Accidental Steam Store post shows new look at Valve Index VR

The flip-up headphone design will be familiar to anyone who has used the Oculus Rift.

Valve / ResetEra

The flip-up headphone design will be familiar to anyone who has used the Oculus Rift. Valve / ResetEra

The full page is obviously still a work in progress, but it includes some interesting tidbits.

Valve / ResetEra

The full page is obviously still a work in progress, but it includes some interesting tidbits. Valve / ResetEra

The flip-up headphone design will be familiar to anyone who has used the Oculus Rift. Valve / ResetEra

The full page is obviously still a work in progress, but it includes some interesting tidbits. Valve / ResetEra

The existence of a page for SteamVR Base Stations suggests the Index won’t use inside-out tracking.

Steam / ResetEra

The existence of a page for SteamVR Base Stations suggests the Index won’t use inside-out tracking. Steam / ResetEra

You’re gonna need controllers, but you won’t learn much about them from this listing.

Steam / ResetEra

You’re gonna need controllers, but you won’t learn much about them from this listing. Steam / ResetEra

The existence of a page for SteamVR Base Stations suggests the Index won’t use inside-out tracking. Steam / ResetEra

You’re gonna need controllers, but you won’t learn much about them from this listing. Steam / ResetEra

Monday afternoon, Valve briefly posted and almost immediately took down a series of work-in-progress Steam Store pages for its recently revealed Valve Index VR headset. But that was enough time for Twitter’s Wario64, members of the ResetEra forums, and other sources to view the page online and capture the scant information available on the still-incomplete, lorem-ipsum-laden pages.

(Yes, we know today is April 1 and that all online information is inherently suspect today. But if the brief store postings apparently seen by multiple independent sources were a joke, they are an incredibly subtle one.)

The most interesting bit from the posting is the apparent front-on view of the headset itself, which shows a set of flip-up, over-ear headphones hanging down from either side. That style of integrated headphones was a big distinguishing feature on the Oculus Rift but has been removed from the upcoming Rift S in favor of subtle near-ear speakers in the headband.

The Index photo also gives a clearer look at the two front-facing cameras on the outside of the device, presumably allowing for some sort of stereoscopic “real-world” augmented reality view. The store listing, meanwhile, also includes mention of “two face gaskets (narrow and wide),” presumably to accommodate differently sized faces.