If you’ve been plugged into the Valve leak-o-verse, you’ve most likely come throughout the title ‘Deckard’, the supposed code title of a standalone headset allegedly below growth by the one and solely. While Valve isn’t confirming something concerning the storied standalone, the corporate went on document late final yr to say they’re nonetheless place confidence in VR, and are critically nonetheless engaged on VR headsets.
Valve product designer Greg Coomer spoke to Korean gaming publication This is Game (Korean) in December, saying that VR may be very a lot nonetheless within the works. The interview wasn’t broadly shared within the English-speaking aspect of the Internet till it landed on Reddit, Google-translated to English.
Here’s Coomer’s response to a query about what he can reveal in regard to VR, translated from Korean to English:
There isn’t a lot (laughter). Nevertheless, I can undoubtedly say that we’re persevering with to develop VR headsets lately. Valve has numerous experience in VR gadgets and has religion within the medium and VR video games.
We hope to stay open on PC platforms reasonably than having VR video games completely on a sure platform. While adhering to this perception, we’re persevering with growth.
However, we can’t affirm the existence of particular merchandise or disclose the discharge date of the outcomes. The similar applies to recreation tasks being developed internally. There are definitely many tasks underway, however we can’t announce something right now.
As you may collect, Valve doesn’t brazenly discuss its in-development tasks. Hearing that VR remains to be on the desk from Coomer straight although, who has been with Valve for the reason that launch of Half-Life (1998), and labored on main video games all the best way as much as Half-Life: Alyx (2020), is nearly nearly as good as you may get.
That’s particularly so for the reason that final time Valve launched any VR {hardware} was its enthusiast-grade PC VR headset Valve Index in 2019. A yr later, the studio launched its solely full-length VR recreation so far, Half-Life: Alyx.
Still, it hasn’t been totally all quiet on the Valve VR entrance. In March 2022, Valve chief Gabe Newell known as its handheld gaming PC platform Steam Deck “a steppingstone” to standalone VR {hardware}.
“One of the things [Steam Deck] represents is battery-capable, high-performance horsepower that eventually you could use in VR applications as well. You can take the PC and build something that is much more transportable. We’re not really there yet, but this is a stepping stone.”
At the time, Coomer additionally famous Steam Deck’s {hardware} “would run well in that [standalone VR] environment, with the TDP necessary… it’s very relevant to us and our future plans.”
Meanwhile, tech analyst and YouTuber Brad Lynch has been most likely probably the most vocal proponent of all issues Steam standalone, having adopted the Deckard beat since information miners first discovered a string in a January 2021 Steam replace that talked about the alleged VR standalone.
Over the next years, Lynch has uncovered mounting evidence in subsequent releases of SteamVR, together with his most up-to-date supposition that Deckard could embody PC VR wi-fi streaming capabilities, eye-tracking, and passthrough AR options.
As you’d think about, there have been no public confirmations from Valve, so we’ll simply have to attend and see.