It’s been a number of years coming, however Valve has lastly unveiled Steam Body, a standalone VR headset able to streaming flatscreen and PC VR video games wirelessly, and taking part in them natively because of its onboard Snadragon SoC. However earlier than you pull out your wallets, Valve is delivery out developer kits first.
Steam Body doesn’t have a value or launch date but, though Valve says we’ll be taught extra in “early 2026.” Within the meantime, the corporate is delivery out developer kits to studios trying to optimize their video games to work with the brand new machine, which packs a Snapdragon Collection 8 Gen 3 chipset able to operating Steam video games natively.
The caveat: when you can technically obtain and play any x86 recreation (VR or in any other case), quite a lot of trendy PC VR titles are useful resource intensive. Realistically, particular person builders will nonetheless must optimize their video games to allow them to work comfortably on Body. That, and the equipped controllers doesn’t supply your conventional VR button structure, as a substitute placing it at enter parity with Steam Deck and the brand new Steam Controller.
Valve hasn’t mentioned as a lot, however this additionally may imply a ‘Body Appropriate’ badge is coming to Steam video games quickly which have been confirmed to work at some minimal threshold, much like the way it handles Steam Deck compatibility. In flip, this will drive some builders to crunch down their PC VR video games extra right into a compute envelope much like Quest 3 video games.
That mentioned, Valve maintains Body is primarily designed to stream video games from a number PC, or the not too long ago unveiled Steam Machine, which will serve up the best high quality expertise because of an included Wi-Fi 6E dongle that comes together with the headset.
Extra Steam Body Announcement Protection
Valve Unveils Steam Body VR headset to Make Your Complete Steam Library Moveable: Valve reveals off Steam Body, the standalone headset that may stream and natively play your total Steam library—with only some caveats proper now.
Palms-on: Steam Body Reveals Valve’s Fashionable Imaginative and prescient for VR and Rising {Hardware} Ambitions: We go hands-on with Valve’s newest and biggest VR headset but.
Steam Body’s Worth Hasn’t Been Locked in, However Valve Expects it to be ‘cheaper than Index’: No value or launch date but, however Valve implies Steam Body can be cheaper than $1,000 for the total Index equipment.
Valve Says No New First-party VR Sport is in Improvement: Valve launched Half-Life: Alyx (2020) a couple of months after releasing Index, however no such luck for first-party content material on Steam Body.
Valve is Open to Bringing SteamOS to Third-party VR Headsets: Steam Body is the primary VR headset to run SteamOS, nevertheless it is probably not the final.
Valve Broadcasts SteamOS Console and New Steam Controller, Designed with Steam Body Headset in Thoughts: Discover out why Valve’s new SteamOS-running Console and controller will work seamlessly with Steam Body.
Steam Body vs. Quest 3 Specs: Higher Streaming, Energy & Hackability: Quest 3 can do quite a bit, however can it go toe-to-toe with Steam Body?
Steam Body vs. Valve Index Specs: Wi-fi VR Gameplay That’s Generations Forward : Valve Index was the go-to PC VR headset, however the instances have modified.
