Rumor: New VR Gear

Valve’s Index is a stellar, though pricey, piece of VR gear. While it comes with the burden of needing to set up Base Stations, and that high price, it more than makes up for it with excellent fidelity and high frame rates. It also helps that Valve has developed one of the best VR games currently available: Half-Life: Alyx.

Based on two key pieces of evidence, there’s good reason to suspect that Valve is working on new VR gear. That doesn’t guarantee 2023 will see new toys hit virtual shelves, but it does make this a good year to keep an eye out. Here’s what we know.

Back in 2021, VR YouTuber Brad Lynch came across mention of a new VR codename in a driver file for the Index’s Base Stations (external boxes that provide the headset with motion tracking information). Its name? Deckard (queue up some Vangelis; damn, that soundtrack never gets old). Based on discoveries from Lynch, as well as other sources, Valve may or may not be exploring standalone tracking solutions of the kind we know from headsets like the Quest or the upcoming PS VR2 from Sony. But what is clear is that it’s focusing on future developments in VR.

Read More: The PS5’s New VR Is Impressive, But Is It Worth $550?

Last year, patent filings gave us more fuel for the rumor fire, hinting that the company is interested in protecting designs for standalone VR solutions. We are obligated to inform you that patents are far from predictors of the future, but they’re also not thin entirely air.

Whether or not all of this amounts to an Index hardware refresh, a successor to the headset, or something else entirely, it is clear that Valve is at work on VR solutions and is patenting designs and functions. While there’s no indication that 2023 is necessarily the year we will see the fruits of this labor, there is a path of VR work to follow, and this year will likely either add to that path, or see something cool get revealed, released, or hinted at.