Valve has released a teaser for a new VR device named Index. This reveal follows news of a massive layoff in the gaming company's hardware department. Read on for more details.
Game company Valve, known for the Steam distribution platform and popular titles such as "Half-Life" and "Counter-Strike," lifted the veil on their new VR device and set up a teaser page for it.
Polygon reports that the new VR device, called the Valve Index, is a stand-alone product the game company developed. This is the first stand-alone VR headset Valve developed as the Vive, their previous VR device, was made in collaboration with tech company HTC.
The teaser, which showed nothing but a photo of hands holding the aforementioned device, offers the gaming public a first look at the company's new VR headset. Aside from that, there's not much to go by. There is only one photo, and it shows nothing but one side of the device.
By looking at the photo, however, one will notice a few details. There appears to be a slider at the top of the left-hand slide. It's unclear what this slider is for at the moment. Also, there are two cameras, one for each side. There could be more, since there appears to be some protrusions, possibly housing more cameras.
The Verge, which has a more lit-up version of the photo, noted that there could be four cameras that will allow users to move around a room without the need to install additional base stations or additional tracking cameras.
Aside from the photo, Valve didn't release any additional details. The company promised to give more details in May, and so fans will do well to simply wait. Thankfully, this isn't an April Fool's Day joke. At least, that's what Valve told The Verge.
Surprising, but not really
Earlier reports confirmed that Valve laid-off 13 employees and contractors, all of them from the hardware division. One of them, Nat Brown, is a VR engineer. The layoffs seemed to say that Valve was giving up on its VR hardware plans.
The gaming company, speaking to Variety, said they aren't quitting on VR. They said the layoff wouldn't affect their VR initiatives. The layoff was just a "part of business," they said. Soon, they would post a job listing for a mechanical engineer who will work on their VR tech.
Obviously, Valve isn't quitting on VR -- the Valve Index proves that. Stay tuned for more details as they come.
