Price is nothing to worry about for more than a few people when it comes to having the best. And when it comes to VR, it looks like Valve’s Index is gearing up to be the best.
The Valve Index was officially announced literally two days ago and now pre-orders are already backlogged. And no, it’s not the single unit headset, or Knuckles controller set, or even the base stations; the thousand-dolalr, complete Valve Index VR kit is backlogged until September, meaning there’s a pretty long waiting time for Valve’s latest – and most expensive – hardware offering.
Word of mouth, marketing, whichever you may want to attribute it to, the only thing that’s certain is that the Valve Index is a hit before it’s even released. Its surprise reveal just over a month ago made the world take an interest in virtual reality again, this time with much more keenness. Couple that with the fact that this has been one of Valve’s primary projects in the past few years, and you get the idea of just how big of a deal this thing is and why so many people are excited to have it.
This is also considering the fact that on the same day of its announcement, competing VR company Oculus and its parent Facebook also started their pre-orders for the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S. These two are the newest VR headsets from Oculus, with the Quest promising to be a standalone VR machine and the Rift S a clear-cut improvement over the previous Rift. Both of them operate without base stations, making them attractive for people with less spaces to work with, and both cost the same as well – $399, which is $600 less than the Valve Index.
The most expensive kits are not the only ones that are sold out as well. Hours after the $999 full VR kit was backlogged to September 30, Valve also noted that the headset + controller bundle and the individual headset have sold out on pre-orders as well. This basically means that if you haven’t secured one already, you’re not going to get the Valve Index anywhere near its official release date on June 28.
The pre-order page is here, if you still want to try to reserve yours today.
