The Steam Frame is a new virtual reality headset from Valve, and it appears to solve one of the biggest problems plaguing many other VR headsets.

This may be the end for Valve’s lighthouse base stations, which were actually first released in 2016 with the HTC Vive. If you’ve got lighthouse base stations set up in your home already, don’t expect to use them with the Frame anytime soon, if ever.

Now, after years of rumors, Valve is finally ready to officially rejoin the VR hardware race. The Steam Frame, set to launch in early 2026, will run both VR and traditional Steam games locally through SteamOS or stream them wirelessly from a local PC.

In case you missed it, Valve announced a load of new hardware this week, including a second stab at the Steam Machine, a Steam controller, and a long-rumored new VR headset called the Steam Frame. But in with the new often means out with the old,

Valve’s streaming-focused VR headset has some cool tricks but a few tradeoffs.

While it more or less matches the Quest 3 in resolution, optics, and horizontal field of view, it has a better chip, more RAM, and stronger Wi-Fi support. On the flip side, the Quest 3's colour pass-through is a touch above Valve's mono one. On paper, it's what you'd expect from a standalone VR headset going into 2026.

The company also teased the Steam Frame, a follow-up to the Valve Index VR headset, along with an updated Steam Controller.