Valve has trademarked “Steam Frame” as a new computer/video game hardware device that is possibly the company’s new VR headset.
According to the trademark filed by Valve, the Steam Frame trademark registration is intended to cover the categories of computer game consoles for recreational game playing; video game consoles; video game accessories, namely, controllers for video games as well as
Dataminer Lifeismana found the name “Steam Frame” in the Steam VR files, indicating that the new trademark is for Valve’s next VR headset. There is currently no information regarding the device’s specifications. Another datamine, SadlyItsBradley, clarified that SteamVR’s “overlays” feature is also being renamed to “frames” to coincide with the headset’s name.
Back in November, 2024, SteamDB creator Djundik shared concept designs for Steam Controller 2 and a new Steam VR controller. According to him, the new Steam controller is internally referred to as “ibex” at Valve, and the new Steam VR controller is referred to as “roy”, with the latter having various versions. At the time, he pointed towards one of the images as the (EV1) version of the VR controllers, as there is a blender file for them. As for how the images were leaked, the dataminer mentioned that Valve had set “freetodownload” on the SteamVR app in order to grant access to anonymous accounts. This made all the depots accessible, and one of the depots included content for the VR headset and controllers (codemamed deckard/roy).
While Valve may be set to launch its new VR headset and controllers, it was reported in November, 2024, that virtual reality technology isn’t seeing commercial growth from Steam users. George Jijiashvili, senior principal analyst at Omdia, shared that VR remains stagnant on PC, with only 1.5% of the Steam community using a VR headset, according to Valve’s latest Hardware Survey.
