According to recent import records, Valve seems to be gearing up for the imminent launch of Steam Frame.
As spotted by XR analyst Brad Lynch, Valve has imported a large number “virtual reality devices” to its US-based warehouses, which can be none other than its long-awaited Steam Frame standalone VR headset.
The first Steam Frame imports arriving in Valve’s USA Warehouses pic.twitter.com/TfEO9SPo0b
As per the public records , Valve has imported some 32,000 kg (~35 US tons) of the VR devices in question, which was notably one week after the company imported 40,000 kg (~44 US tons) of “game consoles,” unmistakably its Steam Machine Linux-based PC.
In recap: Steam Frame is Valve’s VR headset which can wirelessly tether to a PC for low-latency game streaming, and work in standalone mode, making it capable of downloading and playing both traditional flatscreen games and SteamVR games optimized to work on its onboard Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset.
It also sports dual 2,160 × 2,160 per-eye LCD displays, up to a 144 Hz refresh rate, eye-tracking, optical inside-out tracking, and runs its Linux-based SteamOS with built-in Proton compatibility layer, making it capable of natively running games originally designed for Windows.
Really all that’s left is the exact release date and pricing, the latter of which could be one of the biggest sticking points for both Steam Frame and Steam Machine. Valve announced earlier this year would be delayed due to the ongoing component crisis , which has seen RAM and storage prices skyrocket.
Whatever the case, we won’t have to wait for too long to find out. Last week, Valve confirmed both Steam Frame and Steam Machine are releasing sometime this summer , which means we’re truly one step closer to knowing everything.