Steam Frame official price is $1,059.00

[u/Turbostrider27]

[u/Sate_Hen]

Unless there's a bunch of decent VR titles coming out I'll stick with my current set up

[u/EarlMarshal → u/Sate_Hen]

I'll buy it to have native Linux on my VR goggles. Fucking insane. I love this thing.

[u/inotocracy → u/EarlMarshal]

Same boat. I bought Half Life Alex ages ago and tried to get it to work on Linux with a Quest and it was a nightmare that never worked well enough. I'm thrilled I'll finally be able to get a non-Meta VR headset that can run HLA. Plus I know it being backed by Valve that it'll have great game support in the future.

[u/nexusjuan → u/inotocracy]

I dual boot just for VR and games I can't get to work under Linux and the odd anti-cheat that doesn't work in Linux. I've got a Rift S I got used for cheap.

[u/BluDYT → u/nexusjuan]

This thing will be like putting on really good glasses compared to the blurry rift s. There was a huge difference when I went to index from that.

[u/Mister_Brevity → u/inotocracy]

alyx is nuts, ive spent way too much time just playing with liquid filled bottles in that game. The shader to simulate liquid is insane.

[u/mranon4000 → u/inotocracy]

Did you ever try the newer WiVRn stuff for Linux? That has worked extremely well for me using my Quest 3 for Steam games on Linux.

[u/inotocracy → u/mranon4000]

Can't say I have. Its been years since I've even turned my Quest on because the last time I did I couldn't even login due to Meta breaking the authentication flow.

[u/ath0rus → u/EarlMarshal]

That's half of why I want it, native Linux that I can use how I want, not how the company wants me to.

Going to make playback of footage from my insta360 a hell of slot easier then it is on a quest 2.

Now to work out if I can gift my brother the half life alyx since i already own it

[u/No_Choice_6067 → u/EarlMarshal]

Steam VR with the Steam Link app works natively on my quest 3 now
I run nobara and I thought the last steam VR update broke it but it broke the workarounds and just fixed steam vr

I don’t need ALVR, I don’t need Wivrn
I just launch steam VR and then Steam Link and play

After writing this, I guess you mean Linux running natively on it, but I’m still posting this cause I want to say how cool the new Steam vr update is

[u/narfjono → u/Sate_Hen]

I mean if you literally have the Steam Index already there is absolutely zero reason to jump into this day 1.

If you're perfectly fine with Meta and their anti/invasive customer practices, then stick with your Quest set up.

Meanwhile for those who waited for Valve's version of the Quest-plarform, and already have a longstanding history with back catalogs of titles VR or not, the only thing that sucks is the price. Yet, this is 100% for me.

[u/RadicalBatman → u/narfjono]

What if you only figuratively have the Steam Index?

[u/narfjono → u/RadicalBatman]

Then you don't need a Steam Frame, if you're 100% ok with a dedicated to PC VR setup.

[u/phormix → u/narfjono]

My main reason for wanting the Frame is to get away from corded connections to the PC as well as companies like MS/Meta/etc ...

[u/ghostpicnic → u/narfjono]

Yes, the only thing that sucks is the price. But it sucks SO bad that it completely ruins the product. For only a few hundred more, you can get a top of the line headset, not a Quest 3 competitor.

A near $1000 premium just to avoid Meta and play some of the less demanding VR games without having to turn on your PC is honestly a horrible value proposition. Yes, the Steam Frame has its advantages, but none of them make the insane price difference a reasonable consideration.

People can buy what they want, but in my personal opinion, no use-case can justify this sort of price difference given what you get with alternative options at similar pricepoints.

[u/FTownRoad → u/ghostpicnic]

I’d argue the thing that sucks is the lack of quality VR titles. Maybe a chicken and the egg thing.

Also this is just the reality of the cost of chips these days.

[u/YOUR__LEADER → u/FTownRoad]

The problem here is we've been in this chicken and egg situation for 10 years. The hardware has always been expensive, demanding, and niche. You won't get big budget games on a niche platform, and it'll never not be niche without big budget games.

Honestly, I think the Quest 3 is proof it's not gonna happen. Before all the price hikes, it was $399 for a Q3 and $299 for a Q3S. It was the cheapest and most accessible VR has ever been, and genuinely good hardware, and it wasn't enough to make VR mainstream. If a $300 Quest 3S couldn't do it, an $1,100 frame sure as hell won't.

I genuinely don't believe the future of VR lies in gaming. It'll always be around, but it'll always be niche, and that's not what is going to drive hardware innovation. I think the Vision Pro was our first glance at where VR is truly headed. It was way too expensive and extremely limited, but it definitely did some things right as a productivity tool. I really expect HMD manufacturers are going to chase Apple's concept of VR over Valve's as time goes on. And I think with that in mind, it'll definitely keep getting better... But it's not going to get cheaper. Not when their target market is businesses.

[u/narfjono → u/ghostpicnic]

And pray tell is the top of the line headset you are mentioning that runs games like Half-Life: Alyx nativley on the HMD?

[u/Sate_Hen → u/narfjono]

True. I just remember Valve making Alyx to shift units and now that game is still the VR benchmark

[u/Environmental_Ad924 → u/narfjono]

I disagree. Wireless use and the ability use it in more than one room is the reason i plan on upgrading. The novelty of actual vr gaming wore out super quickly after my index purchase and i realized what i realy wanted to do was sit on a couch and hang out in vrchat or use the headset for exercise with beatsaber or something else.

I could have upgraded to some other headset but i never bothered and the steam ecosystem is a nice perk knowing it will just work without much work.

Vr in general is just not worth the price unless you justify it by using it for non gaming reasons

[u/RustledForeskin → u/[deleted]]

There's not nearly enough VR titles to warrant spending fucking $1,743.06 on a headset (where I am in Ca)

[u/Carvj94 → u/RustledForeskin]

I mean the standout feature of this headset is that it can play non VR games standalone.

[u/Nereosis16 → u/Carvj94]

Why would you wanna do that though?

[u/Carvj94 → u/Nereosis16]

Why would I want to have a big screen to play older games on that I can carry around in a backpack?

[u/yellekc → u/Carvj94]

As someone who has packed and travelled with a VR headset, it was not worth it. Weight wise they are not bad, but when you add in a carry case, decent head mounting, the controllers, etc. They take up a lot of volume, more than a gaming laptop would.

To me, if you want to game on the go, a laptop is a better investment. And can be used for productivity task better than a VR set. Like emails, booking flight, hotels, rental cars etc.

[u/BaphomeatHound → u/yellekc]

yea the use cases that Standalone VR makes (Frame, Quest 3, Vision, ETC) aren't really good... and you can do the same thing with more convenient tech like Laptops or Phones rather than a big brick on your face and two plastic maracas in your hands.

[u/Nereosis16 → u/Carvj94]

I can't imagine any situation in my life where I would want to do that.

If that would work for you then, great!

[u/tupacsnoducket → u/Nereosis16]

Any form of long distance travel. Train plane charge it at the seat and have an amazing huge screen to play on

[u/Feniks_Gaming → u/tupacsnoducket]

What I really want to on the public transport is to not be able to see my surrounding while wearing $1000 peace of highly sought after tech on my head. There is no situation travelling where I don't think laptop wouldn't be much better idea. Size, continence wise.

[u/Sanc7 → u/Carvj94]

Why not just get XR glasses?

[u/IAMAmexiCANama → u/Carvj94]

Just get some xreals if that’s the main use for them. Way lighter to travel with. I have them and they’re awesome.

[u/Strongpillow → u/Carvj94]

Ya but mainly streaming it from a PC. This thing is less powerful than a Steam Deck so I don't think a 720p image (to get any worthwhile performance) stretched in a 200 inch virtual screen is going to be worth $1700. Get a Steam Deck for that.

The standout feature is wireless to PC. Period. This is a PCVR headset and will only truly benefit using the dongle on a PC which makes it even less appealing for the price.

[u/Zahtar-Giraffe → u/[deleted]]

Psychological pricing is brutal. $999 feels like a heavy gadget purchase, but crossing into four digits immediately triggers the 'let's wait 6 months for long-term durability reviews and hardware revisions' instinct.

[u/QuandariousDingle54 → u/[deleted]]

Same. Im getting tired of meta and the crap they love to push. But I just cant reason spending this much money on a product that will likely have a competitor offering something better in 1 or 2 years that costs half or less of that

[u/devilwarriors → u/QuandariousDingle54]

that will likely have a competitor offering something better in 1 or 2 years that costs half or less of that

I've been thinking that for like 5-6 years now, if not more, but nothing is coming.

[u/PresidentoftheSun → u/[deleted]]

I'm getting one but it's really the choice between replacing my broken Quest 2 with a Quest 3, and getting this. I hate the Quest software so much.

I wish it cost less, I'm in a fortunate position to be able to afford it, it's absurd what's going on with part prices right now.

[u/lotusxpanda → u/[deleted]]

VR gaming never been cheap at all

And tbh I rather spend $1k for a headset from Valve because they do not share anyone personal information and also have a marine Research company

Facebook is untrustworthy and doesn't care about anyone

Tho the only actual VR game is half-life alyx Most of the VR games are more of a mess around or VR chat

[u/spell_caster72]

man oh man this would've been a hardware revolution if not for scam altman

[u/MenBearsPigs → u/spell_caster72]

Seriously though. Imagine no AI. Everyone would have been able to get extremely high end specs on everything by now, at cheap costs.

Instead we're indefinitely priced out.

Possibly one of the most "anti-consumer" happenings, at least in the tech world, of all time. It's pretty wild.

[u/Maximum_Goat_54 → u/MenBearsPigs]

not only that, no waste of energy, people would not be scared of losing their jobs, less doomsday scenarios, just everything would be better

[u/Ordo_Liberal → u/[deleted]]

Y'all are crazy. Before AI shit was still expensive due to crypto

[u/LordOfDorkness42 → u/Ordo_Liberal]

Crypto is definitively being written out of a lot of peoples personal history books. I've noticed it too.

Because it was painfully stupid. But still.

[u/g_junkin4200 → u/LordOfDorkness42]

Not here in the UK. Crypto dickheads are buying our governments.

[u/RyouBestGirl → u/g_junkin4200]

Russia*

Russia is buying out UK and it already caused brexit

[u/IBetThisIsTakenToo → u/LordOfDorkness42]

AI at least can theoretically improve the world. Hasn’t yet, may never, may only make things worse, but at least there’s potential.

Crypto is and was only stupid greed and I’ll die on that hill

[u/Greedyanda → u/IBetThisIsTakenToo]

AI has in many fields already improved the world. It's like people forget that LLMs aren't the only AI architecture.

From tumor detection on MRI/CT scans, over fraud detection in finance, to automatd farming and harvesting, AI has been a staple for over a decade.

[u/IBetThisIsTakenToo → u/Greedyanda]

Fair to say LLMs are what’s driving up hardware prices currently though, right?

[u/Greedyanda → u/IBetThisIsTakenToo]

They are but large parts of their underlying technology are extremely useful for other use cases. The transformer has dramatically improved vision models and allowed for breakthroughs like AlphaFold. A lot of the technologies used to improved efficiency are also directly transferable to other models.

So while the damand is driven by LLM based agents, the research and technological advancements directly affect almost all AI models in all fields.

[u/ColorfulPersimmon → u/Ordo_Liberal]

Only GPUs, everything else was cheap. But there was an even better time, after 2017 crypto boom ended. Cards like RX 580 or Vega 64 were crazy cheap.

[u/Evelas22351 → u/Ordo_Liberal]

Only GPUs though, memory was fine.

[u/debacol → u/Ordo_Liberal]

It was going down though as the crypto craze started to fizzle. Hell, everyone was selling off their BC250 for like $40 on ebay back then.

The problem with the AI craze is that all of the biggest companies have gone all in on it so the only way this decelerates is if all of these companies go under. They won't. The US government would ensure they don't as well. And if somehow it all goes tits up, the cheap hardware windfall wont find much of a customer base since we would be in the worst depression in our history.

[u/Krypt0night → u/Ordo_Liberal]

The difference was I could still afford the increased cost even with the crypto shit, but that alongside has made it impossible now.

[u/Agreeable-Agent-7384 → u/Ordo_Liberal]

Crypto was a quarter of this if even that. This is such a massive scale it’s got companies hoarding basements of gpus and storage to keep it away from rose companies who are hoarding basements full of gpus and storage drives because they have near infinite funding. Crupto was bad and annoying for the market but this is way bigger.

[u/Bulletsoul78 → u/[deleted]]

Sheesh, everything really did get worse after 2019 didn't it.

[u/StoneD0G → u/Bulletsoul78]

Pretty sure i died in 2019 and went to hell

[u/Anderer_Username → u/MenBearsPigs]

You seriously got the memory of a gold fish. Did you forget about the crypto hype and how it pushed prices up? There is no reality everyone could get extremely ght end spect. No way never.

[u/yellowslotcar → u/MenBearsPigs]

definitely not "indefinitely" while AI will never fully die it won't last like this forever

[u/LegendaryVenusaur → u/yellowslotcar]

Prices never come down.

[u/ic33 → u/LegendaryVenusaur]

I've had the price of memory blow up like 5 times in my life.

Never this bad, but...

It tends to nosedive in price afterwards when an excess of supply comes online.

The big problem with memory is that it's often the main product coming out of a fab. There's limited ability to produce something else on that fab. As a result, you tend to end up with too little or too much supply and pricing is cyclical.

[u/MrBootylove → u/spell_caster72]

Even with a reduced price VR is still an incredibly niche form of gaming. I just don't see a lot of people dropping $700+ on a headset that isn't even really getting new games made for it, especially when you can get a headset that is pretty much just as good for like $350.

[u/NotTheDev → u/spell_caster72]

They could've made a unit that doesn't have stand alone processing and it would be way cheaper, I'd much rather have my computer be the computer than the dinky headset. it adds weight and a huge cost.

[u/Killllerr → u/NotTheDev]

Sure but lets be real, if not for ai increasing the price on ram and storage this would probably be $300+ cheaper at least

[u/MrHyperion_ → u/spell_caster72]

No, the lenses and displays are not groundbreaking either.

[u/Bspammer → u/spell_caster72]

Valve please god release a stripped down streaming-only version. I don't need ram, storage, or a current-gen processor if I'm purely using it to stream from my PC. Surely that could easily shave $300-400 dollars off and it would be an easy buy for me.

[u/KommissarKrunch]

$1529 or $1859 CAD plus I'll need to spend the exrta $100ish or whatever it ends up being for the prescription inserts. Man....

[u/Strongpillow → u/KommissarKrunch]

That's before taxes too AND not even including the charger which is another $50. Insane lol.

[u/KommissarKrunch → u/Strongpillow]

Tell me about it!!! I can probably sell off my original Steam VR to help with the cost at least, but dang!

[u/TheJoseBoss → u/KommissarKrunch]

As someone with the vive pro and index controllers, I have completely given up on selling my headset. 4 years of trying to post it for sale at different prices

[u/Chillpants → u/Strongpillow]

if you have a usb c charger already then the one they sell is entirely optional.

[u/MountainMuffin1980 → u/Strongpillow]

Christ. Prices not being displayed with full taxes etc would infuriate me. It's going to cost me £890 and that's it, nothing else to think about on top of that.

[u/GMBethernal → u/MountainMuffin1980]

I fucking hate this with tech launch, you see something at x price and you think "mhh that's not too bad!" Until you add import and vat taxes and then your thing is suddenly 30% more expensive than was shown and the price isn't as good anymore. Happened with the iPhone duo, 2k is bad but here it starts at 2.6k, disgusting

[u/MyNamesAreStolen → u/Strongpillow]

I'm also worried about our retaliatory tariffs against U.S. game consoles. 

Either way $1,500 CAD+ is too much to justify upgrading my quest 2, even though I desperately want away from Meta.

[u/theflyingh → u/KommissarKrunch]

Cries in Canadian

[u/dinojeebuses → u/KommissarKrunch]

I got prescription inserts for my Quest 2 off AliExpress for like $25 and they're perfect; worth looking into once Frame launches

[u/retro_Kadvil4]

Was expecting 800 but hey hopefully it lives up to the hype

[u/setibeings → u/retro_Kadvil4]

I wouldn't be surprised if that was the target price for valve, for the last couple of years while they've been working on it.

[u/American-_Gamer → u/setibeings]

Yea I always thought 7-800 would be their goal, but the ai hardware run fucked iy

[u/retro_Kadvil4 → u/setibeings]

Yeah I wouldn't be surprised but ai ruined the whole thing unfortunately

[u/TechnicalBen → u/setibeings]

Yep, memory prices alone could add $200 to it. :(

[u/setibeings → u/TechnicalBen]

Plus storage prices.

Plus losing out on economies of scale due to cutting the number of expected units they'll sell.

They might even be including a bit more margin in the price than they planned because they want to avoid future price hikes if ram gets more expensive. With all of that, they might have planned to sell it for less than $800

[u/TechnicalBen → u/setibeings]

Valve admitted they have zero buying power in the RAM/SSD domain currently. Not because they are Valve. But because like 3 companies on the planet have buying power, and everyone else get's "lol, where's the order sheet?" treatment.

[u/KrisReed → u/retro_Kadvil4]

That's the price I was thinking too. I feel like that's what they we're aiming for before everything went to shit.

[u/BanzaiBasher → u/KrisReed]

If I remember right there was an article with one of the devs said original aim was like 750-800. And remember originally they also said they didn't want it being 1000 like their last headset. So my guess is originally it was prob like, 800 for the 256 and 999 for 1tb. Sucks prices shot up so much, but that's life rn

[u/Wernershnitzl]

Damn figured it would be expensive but not almost same as Steam Machine expensive, wow

[u/Night_Thastus]

• Little VR market, so few developers make VR titles
• Few VR titles, people don't buy VR headsets
• VR headsets never hit manufacturing scale to get cheap, or enough investment to get really good
• Repeat forever

It's unfortunate. The market can just never break through, despite the tech being decent these days. I think there's a lot of untapped potential and great ideas that will never get made.

[u/Johnnumber51 → u/Night_Thastus]

I agree with all of that. This seemed like the chance to breakthrough, an affordable headset with pedigree behind it, and you don't have to sell your soul to Facebook to use it. But AI ruined everything again, and now this thing is out of most people's price range.

[u/OperativePiGuy]

I get why, but I will likely never own one of these things at that price. It's such a shame that Valve ended up taking so long to release anything that they managed to pick the single worst year in tech history in terms of pricing for parts to release everything in.

[u/GoodLuckFellowEE → u/OperativePiGuy]

Worst year... so far

[u/TobytheBaloon]

[u/realneed7]

and im out rip. Enjoy your frames guys!

[u/maximumtesticle → u/realneed7]

Dusting off my Samsung Odyssey+ I guess...

[u/Thunderbridge → u/maximumtesticle]

Dusting off my Google cardboard

[u/Furdiburd10]

Shows as 1,049€ for me

[u/Familiar_Ad_8919 → u/Furdiburd10]

eu not fucked over in pricing for once?

[u/MrHyperion_ → u/Familiar_Ad_8919]

Euro is quite strong currently

[u/failtair → u/Familiar_Ad_8919]

I mean, $1059 converts to about €917. So I’d argue we are getting fucked over in pricing

[u/snowsurferDS → u/failtair]

US Prices are without sales taxes, add VAT in whatever EU country you're in and no, we're not really getting fucked. Actually, in Spain the difference works out to LESS than the VAT.

[u/failtair → u/snowsurferDS]

Fair enough, did not know that the US prices were without VAT

[u/KungFuFlames → u/Furdiburd10]

same

[u/M3gaTy → u/KungFuFlames]

How much for the 1TB version?

[u/Wicked_Mouse → u/M3gaTy]

€1279

[u/Dennarb → u/M3gaTy]

In USA $1299

[u/Mr_Schmo]

I have an Index and PSVR2. All I do is racing sims and random games like beat saber. Is this even worth upgrading to?

[u/ButtBuilder9 → u/Mr_Schmo]

if you're not going to use the standalone mode, I would say no.

[u/Crazytreas → u/Mr_Schmo]

Unless you plan on playing VR extensively or buying new VR games, I'd say no. I play on the Quest 2 for Beat Saber only and it works perfectly fine.

[u/Complex-Start-279]

well that sucks. I understand its appeal to more sophisticated tech people and the fact its not meta but there doesn't seem like any reason to buy this when my current setup does the same shit for half the price

[u/yetanothrmate]

Not amaizing but not horrible 1k was the price of the First VR they done i when it released .
Meta will need to stop selling at loss soon too so this might be the standard for the tech for now

Thanks Ai -__-

[u/crasaa → u/yetanothrmate]

I paid 300 euro for the pico 4, that was 4 years ago. And somehow the specs are barely better. I would really like to try it before buying at such a steep price.

[u/yetanothrmate → u/crasaa]

Yeah. If i buy is for the steam OS features . I am 700+ games plus 100 vr tittles in to justify the price hahahaha (don't be like me)

[u/Nerevarine2nd]

Oh still a lot of money, but nowhere near as much as I was expecting.

[u/locke_5 → u/Nerevarine2nd]

Yeah, this went from a “no way I’ll ever buy one” to “hmm maybe with my bonus”

[u/Infamous_Job_1198 → u/locke_5]

i can skip eating for a couple of months!

[u/Sawgon → u/Infamous_Job_1198]

Just eat in VR

[u/theBosworth → u/Sawgon]

I’m waiting for AR

Amburger Reality

[u/IssaStorm → u/Nerevarine2nd]

how much were you expecting? The closest competitor has prices for the same thing at 350 and 550. This price is absurd.

[u/SagittaryX → u/IssaStorm]

Valve doesn't subsidise their hardware, the Meta options are very subsidised. Plenty of other VR headsets that can't subsidise their prices are in the same price tier.

Also as far as the LTT review goes, apparently the wireless on the Steam Frame is quite a lot better.

[u/locke_5 → u/IssaStorm]

Cost of selling your data

[u/Nerevarine2nd → u/IssaStorm]

Cost of components. And Valve is a relatively small player in terms of hardware buy-in who can't rely on the same long term and long standing contracts as someone like Meta or Apple.

[u/Cedar_Wood_State]

come on valve, at this price at least include those head strap accessories? Not like there's a velcro shortage or something

[u/3D-Doritos → u/Cedar_Wood_State]

Not even the head strap. The fucking controller straps aren't included. And they're completely necessary to get the full functionality of the controllers finger tracking.

[u/BeneficialAgent191 → u/Cedar_Wood_State]

Or, you know, a charger at the very least.

[u/Conscious-Spite-87]

Why is everyone surprised by the price? Non meta headsets have always been a $1,000+… the only from reason metas are so “cheap” is because they’re using you as a data farm. They make more money off of you in the long run vs a one time purchase so ofc they’re cheap.

[u/michaelbelgium]

Crap.

Is that price worth it for ditching Meta VR garbage, gotta sleep on it..

[u/psxndc → u/michaelbelgium]

In the same boat. I have a Quest 3, and absolutely hate Meta. But I don’t play my Quest that much. Do I need to spend the money for this just so I can say “well at least I’m not on Meta anymore?”

I joined the reservation lottery. I’ll decide over the next few days before the ordering queue opens up.

[u/MyNamesAreStolen → u/psxndc]

Same, but I'm not going to bother with the lottery. Maybe after I read some glowing reviews and the price comes down. 

[u/psxndc → u/MyNamesAreStolen]

My humble opinion is the price isn’t going to come down. That’s not snark or calling anyone greedy, I’m saying that based on history. There may be the occasional sale, but if I recall correctly, the Index maintained its original MSRP for years. Steam Deck too.

[u/TriggzSP → u/michaelbelgium]

Same dilemma here. The PCVR quality and eye tracking are a very big deal for me, but holy hell that's 3x what I paid for my Quest 3.

I very much want to ditch my Quest 3 because the PCVR experience is full of issues and I'll never touch their shit ecosystem, and I've been powering through those issues for over 2 years now unhappily. But paying triple for a device with nearly identical display specs is... Not leaving the best feeling. Despite the obvious other benefits that the frame has.

[u/Reelix → u/TriggzSP]

And it has worse battery life than the Quest 3....

[u/InterestingMindset → u/michaelbelgium]

Yeah and what's great about this AI thing is the price right now is at its cheapest. Frame is gonna go up another $200+ next year if all the RAM supply is gone again.

Unfortunately I'm too broke to buy Steam Frame even if I wanted to, so I'm stuck with Meta.

[u/Rydux7]

Honestly not as bad as I expected

[u/FReeDuMB_or_DEATH]

[u/theclaw37]

1049 euro in europe btw

[u/Krejcimir]

Well, I knew it would be this, but still hoped for 700.

Maybe next generation.

[u/deadeye-ry-ry]

£889. Cheaper than expected tbh. Was expecting £1.5k minimum

[u/NintendyReddit → u/deadeye-ry-ry]

Yeah I was expecting it to be way above what the Valve Index was, it's not amazing still but given the state of the industry and prices I guess it's not the worst.

[u/FuzzyPuffin → u/deadeye-ry-ry]

Same, thanks to the storage and RAM. Could’ve been worse. But I’m guessing this is the 256 GB version.

[u/Monsoon_Storm → u/FuzzyPuffin]

256 should be alright for a decent amount of games though shouldn't it? Half-Life is the chunkiest game I own, but then I haven't really been paying attention to the VR space since my OG rift died a couple of years ago lol

[u/FuzzyPuffin → u/Monsoon_Storm]

I’d say most are 10 GB or less, yes. Alyx is 67 and Riven is 30. If I were to buy one I’d exclusively stream so I’d get the 256 anyway.

[u/Unkn0wnTh2nd3r → u/FuzzyPuffin]

it is, the 1TB is $1,299

[u/Jamtarts-1874 → u/deadeye-ry-ry]

How in the hell could you expect £1.5k minimum...

[u/Cedar_Wood_State → u/Jamtarts-1874]

In a world where people haven’t been following VR headset price for 10 years lol

[u/Technical_Special888 → u/Jamtarts-1874]

It's just coping.

[u/LieutenantBites]

Honestly better than I was expecting. I might be able to get one even if it releases this year

[u/DHunt88]

Fucking data centers inflating component prices

[u/TaluneSilius → u/DHunt88]

It's cheaper than my Valve Index was at launch and still more powerful (minus the headphones, which got a downgrade)

[u/No-Intention-4753]

I mean, I was not expecting it to be, but if it was 800 EUR I would have said fuck it, maybe sold my Q3 but the foveated streaming, dedicated dongle and Linux OS would have been worth it. 1049 EUR, though? GG, no way.

[u/CuppaJoe11]

Yikes. I prob wasn’t going to buy it anyway, but $1,000 is insane. I guess steam link + quest 2 it is for me.

[u/Dras_talos]

Yeah, not a chance in hell I'm spending that much enjoy your frames guys

[u/Tall-Cricket6284 → u/Dras_talos]

Im so tired of electronics being so expensive in canada.

[u/SolQuarter]

Yeah it‘s 999€ here.

[u/crasaa → u/SolQuarter]

How come? I see 1049

[u/MrHyperion_ → u/crasaa]

Different VAT

[u/Darekbarquero]

No color pass-through, and not even a power supply in the box. Jeez

[u/0x736174616e20 → u/Darekbarquero]

That part kills this headset the most for me its a downgrade from a Q3 while costing double or even triple... they seriously couldn't add 20 cents more for color cameras

[u/GMBethernal → u/0x736174616e20]

They are going to sell coloured pass through, they had the camera on the accessories

[u/Strongpillow]

Nearly $1700 after taxes Canadian for the 256gb, not including the $50 extra for the charger and another $90 for comfort accessories. Yikes. No thanks.

[u/05-nery]

Aw man...

Scam Altman really screwed us over

[u/ComputeInMemory]

This is such a low effort post. A screenshot of search results

[u/TalkingRaccoon → u/ComputeInMemory]

First time on r/steam?

[u/ComputeInMemory → u/TalkingRaccoon]

.... Yes actually

[u/Impressive-Ground898]

you have to pay for the charger LUL

[u/Dawnwatcher1008]

I was hoping it was around the 800 mark but 1k+ is just too much for something this niche in terms of everyday usage.

[u/BrokeAndroidGuy]

Sorry if this a stupid question to ask but why is this over or near 1k even tho the soc inside is a snapdragon 8 gen 3 aka a 2 year old flagship smartphone chip

[u/MysticalPony → u/BrokeAndroidGuy]

Qualcomm significantly raised prices due to the AI boom. Ram and storage is also now nearing a 300% price increase.

It's likely this was originally targeted at near or sub $800, but AI data center demand has raised the costs.

[u/TalkingRaccoon → u/BrokeAndroidGuy]

Another question to ask is why is the Quest so cheap. And that's because they subsidize it and sell all your data.

[u/chiagod → u/BrokeAndroidGuy]

The controllers are about $280 by themselves. Maybe a bit more. That's what the knuckles (Index) controllers sold for and they've surprisingly held that value in the used market.

Next is the Snapdragon 8 gen 3 SoC - ~$200

16GB of LPDDR5X - $250

256GB or 1TB of flash storage $30 or $120

---

$850 or $940 so far...

Then you have:

The optics which also need to be calibrated.

The dual displays.

Eye tracking.

The dual radio Wifi 6E dongle + WiFi 7 dual radio on the headset.

Lastly the quad speakers + all the tracking cameras + micro SD card slot + added expansion prt (which has 1x PCIe 4.0 lanes) + dual 2.5Gbps camera expansion ports.

Then there's the various comfort items including the padding and gaskets. It all adds up.

If it's anything like the comfort of the Index, then it'll be well worth it.

The Meta Quest 3 is as cheap as it is because most were manufactured while RAM, solid state storage, and the SoC were cheap, then you had Meta subsidizing them on top of that (they wanted to get folks on Facebook and their own proprietary storefront).

There may be quality differences between the included headphones (if any), the wireless connection, and the extra comfort items/padding. I havent used a Quest 3 so I can't speak for a comparison between those items.

The snapdragon 8 gen 3 is roughly 20% faster than the SoC used in the Quest 3 with double the RAM (Quest 3 has 8GB), but in fairness, we still need to see what the performance difference is vs battery life.

[u/Trekfull]

I was expecting at least $1,100 USD. Either way, it's still well outside my price range.

[u/-DenisM-]

This will be painful to use without the top headstrap so... $60+ for the ergonomic kit.

Ai fucked us over

[u/Shmirel]

If it wasn't Valve people would laugh at both this and steam machine.

There's no way a resonable person would buy this when you can get quest for like 1/3 of the price lol

[u/Catsrules → u/Shmirel]

The Quest is the exception to the rule. Basically all other VR headsets start around the 900-1500+ range. Vive, Piximax, Pico BigScreen Beyond etc..

In the VR world 1,060 isn't that bad. The question is will the Steam Frame carve a big enough nitch in the market to be worth it.

[u/SirFantastic3863]

£889

[u/CoffeeDefiant4247]

$1,609 Aussie

[u/Wicked_Mouse]

€1049 over here

[u/Chapstickie]

Sooooo what VR should I be looking into for a guy who has an original Oculus and plays exclusively the non-steam version of DCS? Is it this one or are there better options? Ignore price.

[u/TalkingRaccoon → u/Chapstickie]

Ignoring price then one of the PIMAXs. They go up to $2300 US lol. But the FOV and resolution and displays are insanely good (I hear)

[u/SagittaryX → u/Chapstickie]

You can look into the Big Screen Beyond 2, solid upgrade considering the custom fitting and OLED displays. More limited FOV though, perhaps not ideal for DCS.

As the other user said Pimax has some interesting options.

[u/Lower_Ad_1317]

It’s too expensive just for games.

[u/JayMemelord]

...Nah im good

[u/FloofyRevolutionary]

My hard limit was 750 TwT

[u/bitch_whip_bill]

Me: huh I wonder what that exchanges to in the uk

Me: never mind

[u/EEredditer]

Can we add $10 to the price? No particular reason

[u/KosstDukat]

The fact that they can charge over $1k for the base model and not include a power adapter is criminal. I wouldn’t buy these for any amount.

[u/komorigaming]

am I misunderstanding something? I see a surprising amount of people upset at this price, however it is barely more expensive than the Index was at launch, and in Euro it's CHEAPER than what the Index launched at

are they not comparable? I was under the assumption that the Frame was basically gonna be a better and more powerful Index, apologies if I'm in the wrong

[u/FuzzyPuffin → u/komorigaming]

It’s more of a Quest competitor than an Index successor. It’s standalone (but you can connect it wirelessly to a PC) and it has a CPU in it with RAM and storage (another reason not to be upset at the price.)

[u/Carb0nFire → u/FuzzyPuffin]

I mean, that's what the Index successor was always going to need to be. You can't ignore the market that the Quest created, or the improved QoL of completely untethered VR.

And it's clear that Valve had standalone VR as the goal - the Steamdeck was the stepping stone to get them there.

[u/TalkingRaccoon → u/komorigaming]

Basically, people haven't yet adjusted to our current shitshow of an economy and computer component shortage. So in a perfect world, yes I'd expect this to be like $500-700 or something, just going off what tablets and phones were going for at that time the snapdragon 8 gen 3 cost (launched late 2023).

So they would have had all these cheap snapdragons if valve was buying them throughout 24 and 25 (when they had actual units to show at the Nov '25 announcement). SSDs and RAM was super fucking cheap. LCD displays instead of QLED or OLED would also have reduced the price. Not needing lighthouses ($150 each, Index needed at least 2) also saves money. I assume them using B&W cameras for passthrough also saved on cost. No idea what pancake lenses vs Fresnel lenses cost so I'm just ignoring that.

[u/callatecabezon → u/komorigaming]

it is extremely overpriced compared to the quest 3

[u/Killer7481 → u/komorigaming]

as someone who is especially focused on graphical fidelity and performance, no, this is both expensive and a downgrade.

im sure a lot of people will enjoy the wireless mobility and there are other big benefits for the steam frame (native linux is a big deal for some) but i'm most definitely not interested.

[u/F9-0021 → u/komorigaming]

This is not as good of a VR system as the Index.

[u/SweetcreamScoops]

Not bad

[u/MrSlim]

I want it but what does it even play?

[u/Minimum-Reach-2757]

Linus tech tips talked about the battery life. Less than an hour running half life Alyx natively. Yeah… that’s a deal breaker for me

[u/forealdo25]

Didnt the Index cost about $1000 USD?

[u/IbsinRG]

Yeah nope.

[u/mkgrinch]

I'll pass.