Your laptops, phones, and practically every other computing device big and small are getting more expensive—and that includes VR headsets. Memory prices are the main culprit, but Qualcomm is reportedly planning to jack up chip costs mere weeks before Valve is supposed to debut its long-awaited gaming-focused Steam Frame headset.
Qualcomm notified its many customers of its new processor price in a letter reportedly seen by Bloomberg. The cost increase should go into effect in products set to ship after Sept. 1. That will naturally impact all smartphones set to arrive after that date, though it misses several key launches, namely Samsung’s latest Galaxy Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2. The Steam Frame—which runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile chip—may launch soon, based on mass numbers of “Virtual Reality Devices” shipped to Valve’s U.S. warehouses over the last two months.
The bigger problem will be for any company planning to restock after the Sept. 1 date. A company as monolithic as Samsung may be able to order in bulk before the cutoff, but Valve has notoriously been much more conservative with shipments. After the May launch of the Steam Controller, Valve quickly ran out of stock, leaving some customers potentially waiting up to a year to receive a unit. The company set up a lottery system to buy one of its $1,050 Steam Machines, and some customers will similarly be waiting months just for the chance to buy the company’s PC/console hybrid.
According to Bloomberg’s report, Qualcomm claims it ran out of options by absorbing costs from ongoing supply shortages. All chips rely on memory to some degree, and the company’s CPUs are no exception. These CPU prices may increase by “double digits,” and the inevitable outcome is gadgets will see similar price hikes going forward.
We don’t expect Valve to subsidize its gamer-specific VR headset like Meta has its $600 Quest 3 and $350 Quest 3S headsets, both of which run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR Gen 2 platform. These devices already went through a round of price hikes.
Valve has yet to share pricing details for its Steam Frame. We can only hope it won’t be as expensive as a base-level Steam Machine, given its limited monochromatic passthrough capabilities. Still, it promises to be potentially the most innovative of Valve’s nascent hardware ecosystem thanks to special emulation capabilities and the ability to run a full Linux PC setup through a headset.
Last month, Qualcomm pulled the curtain off its latest augmented reality/virtual reality platform, the Snapdragon Reality Elite chipset. It’s a processor built to power next-gen headsets akin to the current Samsung Galaxy XR headset and future glasses like Xreal’s Project Aura XR (extended reality) glasses. Any future facial computers certainly won’t launch before Qualcomm’s Sept. 1 cutoff.
Currently, Sony is hosting a sale on its normally-$400 PlayStation VR2 headset. It’s one of the few modern gaming-focused goggles that doesn’t have native processing power, hence it not spiking in price alongside the PlayStation 5 console. It may be the cheapest way to play PCVR right now with an adapter, but just know it may not be the premium virtual reality experience you’ve come to expect.
