The virtual reality market has grown over the years, and depending on your budget, there’s probably a VR headset out there for you. But can your VR gaming budget stretch to over $1,000 for the entry-level Steam Frame headset, and is it even worthwhile? That’s the question GameSpot’s senior video producer Kurt Indovina set out to answer, and after spending some time with it, his main takeaway was that it’s the best VR headset he’s ever used, and possibly the last one he’ll ever own.
“Having used this solid piece of tech for a couple of weeks now, it’s been great to replay things like Half-Life: Alyx or booting up Ghost Town, or fiddling around in Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades,” Indovina explained. “It’s also been a time of reflection for VR as a whole, from where it started, where it went, and where it currently sits now. I’ve been an advocate for VR for a while. I’ve made plenty of videos about VR. In fact, the first GameSpot video I ever appeared in was for Five Nights at Freddy’s VR.”
“But for all of the love I’ve given VR, my gripes with it seem to be never-ending. I’ve been very vocal about how companies have stunted the growth of VR and are trying to chokehold the market with their product. Meta putting out the most affordable and accessible headset only to commit, for lack of a better term, public suicide by investing everything into the metaverse, favoring a dystopian weird social life and alienating people who just want to play games.”
But if you look at the Steam Frame in a vacuum? “It rules,” Indovina said. “I’m sure this thing will get support for a lot of other cool games. It’s great.”
The Steam Frame isn’t the first time that Valve has launched VR hardware, but compared to 2019’s Valve Index, this standalone wireless headset is a major leap forward. It offers inside-out tracking, improved streaming support, onboard processing, and Android compatibility, but it is one of the pricier models on the market right now. It’s still cheaper than Meta’s next foray into virtual reality, as the Facebook parent company recently unveiled its new $1,300 Meta VR Glasses, with a flashy trailer that didn’t even mention VR gaming.
But if you’ve got the cash to flash and you’re purely interested in gaming, the Steam Frame is worth considering, if you can get your hands on one, since they’ve sold out surprisingly fast. If you wear glasses, you’ll also want to double-check your frame and avoid making an expensive purchase for high-tech VR gear you can’t use.
