Valve Index VR announced, Launching tomorrow

Washington-based gaming giant in the PC market Valve has announced the company’s own , new VR headset. The Valve Index is a high-end VR headset for PC and together with the actual headset, new controllers and base stations were also unveiled. All three can be purchased separately or together as of tomorrow, but it won’t come cheap.

Valve has very much been at the forefront of the emerging VR market from very early on, by going into a partnership with tech company HTC and releasing the HTC Vive back in 2016. While not being an official Valve product, the Vive immediately became synonymous with Steam VR. So, keeping that in mind the Valve Index is a true step-up for the gaming company as it’s their first official own VR device. And since Valve has been adding VR support to Steam for years now, the starting ground for the Valve Index has already been created.

You can read about the Valve Index’s features and specs in detail here. Following are some important specs for the Valve Index headset:

• Display: Dual 1440 x 1600 LCDs, full RGB per pixel, ultra-low persistence global backlight illumination
• Framerate: 80/90/120/144Hz
• Field of View (FOV): Optimized eye relief adjustment allows a typical user experience 20º more than the HTC Vive

VR devices have never been cheap and with the Valve Index sporting some of the most advanced specs in VR at the moment, it doesn’t really come as a surprise that Valve’s VR devices aren’t cheap. The headset alone costs $499 which is not that expensive on its own but its the new “Knuckle” Index controllers and Base Stations which end up a full Valve Index kit costing $999.

The Index controllers cost $279 separate and come with two innovative controllers. One for each hand. Its ability to track every finger and pressure makes them pretty much an important part of Valve’s new VR push. The new and improved Base Stations on the other hand aren’t as essential since the Valve Index supports the older Base Stations. These are priced at $149 per station.

You can buy the Valve Index starting tomorrow on Steam.