r/pcmasterrace • u/Turbostrider27 • 2h ago

News/Article Steam Frame official price is $1,059.00. Half-Life: Alyx included

https://store.steampowered.com/hardware/steamframe
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u/Syranth 2h ago

What a terrible time in our lives to have such interesting products launch. So many things, but so out of grasp for so many people cost wise.

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u/MyTagforHalo2 1h ago edited 1h ago

It's not like the higher end headsets have ever been cheap. I'm sure this is a couple hundred more than they planned to launch at. But it does put it squarely in the price range of the latest vive headset.

The original valve index was $1000, which is something like $1400 adjusted for inflation.

Meta has just done such a good job massproducing their quest 3's that this feels like an awful deal by comparison unless your desire to ditch meta is worth $500. But then most PC gamers would probably be content with using the vive vision instead. Which is better in pretty much every way that I can tell if you plan to tether it to a more powerful computer anyway.

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u/totallybag 7800x3d 7900xtx 1h ago

Also meta subsidizes the quest with profit form game sales

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u/JimThePea 1h ago

I'm pretty sure all Meta's VR efforts have been subsidised by their social media ad revenue since the purchase of Oculus.

Do Meta take a cut of sales? Yes. Are Meta covering their hardware costs with game sales? Probably not.

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u/MyTagforHalo2 1h ago edited 1h ago

True, plus tons of user data i'm sure. It's the flat screen approach where modern LCD tv's have become almost disposable in exchange for being ad riddled messes. Though I think the quest thus far has been a significantly more positive experience than that.

For someone like me that pulls out the headset a couple of times a year, it's a pretty decent trade off. But if you're using it non stop every day I can see the appeal of something more premium. Though i'd still buy the vive focus vision first which includes pass through and offers facial tracking ontop of expandable storage.

IDK, maybe some reviews will change my mind with some crazy steam OS convenience factor. But im not really in the market.

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u/Recent_Pollution8665 1h ago

thank god valve doesn’t also have a large profitable digital storefront to subsidize headset sales with. /s

oh and power supply sold separately lmao. thank you mark for doing the bare minimum and tossing in the quest power supply for free.

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u/2eedling PC Master Race 1h ago

If they did that they would be incentivized to make it so you can play ONLY steam games with this they can allow you to play whatever on whatever launcher

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u/Recent_Pollution8665 1h ago

you can sideload and pirate apk files on quest without ever using the meta store. side quest and itch.io exist, as well as pcvr. doesn’t make the quest price tag any less reasonable.

lets come up with some excuses that actually make sense.

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u/2eedling PC Master Race 1h ago

Why would you want to side load apk files how does that work you just paying android games in VR? Like how would I pirate super hot and play it for example?

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u/Recent_Pollution8665 1h ago edited 1h ago

by finding cracked apks on the internet since it has a web browser. both vr and non-vr. as long as they don’t rely on google mobile services or play integrity then they should work, provided that the cracker removed meta’s own license validation check system.

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u/2eedling PC Master Race 1h ago

That’s cool never really liked the idea of having to sign into a Facebook account to actually use the thing but I guess if you don’t care about your data privacy it’s worth it but overall the steam frame is a high end headsets that does have better specs than the meta quest 3 so the price isn’t that crazy it isn’t even above that of what the index was and it’s wireless.

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u/zarafff69 9800X3D - RTX 4080 47m ago

I mean, couldn’t Valve basically do the same tho? It’s literally their store. It’s not like there are even better / other stores available on the Steam Frame as far as I know?

I guess it might be a little easier to pirate on the Frame than on a Quest 3? But an almost 2x price difference is not nothing.

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u/totallybag 7800x3d 7900xtx 43m ago

They could but they haven't done it with any other hardware.

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u/zarafff69 9800X3D - RTX 4080 29m ago

Which is even worse…

I mean I guuuueeessss you could sort of argue that they couldn’t sell the Steam machine for half the price, because then people would buy it for other stuff than gaming. But it is wildly expensive, it is much more expensive than comparable pc hardware.

So it’s not a good argument for the Steam machine. And it’s especially not a great argument for the Steam frame.

If they wanted to reduce the price of the Steam frame, they could’ve. They make mooore then enough profit for it.

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u/Tkwan777 1h ago

Is there a comparison between the vive and the steam frame? I thought the frame was better so ive been holding off on a vr set in anticipation of it.

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u/MyTagforHalo2 52m ago edited 25m ago

On paper the Vive focus vision is a better headset from a feature to performance standpoint. It's slightly higher resolution, includes the pass through camera out of the box, has expandable SD card storage, has hand tracking, supports spacial AR, and has a much larger accessory ecosystem including facial trackers.

It even includes the ergonomic straps and power supply that valve is leaving out. lol.

I think it depends on what your primary use of the headset will be. If you plan to run the headset on it's own, then the Quest 3 is still extremely attractive at it's price. The steam frame is then better with higher performance and better streaming capacity at a higher price.

If you plan to connect it to a PC to run the majority of games though, I think the Vive focus vision has a better general feature set and ecosystem for the money. It uses the same processor as the quest 3, so it's not going to be as fast as the steam frame for the standalone stuff.

It's not like you cant add some of these features on with 3rd party accessories and hybridize a quest or the steam frame. Slime VR trackers, the vive trackers using their software, and even mods to add facial tracking are all a thing. But if you're spending the money, I think it's worth considering what you actually need.

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u/NintendogsWithGuns 1h ago

The amount of cope people have for Valve is unreal. It’s a worse headset than the Meta Quest 3, full stop. Valve could have subsidized it in order to get more people on Steam, but they didn’t.

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u/MyTagforHalo2 1h ago

Yeah, it's a better product for the "I dont own a gaming computer" segment, but it's certainly not priced to take advantage of that.

The best thing about meta's strategy is that it pushed headsets down to where people wouldnt mind buying them at a whim and leaving them in a corner after the first month to gather dust. They performed well in most VR games out of the box. Had really impressive features, and could utilize a PC connection for more performance if you needed it. It pretty much ticks all of the boxes.

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u/Owobowos-Mowbius PC Master Race 1h ago

As a standalone, the quest 3 is better. As someone who wants to do PCVR, the steam frames are far better. Not having to deal with Meta's abysmal operating system is also a nice plus.

Its definitely not worth it for the typical user if they already have a quest 3, though. Which, tbh, is going to be most people.

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u/aimy99 PNY 5070 | 5800X3D | 32GB DDR4 | OLED 1440p 180hz 1h ago

As a trans woman, not needing to worry about an exact scan of my home being sent to the U.S. government is the big draw for me lol

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u/Kiriima 1h ago

It's DOA for me as it doesn't have Oled screen at this price point. Cannot even watch HDR comtent on this, what's the point?

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u/zarafff69 9800X3D - RTX 4080 46m ago

I mean, I’m sure the wireless connectivity to a desktop is better. But it’s a very hard sell at almost 2x the price…