Valve has opened registration for the Steam Frame, its standalone VR headset, and confirmed launch pricing. The Steam Frame price starts at $1,059 in the US and £889 in the UK for the 256GB model, rising to £1,089 for the 1TB version, putting the headset firmly in high-end territory alongside Valve’s own Steam Machine, itself priced into the same bracket at launch.
What the Steam Frame price buys
The base spec is built around a 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, paired with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and either 256GB or 1TB of UFS storage, with a microSD slot for anyone who wants to carry more games than the built-in storage holds. Display duties go to dual 2160×2160 LCD panels running at 72-144Hz, with 144Hz still marked experimental rather than a stable mode, so most owners will run at the lower end of that range at launch.
Valve has fitted inside-out tracking, so no external base stations are needed to set the headset up, plus Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, and rates the battery at 21.6Wh. SteamOS 3 is pre-installed, and the box includes a full pair of 6-DOF Steam Frame controllers plus a copy of Half-Life: Alyx, Valve’s own VR title, bundled in rather than sold as a separate purchase alongside the headset and its controllers.
Accessories cost extra, but aren’t required
Valve is also selling two accessories separately at launch. A dedicated charger costs £29, though the Steam Frame does not need that specific one: any 45W USB-C charger, including a Steam Deck charger, will charge it, so the accessory is a convenience rather than a requirement. The Ergonomic Accessories Kit costs £59 and swaps in upgraded straps, an extended light blocker and replacement padding, aimed at players who want a tighter or more comfortable fit than the standard kit provides.
Pricing lands where the memory crisis put it
The launch price is higher than early leaks suggested, and KitGuru’s coverage points to why: the ongoing RAM and SSD shortage has pushed component costs up across the industry, and Steam Frame’s pricing now sits close to what Valve charges for the Steam Machine. That is a shift from where things stood two days earlier. On 15 September, teqpost reported that Valve said its Steam Deck 2 plans were unaffected by the memory crisis. Steam Frame is the first Valve hardware where that crisis has visibly reached the price tag rather than just the roadmap and supplier commentary, and it suggests Steam Deck 2 pricing, whenever it lands, will not be immune either.
Registration and what to watch
Registration for Steam Frame is not a straight pre-order queue. Valve is collecting eligible sign-ups into a list that gets randomised, then used to allocate the first batch of pre-order invitations, rather than serving everyone who registers on a first-come basis. Overclock3D reports that Valve will randomise that list on Thursday, 17 September and email the results within a day, so anyone who registers should know within roughly 48 hours whether they have been offered a purchase slot. Whether Valve runs a second allocation wave for buyers who miss the first is the detail worth watching once those emails go out.
