Without any sort of announcement, a teaser for the Valve Index has appeared on Steam. It is clearly Valve’s VR headset.
The only text in the teaser reads “Upgrade your experience” and “May 2019,” so presumably that’s when the Index will go on sale, given that the word “sale” is in the URL.
The headset has been rumored for a while, and became just about a sure thing when convincing-looking images leaked last November. Before that, in March of last year, Gabe Newell said he was jealous of Nintendo’s ability to produce both hardware and games, which was a strong hint. Valve also announced in 2017 that it’s developing three new VR games, and presumably one or more will be tied to the Index’s release.
Additionally, SteamDB took note of the Steam database listing earlier this year, and found the logo in a trademark filing before we knew what it referred to:
„Valve Index“ now has a logo, as part of its trademark filling.What could Valve Index be? 🤔https://t.co/plswEZDebv pic.twitter.com/RzVnCME16cJanuary 24, 2019
Even though it was heavily rumored, I’m a little surprised we’re seeing Valve’s headset so soon. Over the past several years, Valve seemed to be flirting with the idea of becoming a hardware company, but not fully committing. With its own headset, it’s taking a big step toward those Nintendo dreams. (Also, the “upgrade your experience” line is bold. I like it. Wonder how HTC feels, though?)
And yeah, we are aware that it’s almost the First of April, the most dreaded day on this job, but announcing a nice-looking VR headset doesn’t exactly seem like something you’d do for a laugh (plus it looks like those leaked images).
I have asked Valve for more information and will update this story as we learn more.