Following last months accidentally leaking images of the headset last month, Valve has officially announced how much the new Valve Index VR headset will cost and when it’ll go on sale. It will be available in a bundle with the new controllers starting on June 28 for $749 (around £575) with pre-orders opening up tomorrow.
The Valve Index headset features a pair of 1440×1600 RGB LCD displays running at 120Hz (with an experimental 144Hz mode.) It also has built-in stereo headphones that are off-the-ear, to provide a more natural soundstage for VR applications.
The Index headset is controlled by the new Index controllers. Each controller features 87 different sensors for detecting finger and hand position, movement speed, and other measurements necessary to translate real-world hand motions into virtual space. The Index controllers are compatible with all existing HTC Vive games and apps.
The full Valve Index kit comes with the headset, two controllers, and a pair of base stations. That price tag makes the package seem like it’s not an entry-level VR setup, but more for people who’ve tasted what virtual reality has to offer at lower levels and want to take the next step.
If that all sounds like a lot of money to spend at one time, however, Valve is doing something that no other company has done before: sell everything piecemeal.
If that’s the route you want to go down, you can expect to drop $499 for the Index Headset, $279 for the Index Controllers and $149 for the new base stations. (Weirdly, from the numbers provided by Valve you can seemingly buy the $749 Valve Index VR bundle and the $149 tracking stations separately to save $100.
