Valve corporation has announced that they will be releasing their very own VR Headset, known as the Valve Index, in 2019.

The company coyly revealed their plans courtesy of a teaser image that went out through the company’s social media channels Friday evening. Valve also released a dedicated website to the device that same evening.

A bit of sleuthing from the website Ars Technica shows that the Valve Index may make use of “inside-out” tracking, which would eliminate the need for extra cameras or sensors.

Images of the then-unconfirmed Valve Index originally leaked in November of 2018 courtesy of outlet Upload VR, which were then reported on by NerdBacon. The original reports stated that Valve was planning a “stand-alone VR headset which would be bundled with their new “Knuckles” controller, and (get ready for it) a Half-Life VR game.”

For the past several years, Valve has partnered with hardware manufacturer HTC to produce the HTC Vive VR headset. It’s unclear at this time whether or not that partnership will continue, or if Valve will embark on the production of the Valve Index without any assistance. It’s also unclear, regardless of whether the partnership between the two companies is still active, whether or not HTC will continue to produce the Vive.

Valve’s move into official hardware production comes at a time when their dominant PC storefront, Steam, has come under increasing competition from an upstart rival in the Epic Game Store, which launched at the end of 2018. Many third-party companies have provided the Epic Store with exclusive releases; most notably with the release of Metro Exodus , and Ubisoft’s the Division 2. Both high profile titles skipped Steam releases entirely.

And of course, any mention of new products from Valve automatically come with obligatory speculation on whether or not this means the company may actually, one day, release Half Life 3.

It has long been the belief of this reporter that the only way Valve would ever go into production with Half Life 3, is if the game were used as a catalyst to push new technology such as virtual reality.

It’s not a large assumption to believe that the release of a Valve-branded VR headset could soon herald the arrival of the most anticipated and hoped for game in the world.

Although official details are sparse at the moment, Valve does plan to release the Valve Index in May of 2019.

Written by The Watchman

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