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Steam Frame price revealed, waiting open until 17th September

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After an accidental leaking of their review video from Linus Tech Tips last week, we somewhat knew that news on Steam's latest VR venture was imminent. Today the product page has been updated, with a few new details revealed for the first time. The headset is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and runs an ARM64 version of SteamOS. Through this you'll be able to natively run some of your Steam games directly on the headset itself. It should be noted however that the Steam Frame is listed as a "streaming-first" device, introducing some genuinely interesting tech to make wireless VR streaming feasible. There will be "Steam Frame Verified" markers coming to the storefront to give you an idea of what will run well when untethered though.

But let's get to the important part: the price. The Steam Frame is available in two flavours, with the cheaper model featuring 256GB of UFS storage, and its more expensive counterpart bumping that up to 1TB. Both models do feature a Micro SD card slot for expansion however. You can find the pricing below:
  • 256GB Kit - £889 / $1059
  • 1TB Kit - £1089 / $1299
Both variants do come with Half-Life: Alyx included, though there's no indication that the game will run natively on the platform.

Those interested in picking one up for themselves can now sign up for the wait list, much in the same manner as the Steam Machine. This list will remain open until 6pm on the 17th of September here in the UK, with all submissions then randomised. Within a day of the list closing, you can expect an email saying how long you're likely to be waiting for your unit.

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Here's what bugs me. Early on before we knew this was a standalone headset (when we kept calling it "deckard" or "index 2") I was hoping they'd not release just a standalone unit, because if they hoped to do it with any quality it would drive the price up.

I understand the need to compete with Meta's biggest market they have entirely to themselves. But if the primary focus is on streaming anyway and Valve isn't confident about going all-in with standalone, why bother? People buy mobile headsets because they don't have money for good computer hardware, if you drive the price up then you miss the whole point.

I have many good things to say, but this most fundamental decision was misguided. I hope Valve is considering releasing a slower version of the headset with only the hardware required to stream wirelessly. At least they nailed the entry-enthusiast market that they're familiar with.
 
Yeah... As much as I want one as I sorta miss my original oculus, I think I have to pass with the 1k pricing. Not to mention as fun as vr was it never really took off good enough to be worth the cost of entry, especially this cost...
 
I really liked VR but god the selection of games is pathetic. I wanted to get a Quest 3 but the privacy concerns are so absurd it's hilarious.
 
IMO, VR gaming isn't actually gaining traction unlike handheld gaming which is consistent throughout the generation. VR gets hyped and gets some good games like half-life alyx and beat saber then dies years later. Heck even when Apple launched their own AR/VR thing, it wasn't even popular. Maybe it was the price since it was insanely expensive, but it didn't even move the market or the people towards it. Even MS Hololens didn't make it.

Unless Valve can encourage devs to make games for VR, it will just be another e-waste. The curse of Virtual Boy still haunt these type of system. 🤣
 
I dont really get the whole "Overpriced" thing. It would have been about 700 to 800 Bucks before the Ram and Storage Price Hike. Steam is not responsible for the Price hike so its not "overpriced". They had to adjust the price. Im guessing they allready cut their margin by a lot to even keep that pricetag on. Although i think the 1tb version is not really worth it. 250 bucks more for 750gb of storage? yeah i will mostly play PCVR and even if the storage runs out ill just slap in a micro sd. And for the Guy saying its a "Glorified Monitor", by that Standard your PC is a Glorified Commodore 64 ya bozo.

I registered for the 256gb version. Hoping ill get it before Christmas.

Also yeah its not new since they have done it with the Steam Machine but a big Shoutout for the way you buy those things. Fuck those Scalpers in the Ass!
 
If I were Valve I'd offer a severely (as much as possible) cut down streamer-only version. Half the current price is so that you can play HL Alyx for 40 minutes at a time, in worse quality. It's impressive, but not super attractive even excluding the part crisis etc.
 
People complain about price as much as Ai these days when a midrange home pc in the 90s retailed at $6,000. This is technically supposed to be cutting edge hardware of course it's going to be expensive.
 
such said:
If I were Valve I'd offer a severely (as much as possible) cut down streamer-only version. Half the current price is so that you can play HL Alyx for 40 minutes at a time, in worse quality. It's impressive, but not super attractive even excluding the part crisis etc.
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I've seen this sentiment, but you need some processing grunt to do the streaming this needs to do at such low latency and high fidelity + tracking. I don't know how much cheaper you can get on a "streaming only" version
 
SecureBoot said:
I've seen this sentiment, but you need some processing grunt to do the streaming this needs to do at such low latency and high fidelity + tracking. I don't know how much cheaper you can get on a "streaming only" version
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They could probably keep the same SoC and just reduce the amount of RAM and storage.

Could probably get away with a 64GB emmc/nvme and maybe 4GB RAM if not less depending on how much Steam OS takes up Vs the buffer needed, could shave a few hundred off at least even with Qualcomm's price rises, unless they have some kind of bulk purchasing deal.

Although how much manufacturing costs might affect this, I don't know.
 
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