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Valve's Steam Frame is official, it's coming out soon, and - contrary to expectations when it was announced last year - it comes at a steep price. In fact, it's more expensive than the $999/£919 Valve Index VR headset in the US, though it's slightly cheaper than the Index in the UK.
The starting 256GB model costs $1059 in the US, £889 in the UK and €1049 in Europe. That's $1529 Canadian, $1609 Australian and 4539 Polish Złoty. The price includes the headset itself and a copy of Half-Life: Alyx, which has been rebuilt to run on the Frame's ARM processor as a native application - you also have the option to stream it from a PC. (If you've already got Alyx, unfortunately you can't get a second copy to share with a friend.)
If you want the larger-capacity 1TB model, the Frame is $1299 in the US, £1089 in the UK and €1279 in Europe. Again, the other price points Valve is announcing are $1859 Canadian dollars, $1969 Australian dollars and 5549 Złoty. Sadly, both of these models are the standard black model, rather than the transparent one-off shown above.
Accessories are also available, with a USB-C charger for $29, £29 or €39; an ergonomic accessories kit with hand straps, hand strap battery doors, top strap and extended light blocker for $59, £59 or €69; and an accessory replacement kit with a face gasket, a head cushion and a light blocker for $49, £49 and €59.
Steam Frame orders work exactly like that of the Steam Machine, so would-be customers can register their interest now for the capacity they want up to the 17th September cut-off date. After that, there's a one-time randomisation, with customers being placed into either a reservation queue, with the expectation that orders will be fulfilled before the end of the year, or on a waiting list. You'll receive an email confirming whether you're in the queue or on the waitlist. If you express interest after the cut-off date, you're just added to the end of the waitlist. Once your turn in the queue comes up, you have three days to either place an order or cede your place in line. The first purchase emails will go out on September 18th.
Valve told me that they're happy with the number of Steam Frame units they have in stock, so hopefully most people that are interested in the device will be able to get one before too long. That supra-$1000 price is a harsh blow to affordability, but such is the state of the post-AI world - including 16GB of RAM and even 256GB of storage doesn't come cheap.
What do you think of the price? And are you going to place an order? Let me know in the comments below.