Valve’s Index VR headset may be available for pre-order as early as next month

Valve has announced Valve Index, its new virtual reality (VR) system.

There’s not much to go on at the moment – just a single image and an empty website – but early reporting revealed the website had initially included the text “May 2019”, and the website meta description tag within the page source code still states: “Upgrade your Experience. May 2019”.

But that’s not all. Valve’s product page for the Valve Index headset seemingly went prematurely live, too, confirming pre-orders will open on May 1st, 2019, and orders are expected to ship June 15th (thanks @Wario64, via The Verge).

According to the now-deleted listings page, the headset itself has integrated headphones, a tether with DisplayPort 1.2 and USB 3.0 connectors, a power adaptor (with regionalised power adaptor plugs), two face gaskets (narrow and wide), plus a cleaning cloth. The website is clearly a work-in-progress and therefore isn’t entirely clear, but it suggests the controllers – which have been renamed Valve Index Controllers – will ship with the device, but the base stations will be sold separately.

Valve later confirmed to the The Verge that while all the information on the deleted page was “accurate”, it was “not comprehensive”.

Valve recently laid off 13 permanent staff and “a portion” on contractor agreements from its VR team. News surfaced when former Valve employee Nat Brown announced on March 7th that he had been let go from the company on February 7th. He’d been at Valve since September 2015.

“Last month, 13 full-time employees were let go and a portion of our contractor agreements were terminated,” Valve said via an official statement. “It’s an unfortunate part of business, but does not represent any major changes at the company. We thank those affected for their contribution and wish them well in future endeavours.”