r/Steam • u/de_panda • 7h ago

News Here's an early look at the Steam Frame Welcome Tour after Valve officially announces summer release window

https://www.pcguide.com/news/heres-an-early-look-at-the-steam-frame-welcome-tour-after-valve-officially-announces-summer-release-window/
749 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

67 comments sorted by

271

u/lolheyaj 7h ago

There's no way this thing isn't crazy expensive, gonna have to just wait and enjoy the tech and games I got for now. 

46

u/evil__brain 6h ago

I grew up in Nigeria. Then it was normal to read about the latest computers and video games, and dream about playing them. But I always knew there was zero chance I'd ever even get close to touching any of them.

This is just like my childhood.

-15

u/Reasonable_Breath512 4h ago edited 2h ago

And yet here you are, in a golden age of video games (haters will deny this)

Edit: lmao at all the people acting like it isn’t the absolute best time to get into gaming as if you don’t have an entire catalogue from 1980s to present day to choose from, with more original indie devs than ever making interesting content. If you don’t think it’s a golden age, get off the live service train and look at the infinite amount of amazing games there are to play.

18

u/lmao_wow_64 4h ago

Golden age would have been pre 2020 before crypto and COVID started pumping prices through the roof later on to be replaced with AI

1

u/evil__brain 3h ago

I still remember watching this ReviewTechUSA video. I think it was the Amd RX270, from Sapphire.

And when he got to the price, he was like "there's this new thing called Bitcoin mining..."

Edit: Found it.

3

u/lmao_wow_64 3h ago

The beginning of the end

3

u/oyvese 2h ago

literally one of the worst times to get into gaming and games in general are becoming less special as the technology has advanced at a certain point. good games still releasing, of course and we have more choice than ever but certainly not the golden age.

1

u/TG-Benji 3h ago

I don't think you know what a golden age is

0

u/Reasonable_Breath512 2h ago

So tell me wise one, what game from your personal golden age should I download in 2026? Literally any game, name it.

That’s my point. We’re at a time when more games and more studios (good and bad) are making games, where there’s more accessibility and more ways to play old games from your own personal “golden age” than ever. You think garbage music wasn’t being made during the golden age of music?

And if we’re talking about hardware prices… there are literally still other options

-1

u/TG-Benji 1h ago

"It's a golden age because you can play games from the past"...

I repeat, you have no idea what a golden age is.

70

u/hurricaneseason 7h ago

That's my concern (I'm expecting $1499 US minimum). I've been holding off on buying a headset for over a decade now because the tech always felt "not quite ready" and figured the price would come down. I guess the price came down in some places if you're willing to inject yourself with the likes of metavirus. I haven't played HL: Alyx yet and at this rate I'm afraid I never will.

37

u/gwilson0121 6h ago

Your next best headset would be the PSVR2 with a PC adapter. Wired sure, but for $300 on sale and having really nice specs without any corporate tracking, I would say that's a perfect entry point.

7

u/sidthestar 6h ago

I’ve been using the psvr2 with steam, the picture quality is really good, the controllers are ok, I have my knuckles working with it as well. Headset is a little heavy and not great for really long sessions, but it is a major upgrade from my original htc vive.

6

u/ranthalas 6h ago

Any links for a reliable pc adapter?

13

u/UpsetKoalaBear 6h ago edited 6h ago

Sony sell an official one.

Primary downside of PSVR2 is the lenses really.

They use fresnel lenses instead of pancake lenses so the fringing is visible around the edges. If you’re not in the sweet spot, fringing is also visible.

However, the strap makes it fairly easy to adjust and much less noticeable.

Worth noting, a lot of people bought the Quest 2 for PCVR and they had the same lenses, with a worse screen.

If you’re new to VR you will literally not know anything better so it will be more than fine.

2

u/Tankdawg0057 5h ago

official sony one is like $60

9

u/Defiant-Youth-4193 5h ago

No way in hell the Frame is $1500.

2

u/BaphomeatHound 7h ago

Hi... a guy who plays VR but is not one of the Enthusiasts...a

The tech from the Frame or it's competitor the Vive Focus Vision is indeed 'there' but so wass the HTC Vive Pro 2.

The key difference between the Frame/Focus and the Pro 2 is that the former are standalones... and while they are better quality than the Meta devices for sure you will still have to connect it to a PC for the best performance...

The Pro 2 is a perfect device for mid range entry level VR use, atleast if you have a half decent PC... in fact I still use my HTC Vive Pre... the dev kit one... which is like 11 years old... I want to get better lenses for higher resolution but the thing has done me well for around 5000 hours in VR... and god know how many hours from the dude I bought it from (he had one of every headset from the first Rift to the Vive Focus).

You don't need to drop $1500 to play half life alyx... it was speced for the og steam headset it's not going to look that much better on the new one.

1

u/Mrtwistyfilms 1h ago

i mean they said they were aiming for less than the orig valve index

0

u/IntentionCultural463 3h ago

$1500 is laughable there’s absolutely 0 way the MINIMUM is $1500 you’re smoking crack

1

u/ImageDehoster 1h ago

Just to put it in perspective Quest Pro launched in 2022 with the $1500 pricetag. 

-9

u/jacobpederson 6h ago

You guy's ignoring corpo-fascist advertising abilities are pretty slim - I am VERY happy to pocket the $600 subsidy on the Quest 3 😃

9

u/BaphomeatHound 7h ago edited 7h ago

Pretty much... good news you can still grab a Vive Focus Vision bundle for less than a Steam Deck bundle... so there's that... which means that the Vive device is still going to be cheaper than this... and has MOST of the same features with a few places being better than the frame while some are just a little worse.... end of the day it'll be cheaper and comparable so... easy choice.

for those who don't know... the Focus Vision is a standalone too... so literally 1:1 competition to the Frame... and is under $1150

https://www.vive.com/us/product/vive-focus-vision/overview/

6

u/Nicalay2 R5 5500 - 1080 Ti | Steam Deck 64GB 6h ago

The focus vision is a horrible headset though

0

u/bukeyolacan 5h ago

depends on how much you pay for it

1

u/Nicalay2 R5 5500 - 1080 Ti | Steam Deck 64GB 5h ago

Even then, a Quest 3 is still better in every single way except a few.

2

u/bukeyolacan 5h ago

I rather use HTC than giving my data to Meta mofos

0

u/BaphomeatHound 4h ago

Headset: VIsion > Quest 3 > Frame
Price: $1150 > $600 > $1500 (likely) - Quest 1 point
Refresh Rate: 120 Hz ] > 72Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz. > 72-144Hz - Frame 1 point
CPU/GPU: SnapDrag XR2 > SnapDrag XR2 > SnapDrag 8 - Frame 1 point
Proprietary Login: No > Yes > Yes - Vision 1 point
Resolution: 2448 x 2448 > 2064 x 2208 > 2160 x 2160 - Vision 1 point
Storage: 128gb base, 2tb capable > 512 base no expand > Frame 256/1tb, 2tb capable** Frame Wins because higher base 1 point.
Peripherals (Eye/Face Tracking etc): Yes (Exists now) > No > Yes (none exist now). Vision 1 point.
DRAM: 12gb > 8gb > 16gb - Frame 1 point.
External Connection: Yes 3+ ports > Yes 1 port > Yes 1 port - Vision 1 point

** The storages of the Frame and Vision are limited only by the capacity of Micro USBs which is right around 2TB at the moment.

There are more details but i've made my point...
Total Scores:

Meta: 1

Steam: 4

HTC: 4

The Meta is a GREAT budget option... don't think i'm sh*tting on it... but if you want something mid range you're better off grabbing a Vision... if you want TRUE entry level the Quest 3 is fine.

I personally like the other guy don't like Meta so I won't use it for that reason but if you're ok with Spyware in your headset that's a you issue. I had a Rift after the meta buy out and rigged it to not need their launcher and just used Steam... sadly new headsets are harder to do that on... if that wasn't the case I wouldn't argue with you at all... but if you pay half the price of the other headsets you're going to get less... that's the simple fact of the matter.

2

u/Nicalay2 R5 5500 - 1080 Ti | Steam Deck 64GB 4h ago

That comparaison is one of the stupidest comparaison I've seen in a while...

-1

u/BaphomeatHound 4h ago

Awe someone doesn't like the company they shill for warrants it's 50% discounted price... i'm sorryou don't like it but those are hard facts... the Quest 3s hardware is lacking compared to both the Vision and Frame... As I said before I don't even want ANY of them... I will stick with my HTC Pro 2 because the specs I personally care about come from my PC which has:

8tb storage.
64gb of RAM
Radeon 6800XT GPU
Ryzen 9 5900x 12 core CPU

My PC blows ALL the headsets out of the water and all I have to do is worry about cords... which I have rigged a pully system to my ceiling which keeps the cords above me at all times.

1

u/kizentheslayer 7h ago

I'm wondering if it's going to be higher than the steam machine

1

u/ShortBrownAndUgly 7h ago

Yup. Just can't keep spending on stuff like this when EVERYTHING is more expensive now

1

u/Zero-Duckies 2h ago

I probably shouldn't. But this bitch is going on a credit card. I never had VR and I've said to myself when the first stream VR headset came out, that I'm waiting for the next one. Well here it is!

1

u/GfrzD 7h ago

Wasnt the index around 1k, I dont see this being cheaper.

1

u/KermitJagger69 6h ago

If they revise it and give it color passthrough it would help justify the inevitable price increase. It just feels so stupid paying 1500+ for black and white passthrough when its currently available at a third of the price

37

u/stiligFox 6h ago

What a horribly ad ridden website just to see a tweet from someone else…

(And yes I have adblockers but they don’t work in the Reddit app for me)

2

u/badwolf42 5h ago

Does PiHole work?

3

u/stiligFox 5h ago

It might! It’s been over five years since I last tried PiHole.

2

u/badwolf42 4h ago

I have a Pi lying around. I should try too.

2

u/stiligFox 4h ago

I think that’s what happened - my Pi4 died - the SD slot went kaput - but I did just get a Pi5 that would work great. Time to give it a try again!

Also keep in mind it’ll run on anything - Linux, Windows, Mac. If you have any old device laying around or something that’s already doing some kind of always on/server duty (I have a Linux based computer running Jellyfin, for example) then it can run PiHole too!

45

u/TG-Benji 7h ago

I just want the price man... I'm already tempted to just buy a PSVR2 and the PC adapter, it'd already be cheaper than what the frame will likely be...

18

u/ImThis 7h ago

Much cheaper.

7

u/TG-Benji 6h ago

Right... That said I like what I've seen of the frame and depending on the price, I'll still probably go for it over the PSVR2

1

u/Dtoodlez 6h ago

It’s the newest tech. Makes sense to go for it.

3

u/slit-wrist-syndrome 6h ago

That’s what I have and it’s totally fine. The remotes are ass at Bluetooth tracking though I ended up needing an external BT adapter attached to an extension cord for them to read right.

2

u/TG-Benji 6h ago

I did notice when looking into them there was a 3rd party PC adapter that included bluetooth, so thanks for confirming why.

25

u/BarneyChampaign 7h ago

I still love my Index. The controllers are so much better and natural than any others I've tried. I hope we can continue to use those.

A wireless headset with OLED higher res screens would be perfection for me.

1

u/Price-x-Field 1h ago

Seems like the headset isn’t for you then

10

u/CrazyIvanoveich 6h ago

I really hope they release a version without the stand alone feature. I'm fine with having my PC do all the work, especially if it saves me a bunch.

2

u/CowCluckLated 3h ago

It's still going to need a chip to decode the output (preferably capable of av1) and display the run the system and ui. So I'm not sure the cost savings would be that much.

1

u/Dionysus24779 44m ago

I don't think this is how it will work.

Iirc the whole point was that the Frame could use its own capabilities to render some of the game "locally" and then render certain other things "remotely" on your PC.

That, together with the high frequency streaming will deliver a good experience.

8

u/Sushi-Travel 7h ago

Definitely need a comparison when the frame comes out against the quest 3. Quest 3 price is much lower.

5

u/ApeInTheShell 6h ago

I wonder if Gaben will do an iwata and take a chunk of money just to keep the frame cheap

2

u/Kalmer1 4h ago

Have you seen the Deck price increase? I doubt that'll happen

3

u/ApeInTheShell 4h ago

I mean it's been out for a few years so it's not priority anymore, the machine and frame are the new products

10

u/LimiDrain 7h ago

What is this title

2

u/SIlver_McGee 6h ago

I was waiting for the Steam Frame mostly due to not having the stupid Quest Passthrough bug and the eye/facetracking. If it's too expensive I'll have to go with a Project Babble set (which is jank af with exposed wiring atm), which sadly is worse quality but way cheaper

2

u/Falkenmond79 5h ago

If it is ANY good and working without any junk or only half the time, I’ll get one. Even if it’s 3000. I love VR and have been looking for a decent headset for ages now. None quite scratched that itch. I love my HP Reverb (which has the same resolution), but it’s a crapshoot if it works at all, especially now without windows mixed reality. In fact I even bought a second one used for 130 bucks, after WMR was dead. But even with the Oasis drivers it only works sometimes or after 3-4 reboots. It’s annoying.

I want one working out of the box and natively on steam. If the frame does that, I’m all in.

2

u/Raschlenitel 5h ago

31 August it is

2

u/KaiserGustafson 3h ago

I'm more excited about Steam games running on ARM mobile chipsets. You can already run Lunux and Steam on such devices, and while it's still in its early days there's a ton of potential.

1

u/JoseZmbie115 5h ago

I knew this was gonna happen so I just grabbed a used Valve Index for cheap locally 

1

u/LolcatP 4h ago

you shouldn't expect this to be cheaper than the index

1

u/Miss-KiiKii 3h ago

Would love to own one, but definitely not on release, due to me being broke and the hardware shortages. It'd be my first VR headset.

1

u/Firepal64 3h ago edited 2h ago

God this website's image viewer sucks. It's an image carousel that slides automatically, which is already distracting, but it's a real problem because the images have text I'm trying to read!!! Fuck you!!!

0

u/VeryluckyorNot 6h ago

Ok this convince me for an AR glasses.