While the recently unveiled Steam Frame is far from the first VR headset Valve has worked on, the company has said that it the new headset won’t be like the Valve Index. In an interview with PCGamer, Valve engineer Jeremy Selan spoke about how the Steam Frame is an entirely new product, which is also why it doesn’t share a similar name to the Valve Index.
“This is a new product. That’s one of the reasons we changed the name from Valve index to team Frame, because we’re trying to do something new with this,” said Selan. “We’re really trying to blur the lines from your catalogue, where you just think about, you have your games, this is another device that lets you enjoy them. So I don’t want to put too many sort of preconceived expectations on how people will use this.”
One of the major things that sets the Steam Frame apart from the Valve Index is the fact that it has its own built-in hardware that is capable of running games on its own. The Index, on the other hand, was built to be an accessory for those that already own gaming PCs.
“If you think about the Valve Index, awesome device, I worked on it myself, as did Jeff,” he said, referring to fellow Valve engineer Jeff Leinbaugh. “We’re really proud of it, but it always was sort of a companion to the PC.”
The Steam Frame has also been designed with the idea of reducing the amount of friction that is typically associated with VR gaming. While the Index needed players to go out of their way to set up all the hardware to work with their PCs, the Steam Frame can instead simply be worn, which ends up with players presented with options for the kinds of games they want to play.
“I think in the Valve Index era, I would have to think about, before I picked up the device, what I wanted to play,” Selan explained. “Do I just want to enjoy a non-VR game? And I would pick up my Steam Deck or go to the PC. Or do I want to play a VR session? And then I’d turn on the base stations, walk over to the room that had my Index and play that. I find myself now with this device much more so just throwing it on before I know what I want to play.”
While the company might be getting ready to release its new VR headset, it has also confirmed that it is not working on a first-party experience that would help showcase the Steam Frame’s capabilities. This runs counter to Valve’s habit of typically releasing its own games to showcase its hardware, like Aperture Desk Job for the Steam Deck, or even the critically-acclaimed Half-Life: Alyx, which while playable on any VR headset, also made use of the special features of the Valve Index’s Grip controllers.
Along with the Steam Frame, Valve also unveiled other hardware – a gaming PC dubbed Steam Machine, as well as a new controller, dubbed Steam Controller.
