, it’s a device that allows for developers to expand what’s possible with Valve’s headset.
The PCI-E slot means we could see even more third-party expansions to Steam Frame hardware, though we’ll have to hope somebody comes up with more interesting gear. Still, there are more independent makers thinking outside the box. While the Steam Frame doesn’t require any infrared “base stations” to track the headset or controllers, indie company Soulart is designing hardware-agnostic base stations it promised would be compatible with Valve’s headset. This is probably more suited for people keen on VRChat if you really need full-body tracking for your avatar’s fursuit (no hate to the VRChat denizens out there). At least, it proves there are other possibilities that show there’s still progress to be made for virtual reality.
Valve itself has indicated it’s working on a separate expansion kit. The company told PCGamer it was going to craft a new headstrap with a hot-swappable battery and higher-end speakers, akin to what it had inside its Index headset from 2019. What’s important about all this modularity is that both players and developers may not have to keep waiting for next-gen headsets to arrive to find more interesting VR tech. No, this won’t finally make VR gaming truly mainstream, but it may help keep the flame alive for a few more years.
Valve certainly has its legion of fans, but that $1,060 price tag is still going to stymie the Steam Frame from becoming anywhere as big as the Meta Quest was just a few years ago. Not to mention, the Steam Frame arrives just when multiple big companies seem to be losing all interest in VR. Sony seems to have all but given up on its PlayStation VR2 just three years after its launch. PCGuide was first to point out that practically all major online retailers, including PlayStation Direct, list the PSVR2 as out of stock or only available used or refurbished.
Due in large part to the ongoing RAMpocalypse, VR hardware has languished with ever-expanding prices and fewer new games to play. The week before Valve could debut its $1,060 headset, longtime VR game developer Polyarc, creator of the beloved platformers Moss and Moss II, shut its doors. In prior months, Vertigo Games’ Amsterdam-based team—the developers behind the Metro Awakening VR title—also met its end due to how the “VR market remains a challenging space.”
Meta may be crafting a new “Project Pheonix” glasses/headset hybrid that it could reveal at its Meta Connect conference Sept. 23. We have doubts that the device will be explicitly built with play in mind, and neither will Google and XReal’s Project Aura XR glasses. Valve won’t have an easy time keeping gaming VR going, but at this point, the Steam Frame may be virtual reality gamers’ best hope.
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