Solarstrike
Member
Can I trade in my Index towards purchase?
-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Valve's Next Headset Reportedly Enters Mass Production
- Thread starter IbizaPocholo
- Start date
- Rumor Game Dev VR
Crayon
Member
I am now convinced that the hardware is fine enough. The size and quality of the libraries are not even as bad as people seem to think. It's the widespread ethos about how vr games should be that is holding it back. "VRAF", as they call it. "VR as fuck". It seriously holding back the design of vr games. I have a developer friend who has been asking me for ideas for a long time (he says he feels so out of touch he doesn't even know what's fun anymore. Interesting situation.) I have some ideas to mod some standard games and try a different approach with vr design.
Buggy Loop
Banned
I mean most UE games have direct VR compatibility on PC with a quick mod and it works shockingly good. Devs should always have a VR version if they use UE.
Bry0
Member
No? You can just use steam link or virtual desktop for q3 wireless.
Magic Carpet
Gold Member
I remember when I first tried wireless with my Quest 3. It was a disaster. Nothing worked well. Glitchy AF.
Then one day I unplugged the router by accident and plugged it back in and everything worked as it should.
Crayon
Member
I'm actually talking about ground-up vr games being the problem. I want to work with mods just because it's a much easier testbed.
Buggy Loop
Banned
Buggy Loop
Banned
Btw, VR indies have it tough, it's brutal to find success in VR. I found this guy's analysis interesting and backed with data.
Crayon
Member
Idk that's what I told him but he really wants to make a vr game. He's already senior at a very successful mobile game developer.
He says everybody there is sort of lapsed gamer though because they are doing mobile all the time. They really do have leeway to be creative but have a hard time coming up with anything fun.
I was actually over with him a night because he wanted to deconstruct return fire for ideas. He used to be able to do stuff like that himself but somehow lost it. So he'll call me in to sort of get back on track.
For this particular thing I don't want to make a game though. Just want to work on some alternative principles and 'put it out there'. If he ends up using it for a game that's fine but not what I have in mind here.
awwr999999
Member
'Wireless' - the wire needs to be manually attached and removed periodically as opposed to connected just once and ignored.
Last edited:
Buggy Loop
Banned
AndrewRyan
Member
What do you think the price will be? Realistically I'm thinking $700-800 though hoping for some lower priced options.
Moses85
Member
StereoVsn
Gold Member
I think around $1K is likely if it winds up being wireless.
CentralScrutinizer
Member
Would rather see Valve go toe to toe with Sony with TV focused PC hardware. Don't be afraid.
StereoVsn
Gold Member
People keep saying this shit without putting a modicum of thought. Valve as a whole has less than 400 people employed. That's in total who work on everything Valve does from Steam client to Proton to MP games to Hardware.
They are NOT going to go head to head with Sony on a console. They may release something like a Steam Deck for TV that will be a guideline for other manufacturers.
nial
Member
They SHOULD be afraid of tanking their entire business, lmao.
BlueManifest
Member
A lot of people are missing one of the main points of this device based on rumors and it's not VR software
Your going to be able to play almost your whole Steam library on this with cool effects
Last edited:
CentralScrutinizer
Member
IMO that would be them going head to head with Sony.
How? Sony wants you on their hardware so they get a cut of all sales.
Valve doesn't care if you use their hardware, as long as you are using Steam. And their hardware isn't locked down letting you use it however you want including 3rd party stores, or pirated content. And Sony releases their games on Steam for PC already rather that using their own launcher.
What Valve really needs to do is release a Steam Controller 2 which is just the controller part of the Deck including the touch pads. Then add NVIDIA support to SteamOS, at that point any almost any computer could just use SteamOS for a TV gaming experience.
CentralScrutinizer
Member
If Valve didn't care about using hardware to expand the market for Steam, they wouldn't have made the Steam Deck. A tv focused Steam machine aimed directly at the console crowd in the next way to expand Steam. The original Steam machine initiative failed but the comparability layer is finally there to make something that meaningfully challenges PlayStation in a way Xbox can no longer do.
Zannegan
Member
I'd totally buy a SteamStation, but let's be real, they're not producing hardware at a scale that they would compete with any of the big three. Maybe someday, but it will take multiple generations of hardware trust, a huge expansion in sales driven by word of mouth, and exclusive first party franchises that aren't just beloved, but mainstream mega hits.
I'd rather Valve continue to focus on using Steam Deck, Deckard, and any eventual console as a collective Trojan horse for Proton, slowly loosening the Windows deathgrip on PC gaming.
Last edited:
For all of the success of the Steam Deck early 2025 estimates were around 4 million units sold worldwide. Maybe it's going to hit 5 million by the end of this year, that's still only 5 million over four years. It's the highest selling PC handheld, but the Switch 2 passed it in two months.
It really doesn't seem like Valve wants to be a hardware company. But they aren't afraid to do the research and release something themselves to both show how a device would work, and that there's a market for it. They especially did this with VR being on the forefront until Meta took over the market by releasing a standalone headset that was mass market.
If the rumors of the Frame (aka Deckard) are true, it has the potential to cause a massive market shift. It was mentioned above the plan is to not just be a VR headset but you let you play your whole Steam library though it. The key point is that it's ARM. Valve is working on getting Proton to a state were it can also do ARM -> x86/64. That means you wouldn't need AMD or Intel. ARM Chromebooks, tablets, phones would all potentially run Steam games. With the Epic lawsuits against the locked down appstore on Apple, well now Valve would launch Steam on iOS and Android. We'll have to see how the upcoming Android signing/registration stuff shakes out. But we may be on the verge of the death of PC gaming as we know currently know it. But who can say what direction things will take. Mini PCs and set top boxes replacing entry level systems and consoles? Tablets and phones keeping their top spot but would would be the popular games that work on their form factor? Valve wouldn't even need to keep putting out hardware, just keeping their system running on the newest devices, and people will keep their libraries going forward.
I'd have to see numbers on that. Gaming on handhelds, phones, and tablets seem way more popular than playing on a TV. How much would transfer to a VR headset, no one can really say unless it's tried.