Valve Steam Frame Nears Launch: Shipments Hit US Warehouses

Valve's Steam Frame VR headset has been coming closer and closer to release with new shipment activity, a revamped Steam interface, and early pass-through footage all emerging around the same time. When put together, these details provide a clearer indication of the headset's appearance at launch and how close that launch could be.

Just before the Steam Machine and Steam Controller launched, at least 15 Steam Frame headsets have already been delivered to US Steam warehouses. The paperwork for these packages from China includes only VR headsets, and the volumes have been large, up to approximately 3600 headsets per shipment.

Latest shipment activity suggests Valve is nearing release.

Valve has also included a section of the Steam store called Great On Frame, a dedicated page featuring titles that have been tested and found to be good to play on the new VR headset. That page currently hosts Portal 2, Aperture Hand Lab, and The Lab, and it wouldn't be surprising if Half-Life: Alyx were to make an appearance, as it's quite similar to the hardware.

Regarding release or pre-order dates, it's been said it should be released sooner rather than later, with the initial July date taken off the table. July is closing in on August, so a move to August is more and more a possibility. 

Regarding pricing, the base model should feature 256GB of storage and would probably cost between $899 and $1199, with the 1TB version perhaps being even more expensive. There is continued pressure on RAM and SSD, with the Steam Frame to be 16GB of RAM as well, similar to the current Steam Deck and Steam Machine.

We've been getting a preview of the new Steam VR interface, as a result of these leaks. This design is part of a Steam VR beta update and is currently available only through the Steam client beta. The interface looks like it will be SteamOS's future. There's footage of someone using it that shows it mirrors the current Steam Deck and Big Picture interfaces, but it's curved for VR.

Valve didn't develop an interface for VR interaction, but has mostly taken over the SteamOS look from the existing interface. It will be very familiar to anyone with a Steam Deck or Steam Machine, and switching to desktop mode is done via a dedicated button.

It's built on SteamOS 3.9 in game mode, with a gamescope session, and there are still some problems to be solved, such as the broken desktop capture and input, as well as the incomplete desktop preview feature that's been broken since Steam switched from the default X11 desktop session.

The update is a significant improvement for Steam VR for Linux.

One of the images, provided by the developer of the Steam Frame update, also shows a blue-tinted view of the environment during the headset's pass-through mode in a game. Steam Frame is a black-and-white version, unlike some competing headsets that offer color pass-through, offering a different experience.

Extra comfort during normal use is provided by the ability to see surroundings clearly, check a phone, or move around a room without removing the headset. Whether color pass-through will come to the Steam Deck will be seen by Valve or a third party is a different story. The headset's expandability does not eliminate the possibility, though.

From the confirmed shipment to the revamped interface to the early pass-through, it looks like Steam Frame is very close to launching. With the memory market in this state, pricing will surely be on the high end, and it looks like the formal announcement of a release date or pre-order window is now just around the corner as July draws to a close.