Valve surprise revealed the name of its new virtual reality headset with a new section of the Steam store set up to show off an image of the device, its name, and a timeframe of May 2019, though what’ll happen during that time is not known. The page shows an image of someone holding the VR headset which is called the Valve Index, according to the name at the top of the device, and also says “Upgrade your experience” above the May timeframe.

The site for the Valve Index offers few other details on the headset at this time aside from the information mentioned above. It appears it has a slider for configuring interpupillary distance, a feature seen in other VR devices. Whether the device goes on sale in May, is released then, or is simply fully revealed in that month, more information on the headset will surely be made available by then. The URL for the site already has “sale” in it, so perhaps those interested in Valve’s new headset will be able to pre-order their device sooner rather than later.



Reports of Valve’s work on a new VR headset have circulated for a while now from places like UploadVR. In one such report from November, the site provided information on images of what was said to be prototypes for Valve’s headsets and said its own sources could verify the authenticity of the images. The same report also suggested that Valve was working on its own handheld controllers that would go with the headset which were referred to as “Knuckles.” Whether the headset seen early on is indeed the Valve Index or whether the Knuckles controllers are real and still in the works remains to be seen, though it’s at least now been confirmed that Valve is indeed working on a VR headset.

The HTC Vive is often associated with Steam, though the headset isn’t owned by Valve. With the headset just now being revealed, it’s unknown what games Valve may be working on to go along with the release of the Index. UploadVR’s initial report did suggest that a VR game set in the Half-Life series was in the works, so perhaps that’ll be a launch title.

Posted: Mar 30, 2019 2:43 pm
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/2019/03/30/valve-index-vr-headset/