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Valve’s recently leaked VR headset may be coming as early as this summer

Summer just got a lot cooler.

valve's index vr headset on teal background
Image: Valve

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While we still have to wait until May to find out more details, some details of Valve’s upcoming Index VR headset were leaked (by Valve) yesterday.

The headset will be shipping June 15, according to a now-yanked set of Steam store pages that were briefly online yesterday. Maybe whichever webdev was working on that set of pages thought it’d get lost in the usual April Fool’s chatter, but the joke is on them.

The pages had clear images of the new headset, showing the cameras for inside-out tracking, what seems to be removable headphones, and an overall design that could be any current-gen VR headset, to be honest.

These headphones appear to be open-backed, an interesting choice that might reduce VR queasiness as they will allow the user to hear their surroundings while playing. What that will do for the sense of immersion, I couldn’t say, but it is an interesting design choice none the less.

The store page for the headset also gave us a few tech specifications

The headset will connect to your PC using Displayport 1.2 and USB 3.0. With most VR headsets available using HDMI to connect, that might indicate that the screens on the Valve Index are going to be high-resolution, with high refresh rates, as Displayport can pass more data than the HDMI port on most GPUs. Users can buy the Valve Index Controllers (used to be called Knuckles motion controllers) separately, as well as additional base stations.

You’ll need a fairly hefty PC to run the Index, with a quad-core CPU and GeForce GTX 1070 or similar to get optimal performance, although you can run the Index on more modest hardware consisting of a dual-core CPU and GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon RX480.

Valve spokesperson, Doug Lombardi has confirmed the accuracy of those yanked pages to The Verge, firmly grabbing my attention ahead of the supposed May 1st reveal event.

What do you think? Excited for an official Valve VR headset? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.

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