Valve Prices Steam Frame at $1,059, With Local Play and PC Streaming
Valve has priced its Steam Frame VR headset at $1,059 for the 256GB model and $1,299 for the 1TB model. The Verge
Regional prices follow the same two tiers. The 256GB version costs $1,529 CAD, €1,049, £889, $1,609 AUD and 4,539 zlotys. The 1TB version costs $1,859 CAD, €1,279, £1,089, $1,969 AUD and 5,549 zlotys.
Every Steam Frame includes a copy of Half-Life: Alyx. Valve has ported Alyx to run natively on the headset, meaning on its own chips, as well as streamed from a PC. The Frame can run flat-screen and VR games locally, and it can stream flat-screen and VR games from a PC.
Valve will sell the first batch through a lottery and waitlist. Sign-up closes September 17 at 10AM PT. People picked in the lottery can buy starting September 18. Once offered a unit, buyers have 72 hours to complete the order.
Looking at what this means for developers, the central point is the two equal paths. A native version must fit the heat, battery and storage limits of a headset. A streamed version can lean on a stronger PC graphics card, but it must survive video encoding and network delivery without lag that breaks immersion. Teams will need to plan for both from the start.
In my view, the Alyx port matters more as a practical guide than as a free game. It shows how Valve expects a full PC VR title to be scaled to run on headset chips while still matching the streamed version. For other studios, that working example will likely teach more than a spec sheet. It maps what should run locally, what should stay on the PC, and where to hand off.
The broader context here is storage. The $240 gap in the US comes down to how you keep games. Titles installed on the headset use space fast, especially with detailed textures and audio. Streaming leaves that storage on the PC. People who mostly stream can stay with 256GB. People who want portable sessions with no PC involved will need the headroom of 1TB.
Worth flagging for launch planning is the lottery timing. With a September 17 cutoff, a September 18 start and a 72-hour checkout, Valve is smoothing the first rush into orderly sales. Labs and small studios that want units should register early and have purchase approval ready. Miss the window and you fall back to the waitlist.
The long arc here is encouraging. A headset that handles local and streamed play, for both flat and VR games, lowers setup work. One device can serve as a portable system and as a display for a workstation. That flexibility makes testing cheaper, which is often how useful software gets built.
