A supply chains analyst in China claims that mass production has begun for Valve’s next virtual reality headset. The source estimates a production rate of anywhere from 400,000 to 600,000 units in the next year.
That’s a decent-sized run of production for a VR headset. For context, the Valve’s first VR headset, the HTC Vive, sold roughly 140,000 units in its first year. The landscape of gaming has changed quite a bit in the roughly ten years since the Vive was released, most notable being the market for VR has widened immensely—roughly 171 million people use VR in some form, and 80% of headset owners use VR for games. Additionally, Valve no longer relies on third-party partners to help with production and distribution, having established their own pipeline for hardware creation with the Steam Deck.
It’s been known for a while now that Valve is developing a successor to its HTC Vive, which released in 2016. Representatives from Valve have spoken directly about the work-in-progress device, though they’ve kept details about its specifications and a potential release date under wraps. Members of the SteamVR community have discovered several references to a Deckard in the code in reference to a Valve headset that doesn’t exist on the market yet. Dataminers have also found instances of the name ‘Steam Frame’ in the code, a name that Valve filed trademark for just last month.
