Valve Says No New First-party VR Game is in Development

By
Ben Lang
-
23

Steam Frame has finally been revealed and promises to let players access most of their Steam library (be it VR or otherwise) right from the headset. Unfortunately, that won’t include any new VR content from Valve, the company has confirmed.

During a recent interview with Valve, the company confirmed that it has no first-party VR content in the works, for the headset’s launch or otherwise. When asked if the company had any VR content in development, a member of the Steam Frame team responded with a simple and definitive “no.”

The statement puts an end to rumors that had been swirling since at least 2020, which asserted that an asymmetric ‘PC vs. VR’ game in the Half-Life universe was in development. It’s unclear if the rumors were correct and the game has since been cancelled, or if no such project was in development in the first place.

Valve’s first full-fledged VR game, Half-Life: Alyx, launched within a year of the release of Index, the company’s first VR headset. And even though Alyx wasn’t launched at the same time as the headset, Valve had publicly confirmed that a “flagship VR game” was in development even before Index was shipped.

This time around, the company has been pretty clear that users should not expect any new VR content from Valve at the launch of Steam Frame or anytime soon after.

More Steam Frame Announcement Coverage

Valve Unveils Steam Frame VR headset to Make Your Entire Steam Library Portable: Valve shows off Steam Frame, the standalone headset that can stream and natively play your entire Steam library—with only a few caveats right now.

Hands-on: Steam Frame Reveals Valve’s Modern Vision for VR and Growing Hardware Ambitions: We go hands-on with Valve’s latest and greatest VR headset yet.

Steam Frame’s Price Hasn’t Been Locked in, But Valve Expects it to be ‘cheaper than Index’: No price or release date yet, but Valve implies Steam Frame will be cheaper than $1,000 for the full Index kit.

Valve is Open to Bringing SteamOS to Third-party VR Headsets: Steam Frame is the first VR headset to run SteamOS, but it may not be the last.

Valve Plans to Offer Steam Frame Dev Kits to VR Developers: Steam Frame isn’t here yet; Valve says it needs more time with developers first so they can optimize their PC VR games.

Valve Announces SteamOS Console and New Steam Controller, Designed with Steam Frame Headset in Mind: Find out why Valve’s new SteamOS-running Console and controller will work seamlessly with Steam Frame.

Steam Frame vs. Quest 3 Specs: Better Streaming, Power & Hackability: Quest 3 can do a lot, but can it go toe-to-toe with Steam Frame?

Steam Frame vs. Valve Index Specs: Wireless VR Gameplay That’s Generations Ahead : Valve Index used to be the go-to PC VR headset, but the times have changed.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • xyzs

    Of course, why having a team of dozens of "elite" gave devs?
    To make games ahahah? No… too risky for this game company.

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      About half of Valve's ~370 employees are (usually) working on games, though mostly on the money makers Dota, Counterstrike and Team Fortress. About one quarter of Valve's employees are (usually) working on Steam. Usually because in the end phase of projects like Steam Deck a large part of the company plus tons of contractors are involved to get it done.

  • Octogod

    Expected, but disappointing.

    • Sven Viking

      To be honest I’d expected them to have a new short experience or tech demo at least.

      • Octogod

        They did this for Vive (eventually) and Steam Deck, so I'm still hopeful this in the works!

        • Sven Viking

          Maybe, but saying no to “any VR content in development” doesn’t sound promising :/.

          Perhaps it’s not “in development” because they already finished it? In which case, couldn’t it still be Half-Life 3 VR after all? ;)

          • Gonzax

            No, that is not going to happen but if HL3 exists I'm sure someone will make a VR mod for it sooner or later.
            I really hope so because I don't think I will be playing it flat even if it is HL.

  • jhgc

    Source?

  • namekuseijin

    just an Index replacement for VRC and cockpit sim folks

    that extra powerful mobile chip makes no sense… really just for tracking and streaming…

    • XRC

      Simmers are running higher resolution headsets with dynamic foveated rendering and using RTX 4090/5090 GPU to make the frames.

      currently using 35ppd Crystal original here (qled display quality is absolutely stunning) and have the 50ppd Crystal Super arriving next week

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      The powerful mobile chip makes a lot more sense if you don't think of Steam Frame as a streaming HMD (where the improved decoders of the SD8 Gen 3 will help with foveated streaming), but as a Steam Deck with an integrated 100" virtual display.

  • Adrian Meredith

    We already know for a fact this is a lie, it's more they don't want something over showing the launch. Still think it's a mistake, he'll even launching with a new build of hl:alyx with foveated rendering might have been enough

    • Sven Viking

      If you’re talking about HLX, leaks indicated they dropped VR support for it a long time ago. :/

  • nejihiashi88

    This is low effort release, disappointing specs and on top of it no first party games, no forst party games means even valve knows they won't get their money back if they developed for the new hardware

  • BioClone .

    Its not a lie if it is already developed…

    ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

  • Gonzax

    Very mixed feelings about this, lots of things to love and also quite a few I dislike, like the absence of a headphone jack and other stuff.

    It will come down to price for me in the end because I see it as a Quest 3 Plus which I would buy at 500-600 but not at 800–900, I don't think the upgrades warrant the price especially when you can play at very high quality on Q3 via VD and a Q4 might come out next year making this kind of obsolete in less than a year.

    • Rogue Transfer

      Both projects for Quest 4 in 2026(Pismo Low & Pismo High) have been reported as being cancelled back in June. There are no known projects left for Quest 4.

      Instead, Meta have pivoted to release next year, a premium 'bulky pair of glasses' MR device for "media and productivity use, rather than gaming" for under a $1000.

      • Gonzax

        Well that sucks even more.

  • Valve is a very fluid company. It may be that a few years ago, a small team started to make a new Half Life game, but then this idea never managed to gain the interest of a larger group of employees and so it died.

  • Nevets

    This is what happens when the mainstream have a sour, petulant and disinterested view of a technology. Big tech haven't made their path any easier either, with poor ux (Meta), abysmal marketing (Sony) and leaving comfort plus ergonomics (which makes the first impression on users) to third party accessory producers.

  • Jeremiah

    Their headset is dead in the water for me then if they can't even be bothered to support it with new and meaningful content, if that's the case, then it'll be even more niche than the Index.

    Hopefully this isn't official and a dev just misspoke though, as I'm hoping the rumours about HL3 being an asymmetrical flat screen and VR hybrid are true. They talk about wanting to be like Nintendo with the hardware and software synergy, but if there's no new VR game to show off their new VR headset, then they are full of it…they surely can't be that retarded, can they?!

    If they are as smart as I think they are, then HL3/X will support and take full advantage of all of their hardware (really show it off, especially the 3 new hardware units) and no, having it support flat screen functionality on the Frame is not nearly good enough.

  • Rupert Jung

    TBH, I was at least expecting a hyper-optimized build of Half-Life: Alyx for their mobile platform.

  • MarcDwonn

    No New First-party VR Game

    Emphasis on "VR". Doesn't mean that HLX doesn't exist. It will probably be a standard flat game with an option to be played in the Steam Frame theater in stereo3D. Using the foveated streaming for unmatched wireless quality.

    Could it be that HLX stands for "Half Life with crossplay" (playable on flat monitors or in stereo3D)?

    I've always loved stereo3D gaming more than VR gaming , so it this happens, i'd be in gaming nirvana. :)