Steam Frame launches at $1,059 with a reservation queue and Half-Life: Alyx included
Valve's $1,059 wireless VR headset opens reservations through September 17, ships with Half-Life: Alyx, and reuses the Steam Machine queue system.
Valve's wireless VR headset is no longer a rumor with a price tag attached: Steam Frame launched on September 14, and reservations are open now through the same randomized queue Valve used for Steam Machine. The 256GB model costs $1,059, the 1TB model costs $1,299, and both ship as a kit with tracked controllers, a USB wireless dongle, and a redeemable copy of Half-Life: Alyx.
What Steam Frame actually is
Valve describes Steam Frame as a wireless VR headset and controller set built for both VR and non-VR gameplay. It streams a user's entire Steam library from a nearby PC over a dedicated 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E connection, and it also runs games natively: Valve says more than 100 titles are already Steam Frame Standalone Verified, with that list growing. The headset runs SteamOS on an ARM chip, a first for Valve's VR hardware, and pairs four grayscale tracking cameras (two of which double as monochrome passthrough) with eye tracking and foveated rendering. A MicroSD slot lets owners expand storage beyond the built-in 256GB or 1TB, and the bundled controllers use TMR thumbsticks for finer analog input than most VR pads.
Pricing follows the Steam Machine playbook
Full specs and regional pricing are listed on the official Steam Frame product page. Both storage tiers are sold as kits that include the headset, tracked controllers, and the wireless dongle; a 45W power supply is a separate $29 add-on, alongside a $59 Ergonomic Accessories Kit and a $49 Accessory Replacement Kit for the face gasket and light blockers. Valve is shipping the device directly through Steam in the U.S., Canada, the UK, the EU, and Australia, and through the distributor KOMODO in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, with South Korea still to come.
Asked why the headset costs as much as it does, Valve software developer Pierre-Loup Griffais pointed to the same supply chain pressure squeezing the rest of the PC hardware market, saying the team has been working to secure components at the best prices it can find as memory and storage costs climb industry-wide.
Reservations, not a straight checkout
Rather than a first-come, first-served sale, Valve is reusing the reservation system it built for Steam Machine, saying it found the system helpful for improving the purchase experience and limiting resellers. Sign-ups for either the 256GB or 1TB model stay open until September 17 at 10 a.m. Pacific, at which point Valve runs a one-time randomization to sort everyone into a reservation queue or a waitlist. Anyone placed in the queue gets an email with the option to buy as units become available, with the first batch going out on September 18; anyone on the waitlist moves up only as more stock frees up.
Streaming first, standalone second
Valve has been candid that Steam Frame's mobile-class chip has real ceilings compared to a gaming PC, and that the most graphically demanding recent releases will struggle on its smaller compute envelope. Griffais pointed to older and lighter titles, including last week's Metal Gear Solid Collection port, as examples of native builds that already run well on the hardware. That framing puts Steam Frame closer to the Steam Deck than to a PC replacement: streaming handles the heaviest games from a nearby PC, while standalone mode covers a growing verified library and the specially built, natively-running copy of Half-Life: Alyx included with every unit.
“I think as far as memory prices and those kinds of conditions, we're really in it like everyone else. We've been working hard on trying to get the parts that we can get at the best price possible.”Pierre-Loup Griffais, Software Developer, Valve
What has not shipped yet
South Korean availability and final regional pricing outside the six directly supported markets have not been announced, and Valve has not said how many units it plans to make available in the initial reservation batch. Until the September 17 cutoff and the randomization that follows, signing up only guarantees a place in the process, not a guaranteed purchase. Valve has also not detailed a hard shipping timeline beyond the first wave of purchase emails going out September 18, so how quickly the waitlist clears will depend entirely on how much hardware Valve can produce.
Steam Frame is here! Our wireless VR headset + controllers, available now in the following models: Steam Frame 256GB Steam Frame 1TB Sign up now and learn more on @Steam
— Valve (@valvesoftware) on X
Official links
Theo covers the business of games for Gamers6: studio moves, platform strategy and the press releases nobody else finishes reading. He files most days before the coffee is cold.
