Valve's long-awaited standalone VR headset, Deckard, could be here before year's end according to word on the street from China

Valve Index virtual reality headset on a table front right angle. — (Image credit: Future)

According to a Chinese analyst group called the XR Research Institute, Upload VR reports, Valve Deckard is set to ship at the end of this year during the holiday season. Mass production has apparently begun, and 400,000–600,000 units are expected per year.

Deckard, for those unaware, is Valve's long-, long-, long-anticipated VR headset that's expected to be a standalone device not requiring PC power, unlike the Valve Index. We first caught wind of it back in June 2022, thanks to a December 2021 patent application.

A Valve HMD Patent Application diagram (Image credit: Valve)

Thankfully, if this latest report out of China is to be believed, we might be seeing sight of, and potentially even getting hands on, Valve Deckard headsets before the year is out. Some believe it might be called the Steam Frame rather than Deckard, when all is said and done, thanks to Valve applying for a 'Steam Frame' trademark and SteamVR code recently renaming certain things to "Frames."

The naming doesn't matter, really. What matters is that we might be getting a new VR headset from Valve. And just in case I need to spell out why that's so important, here are two points worth noting.

First, the Index was absolutely fantastic when it launched, but it's a little old now. Second, Valve has had plenty of practice perfecting budget hardware with the Steam Deck. Deckard could end up being a budget VR headset to compete with the Meta Quest 3S, for instance.

However, Upload VR points out that the 400,000–600,000 unit per-year figure aligns more closely to an Apple Vision Pro device than a cheaper one. That might put Deckard in line with how the Index was priced at launch, i.e. bloody expensive. But it was also bloody well-built and a step above the competition at the time, so it's swings and roundabouts, really. Whatever the case, we might not have long to wait to find out.

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Jacob got his hands on a gaming PC for the first time when he was about 12 years old. He swiftly realised the local PC repair store had ripped him off with his build and vowed never to let another soul build his rig again. With this vow, Jacob the hardware junkie was born. Since then, Jacob's led a double-life as part-hardware geek, part-philosophy nerd, first working as a Hardware Writer for PCGamesN in 2020, then working towards a PhD in Philosophy for a few years while freelancing on the side for sites such as TechRadar, Pocket-lint, and yours truly, PC Gamer. Eventually, he gave up the ruthless mercenary life to join the world's #1 PC Gaming site full-time. It's definitely not an ego thing, he assures us.

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