Valve Opens Steam Frame Waiting List from $1,059

Valve has opened the waiting list for Steam Frame, putting a starting price of $1,059 on its new wireless virtual-reality headset.

GamesIndustry.biz reports that Steam Frame will be offered in 256GB and 1TB versions. Both models use a 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 ARM64 chip, include 16GB of RAM, ship with two controllers and come with Half-Life: Alyx.

What’s actually going on

The headset is designed to support Android games through the Android APKs developers already use for mobile releases. Neither model includes a power supply, according to the report, so buyers will need to account for that extra hardware requirement.

Steam Frame is one of three hardware products Valve announced alongside a new Steam Controller and a next-generation Steam Machine. The waiting list gives Valve a way to measure demand before wider availability.

Why you should care

At $1,059, Steam Frame is not trying to be a casual impulse purchase. Its appeal will depend on whether the wireless design, PC integration and Android compatibility offer enough value beyond existing VR headsets.

Our opinion

Steam Frame sounds technically ambitious, but the price is doing a lot of heavy lifting. The waiting list is sensible for curious early adopters; everyone else should wait for independent testing before committing four figures to Valve’s next hardware experiment.