Valve has said its new Steam Frame VR headset, despite costing nearly £900 for a base model, is intended to “expand the market” of virtual reality headsets. That’s both because it’s lightweight and standalone, but also because it addresses a fundamental and long-running problem VR headsets have had.
“For a long time, VR has turned itself into an accessory for your PC,” Valve software engineer Jeremy Selan told Eurogamer in an interview ahead of Steam Frame’s pricing announcement, “or in the case even of standalone, something that you have to decide to do first. Like, you might say, ‘I want to play a non-VR game on my TV or on my PC,’ or, ‘I want to go try this specific VR experience.'” Regardless, it’s an either-or situation – one or the other.
“From the outset of this product, we were really looking to do something new and to try to make customers not have to think if they wanted to do VR or non-VR games,” Selan said. Therefore, a much bigger emphasis has been put on your ability to easily switch between VR and non-VR games – or movies or web browsing – while using the device.
“The non-VR experience is something that I use all the time,” Selan went on, “and it’s so comfortable because of the ergonomics of the controllers, the lightweightness of the device where you can carry it and use it in a bunch of rooms. So I find myself with this device for the first time putting it on, not even having decided what I’m going to play.
“I have the Steam catalogue in front of me – of course it’s your computer and you can install non-Steam games – and I could just say, ‘Am I [in the mood for] this non-VR game? Am I in the mood for this VR experience?’ And you can sort of jump back and forth. And so this friction of ‘am I going to bring out my VR device or not?’: if you’re already in it, the friction is zero. So I find myself playing a lot more VR and a lot more non-VR simply because of the intermingling of this device.”
Matt picked up on this point in his Steam Frame review, and it’s these aspects, coupled with its physical design, that make Steam Frame potentially a broader market device, according to Valve. “It’s absolutely our goal to expand the market,” Selans said.
Valve hardware engineer Joy Lyons added: “The idea here is that we want to have gamers be able to access more content through the Steam store and across all these different systems … We see this as a product that’s growing. This is obviously a great product for our PC VR users, and we love them and support them, this is for them, but we also see this as also a broadening of intent also for developers and then also for gamers just to have more access to more content and a really sort of premium experience in a VR headset.”
Nevertheless, a base price of £889 for the 512GB Steam Frame model is a high hurdle to clear – a hurdle Valve’s Steam Machine had to contend with earlier this year. The component shortage crisis is largely responsible for Steam Frame’s delay from an early 2026 release. “We very much had to adjust the price targets and the volume targets and that’s the reality,” Selan said. “But we still believe at the current pricing it’s a super compelling product. It’s a great value. It’s an amazing piece of hardware.”
Joy Lyons added: “If all hardware is unaffordable then no one is able to enjoy or release or do anything. So, if anything, it’s more important to be able to provide equipment that we’re really excited about and we think moves forward the gaming experience.”
Steam Frame headset reservation sign-ups are now open, meaning that if you want a chance to buy the device, you can sign up and then wait to see if you’re randomly selected to order it – an ordering system Valve has used before to cope with high demand and limited supply. And you can read Matt’s full Steam Frame VR review elsewhere on the site.
