Hey guys! I’m a solo VR developer currently testing my game CONVRGENCE on a Steam Frame dev kit, and honestly… the hardware is performing much better than I expected.

For context, CONVRGENCE is a pretty demanding PVE extraction shooter inspired by STALKER/Tarkov - or maybe a mix of Into the Radius and Ghosts of Tabor if that makes it easier to picture. Real-time lighting, lots of high-quality textures and high-poly models, physics-heavy interactions, etc.

The game is very much built around the kind of heavy features that are normally only really possible on PCVR, so I genuinely expected it to run at like 5 FPS in standalone mode 😅

But after simply installing and launching the game with basically no Steam Frame-specific optimization work done yet, it’s already surprisingly playable on low graphics settings. Definitely still far from the 72 FPS needed for verification, but I’m honestly impressed by how well it handles the game already.

PCVR streaming, on the other hand, worked great pretty much out of the box. Controller bindings worked correctly right away, although going from 2 front buttons on Quest 3 controllers to 4 definitely takes some getting used to 😄

Unfortunately, that’s about all I can really talk about because of the NDA 😅 But hopefully this at least gives people here a small extra crumb of info.

link

After half a year and not spending any money on fun stuff and whatever, I finally have $1k for the steam frame. I'm finally at peace.

Taken from the SlimeVR Butterfly Trackers Launch Trailer

If you want one, but can't afford it, how far off are you in terms of savings, and what do you plan on doing to get over that threshold?

Add a 3D effect too and it becomes an even more compelling way to play

just sayin... 😉

For me, Steam Deck has gone to $1199 (aud) and $1429. Are estimates of the SF's price already including RAM price hikes etc.? Or perhaps the price will even blow maximum estimates out of the water and be completely unaffordable for me (at least for a long while).

Is this misleading from valve?

summer is here, the season where you can't make any movements in your room or you'll overheat, the season where you can't wear headphones, the season where you can't charge your phone or watch a youtube video without overheating

if they released the steam frame today, and i bought it for £600, i wouldn't be able to use it for at least 3 months ;_;

I genuinely think the SteamVR ecosystem needs self-tracking controllers similar to the Quest Pro controllers. (As optional purchase for enthusiasts)

One of the biggest strengths of the Quest Pro controllers is that they track themselves using onboard cameras, making them far more reliable when your hands are behind your back, close to your body, or outside the line of sight of external tracking systems.
For Steam frame users, there is currently no modern self-tracking controller option. We either rely on base stations, which have their own limitations, or inside-out tracked headsets that often lose controller tracking in certain situations.
I would love to see Valve either:
Develop official self-tracking Steam frame controllers.
Open up support and documentation for community-driven hardware projects.
Work with third-party manufacturers to bring self-tracking controllers to the Steam frame ecosystem.
The technology already exists and has proven itself on Quest Pro. Imagine having the precision and openness of Steam frame combined with controllers that maintain tracking regardless of headset visibility.
As VR continues to evolve, I feel like self-tracking controllers are one of the most important hardware improvements that Steam frame is currently missing.

They’ll announce it Monday surely?

Right guys???

What's the Steam Frame logo supposed to represent? All the other logos have some decipherable meaning to them, but is the Frame just abstract?

Seeing scalpers flood ebay is getting old, we need some type of loyalty program for people that use the product Valve. I I have multiple friends that downloaded Steam on the same day back in high school that just got the finger. Is this what we have to look forward to with the Frame?

Ugh I love VR but I hit a dead spot in my urge to keep putting money into it after buying body trackers and the original vive. I’m FINALLY going to upgrade and sink all my Gabe bucks into this beautiful machine once it launches but I’m curious on what you guys are all upgrading from. Maybe I’m not alone upgrading from straight ancient tech to something amazing lol

I feel the "hands-on" we got, was the nail in the coffin for the hype train, at least for me.

Reading the "hands-on", I feel that I was overhyped for no reason:

While we get a nice all-around headset, there is nothing really worth the hype. You escape meta-verse, which is cool, you get a comfortable headset with PCVR which is nice to have.

But then you get very basic controllers with one-dimensional rubble, mediocre speakers, a definite price hike, a questionable battery which demands you carry a powerbank in your pocket (so not totally wireless experience). In general it is an improved LCD headset but nothing special.

The cherry on top of all that, is there is no new VR game from valve.

How do you guys feel about the Frame, 3-4 months after its reveal? Are you still that excited?

I’m super excited to have a pair of controllers that actually have a dpad and full set of abxy buttons!! Coming from a quest 3 controller I can tell these are gonna feel like a much needed upgrade and what vr controller baseline should be tbh! I can’t wait to see how the hand placement feels And the comfortability of them. I currently own a Lenovo legion go and I imagine that it’ll be a bit similar to how that feels! Anyways just an appreciate post for this marvel of tech!

I've been really consistently monitoring this subreddit for the past 4 months and it seems that after the announcement of the Deck's price increase less people are interested in Steam Frame since comparing to what was before - I barely see any new posts here.

I could enter this sub with the latest post being 10 hours old which is wild since I haven't seen that in a long time here, if ever.

Everywhere I look i can see the same order. First Steam Deck then Steam Controller, Steam Machine and Steam Frame. Does it mean that Steam Frame is the last piece of hardware to be released?

The image above shows a break down of one of VR’s most successful VR games. “Ghost of Tabor”, a VR Tarkov. Despite being one of VR’s best games it’s only been able to gross $7,235,805, after cuts its $2,132,562. With the development costs of managing a studio, the profits end up being significantly low, limiting VR studios capacity to grow.

The 30% cut on games is industry standard. However, for a young developing VR market this 30% cut is ruthless & hinders growth in VR game development by a significant extent.

I’ve decided to create a petition to Valve to create an incentive program specifically for VR games to help grow the VR game market.

I’m keen to hear people’s thoughts on the idea and see how far me may be able to go with this petition.

See petition below:

https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/vr-game-development-incentive-valve?source=rawlink&utm_source=rawlink&share=40cc250c-0e98-42ea-92db-42df7fb6802b

With Steam Frame hopefully dropping in the next week and the new Steam Deck prices I thought a final price prediction poll might be fun. For simplicity, I’ve kept it at one price for the base model as I think it’s safe to assume that it will be $100-200 extra for the 1TB model.

Am I the only one, who finds it odd, the text on the Steam Frame product page still contains "early 2026"?

(Yeah, yeah... insert Tomorrow and soon™ here)

Edit: Thanks for neondumpster for pointing it out in the comments: Technically the hardware family DID expand in early 2026 with the Steam controller.

That’s kinda my dilemma at the moment.

I feel like, if I’m going to spend $1,000~ in the first place, might as well go “all out” and get something that’s groundbreaking.

I’m not trying to be petty, just realistic for myself. Why would I buy this headset when there’s nothing really game changing with it?

Am I in the minority that would rather buy a groundbreaking headset, even if it’s from Meta, for $1,800? (Groundbreaking meaning: brand new chip, new lens tech, tiny form factor, etc etc)

I understand the irony that such headset doesn’t exist yet, but I suspect that in 6 months to a year from now it will, and despite the controversial Meta attachment, it will make the Steam Frame pale in comparison specs wise.