But they did with both Index and Steam Deck.
So Valve and Apple agree to high volume OLEDS which brings the price down. This is how it works whrn your target is in the millions. Apara and MeganX are small time players that wouldnt buy more than 10000 units each. No one would build a fabrication plant for that number.
Even Sony put out a video showing off their 4k microOLED some time ago but never used it in the PSVR. At least my camera has a 4k display in it. Lol
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Index is end of life. No one else making sub $1000 gen 3.0 PCVR headsets. Valve wants to support its own ecosystem. There are plenty of reasons for Index2 but the biggest reason is because lots of people want it.
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Not really Gaming Handhelds are nothing new. In fact recently saw a video on Youtube of one that was out back with Windows XP.
Even with the Index they simply took matters in there own hands after LG bailed on them with the Ultragear and there attempts to get hardware DeVs to buy there SteamVR DeV kits.
They already had the shared research from HTC and LG. So it was a choice and has helped them with others adopting loose SteamVR tracking support.
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Is it? Not judging by RoadToVR by your own posting. Index will be heading to End of Life when the sales no longer support it to be manufactured… And so far it is still selling strong enough.
Valve can remain focused on the Steamdeck game support. Now I can see Valve consider a successor to the Index Controllers sooner than the hmd. Valve will likely wait for a company to partner with them. As they don’t really need to sell hmds themselves when software can yeild better profits and less risks.
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I’ve always thought that anything Valve does is a result of its strategy to attract people to their Steam ecosystem. I think the Index was Valve’s intent to show the world what good VR could look like and attract players to the VR part of their Steam system. And even now in 2023, leading magazines like RoadToVR still rate the Index as THE best VR system currently available. Now, that might finally change with the release of the PSVR2, if it’s really going to be the Index killer that people say it is, then Valve might start to lose market share to Sony. And even though VR is still niche, I don’t have any doubt at all that VR/AR is the future of gaming, so it SHOULD worry them. Hopefully (and I think it might) this serves as motivation for them to release a new killer VR headset in the foreseeable future.
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That’s where I’m at.
Gaming is more fragmented than ever. PCVR, Consoles, Handheld, Mobile phones, Stand-alone VR all pulling money away from Steam and with GPU prices becoming obscene the PCVR grass roots are being priced out of the market.
Valve dipping it’s toes into hardware is the only way to get back to sowing the seeds for future generations. Keep Steam open to all headsets, release a dedicated PCVR HMD, release a handheld that uses Steam, next release a Stand-alone that uses Steam. All bases are covered with the focus all on Steam.
Then you create a killer App that’s so optimised it can scale to any device hooking a new wave of fringe players that may of started on other devices.
Other manufacturers have learnt the formula namely Meta and HTC but Meta gave up on PCVR too fast and will have to come back down the line. HTC has no killer titles to make me sign up to Viveport.
Only Valve retains the magic formula and as long as GabeNs alive nothings going to change. Lay the foundations, build strong walls and then top out with a chimney that can send out the smoke signals.
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Sony are the only other company along with Valve that understands the formula but they gave up on their handheld too early. Maybe they’ll do a Valve and release a PS5 compatible handheld as they have the same AMD roots and make a VR stand-alone. But for now Valve are solid.
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@Atmos here is a positive topic you can focus on with Valve’s recent interview.
Sure it still doesn’t confirm Deckard Rumours but does confirm.there still playing with vr hmd designs. So maybe mid 2024 we might see something then.
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I hope they release 2 headsets.
One pure and simple for direct PCVR.
The second for next year. A Steamdeck compatible stand-alone with separate battery pack.
Imagine they did a hybrid like the portal, would be hilarious.
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Do you mean like a Portal View?
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Portal has been getting some reviews lately and is remarked as one if the most powerful Android handhelds.
Personally I think using a small brainbox would work well inatead of cramming everything on the hmd.
To that point there was an Amd standalone hmd years afo called Sulon-Q iirc the name correctly. Used early Amd Apu.
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I think Steamdeck can kill two birds with one stone. Valve wont be locked into a VR only chip in the same way Meta are with Qualcomm. A Steamdeck 2 or Steamdeck Pro SKU would be good enough to power a new standalone HMD and cut costs. i just hope they have a removeable/replaceable screen from the APU and sell the parts seperate so it becomes modular and upgradeable.
Well if you have seen the specs on the Asus Rog Allie or even the the new ultimate Rog phone that has a much more powerful chip then the XR2 it could be interesting. The new Rog Phone while doesn’t have a VR insert does have a gaming controller hand held dock.
I can see the Portal likely to have some Android competition. Even with the Fact Nintendo is said to be working on a new Switch 2 with by the looks pf it may have a new Nvidia custom Tegra chip. So I imagine the New Switch will likely also have an actual VR mode vs the after thought VR Labs add on.
Tbh it is surprising Nintendo didn’t do something earlier. However it seems Nintendo is coming out swinging going after all kinds of things like the Mod for Zelda multiplayer and a variety of leaked content.
Mario seems angry. 
I suspect Valve will wait fir the sucessor.to the Steamdeck to go after 2 birds.
Though with some of the new hmds might work to use Android Emulation with an Hmd peripheral to have a kind of AndroidVR.
This hmd hitting Kickstarter looks interesting even though it is very low FoV at 70 but has a ppd of 52 and not stuck as a VR only device. And what looks to be a quite reasonable price point. Not really a threat to anyone but a cool product for it’s current price.
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