Pre-order Valve Index on May 1, shipping starts this June

Valve is jumping in on the virtual headset world with Valve Index.

If you take Steam out of the equation, Valve is well known for its shooting games like Portal and Half-Life, as well as the famous MOBA Dota 2, but the announcement of Valve Index last Friday sets the foundation for the irruption of Valve in the VR market. According to the announcement Valve Index VR headset will be available for pre-order beginning May 1st along with their "knuckles" controllers called Valve Index Controllers that offer better control of VR games and apps. Aside from that news, it’s also been announced that the VR headset is out to ship on June 15 although that date can still be changed.

If you want to purchase Index, then you better make sure that you have a powerful Windows PC to handle it. Valve recommends a quad-core CPU and GTX 1070-class video, however, a dual-core processor with hyperthreading, 8GB RAM and a GeForce GTX 970/Radeon RX480 works well too. Valve is still tight-lipped regarding the price of Index at the moment. There are not many details on the resolution and other specs as well, we just know things from what we can see. We know that the wired headset has an integrated headphone as well – something that isn’t present in the upcoming Rift S from Oculus. There are also outside cameras that indicate similarities to other headsets which feature inside-out tracking. In terms of the physical features, Index isn’t really the dashing kind.

Perhaps there’s more to what the eyes can see. Valve certainly has a knack of surprising us. Up until the very end, they had us believing that it was partnering with HTC to build their $499 Vive headsets. Well, they got us all good, I daresay. When Valve Index comes out, it will be in direct competition against Oculus VR and the upcoming Oculus Rift S, as well as Sony’s PlayStation VR.