This is the first Steam survey to include Steam Frame, Valve’s standalone VR headset which natively supports SteamOS. You can learn all about Steam Frame in our deep dive review here.

The opt-in, randomized monthly survey now shows Steam Frame at fifth place on the platform, making for 5.49% of all headsets in use on Steam.

Considering Steam Frame is still heavily supply constrained, as shipments now reach into 2027, immediately taking fifth place is a surprisingly fair result.

In contrast, Valve Index only managed to post a 1.46% share of all connected headsets in its first month on the Steam Hardware Survey.

Some of this could be explained by Quest 2’s sizeable loss of 3.57% since the September survey, which could suggest some portion of Quest 2 users upgraded to Frame.

Meta has announced that Quest 2 and Quest Pro will begin transitioning to end-of-feature status from January 2027.

Horizon OS 2.13 is the final OS release for Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro. It is scheduled to begin rolling out in January 2027 and reach all devices by March 2027. Meta VR OS SDK v213 will also be the last supported SDK version for these devices, while quarterly security patches and critical bug fixes will continue through the end of 2027.

VRChat is currently weathering a sizable backlash among users due to a controversial decision to not label AI-generated content.

The News

VRChat released a survey earlier this month asking users whether the social VR platform should in some way label AI-generated content as a way to fight back against low-quality slop.

The survey in question polled over 21,000 users. While results are no longer viewable online, Japanese outlet Automaton reports that around 95% of survey responders indicated they wanted VRChat to add an AI-generated content label, which would simplify filtering out AI content.

In a statement last week, the studio announced it won’t be implementing the change, maintaining the move may cause more harm than good:

“We’re not adding an ‘AI-generated’ label or AI filters. While we think some creators would honestly label their content, we think others would try to pass off generative or assisted work as completely authored by hand,” VRChat says. “Likewise, we could see this creating ‘sleuthing’ behavior, where folks would attempt to sniff out ‘AI’ content or might harass other creators, even if they are genuinely not using any AI tools in their workflow. We think this potentially creates negative behavior spirals we don’t want to encourage.”

I had the exclusive opportunity to review the KAT Walk C3 Ultra treadmill before its official announcement, and in this article, I’m going to share my impressions of it. It doesn’t happen every day to be the first person to receive a piece of hardware, so I really thank the team at KAT for giving me this opportunity.

The Kat Walk C3 Ultra is the first VR treadmill I have at home, and thanks to it, I’ve finally been able to understand why VR enthusiasts buy this type of product.

This is clearly a device for VR hardcore fans who want to upgrade their PCVR experience: it is bulky, quite expensive, and occupies a lot of space. The walking detection is acceptable, and safety needs some upgrades. It is not perfect, but it is also a device that can make your VR experience feel more natural and immersive, and in general, also more fun. And it can also be useful to make you stay fit at home.

It is not a device for the average consumer, but it is exactly the type of product that an enthusiast like me can buy. We are used to overcoming difficulties, tweaking settings, and also risking a bit of our lives when playing with VR. We don’t need something that works perfectly out of the box, but we can live some quirks in exchange for a more innovative and immersive experience.

Price is also surely not dedicated to consumers: $1,500 means it is a device for premium users. I honestly hoped it was a bit cheaper.

As an enthusiast, I have found a lot of things to be improved in the device, as you may have read in the above paragraphs. But at the end of the day, when paired with the right experience, I just enjoyed my time on the Kat Walk C3 Ultra. And probably this is the most important metric to consider.

It’s not very often we get insight into Valve’s thought process, as the company tends to let actions speak for themselves. But at a ‘Steam Indie Connect’ event in Korea, the company says it still believes in VR, and outlined some of the challenges ahead.

We still believe in virtual reality,” Giardino said. That said, Giardino noted Steam Frame users are mostly now playing standard flatscreen games rather than VR titles.

One of VR’s biggest challenges is a ‘chicken-and-egg’ dilemma, Giardino said: developers wait for the VR market to expand, while players wait for more VR games. Meanwhile, flatscreen games continue to grow more diverse and compelling, making it more difficult to justify making VR games. That, and expensive, popular flatscreen games launch every week, which is the biggest hurdle facing VR developers, Giardino said.

Super Mario 64 (1996) was a seminal platformer that, for many, was also the first true 3D game they ever played. Now, with the help of AI vibecoding and a decompiled version of the game, you might be able reexperience the magic in mixed reality.

XR creative technologist and developer Lucas Martinic released a video of Super Mario 64 working on a Pico headset, essentially making for a floating 3D ‘magic window’ of sorts. It’s a cool effect we’ve seen in a number of other VR vibecoded projects recently.

According to Meta’s recent quarterly earnings report, Quest headset sales are declining, however AI glasses are growing fast enough to partially offset a slump in Reality Labs revenue. And moving forward, the company says only the “major” VR breakthroughs will warrant productization.

“Within our Reality Labs segment, Q3 revenue was $443 million, down 6% due to lower Quest headset sales, which were partially offset by continued strong growth in AI glasses revenue,” Meta CFO Susan Li said during the company’s Q3 2026 earnings call last week.

VRChat has technically supported Eye and Face Tracking for years over OSC (Open Sound Control) and the community-made VRCFaceTracking (VRCFT) app. However, avatars did not natively support full facial tracking, and instead needed to be configured with add-ons. Without them, avatars could only natively use Eye Tracking data for basic gaze and eyelid movement.

Now, VRChat's latest Open Beta client on Steam and Avatars SDK Version 3.10.6-beta.1 and higher bring support for SDK-level authoring of Face Tracking. Initially described as "High Fidelity Face Tracking," the feature allows creators to set up facial expressions for an avatar via a new dedicated section in the Avatar Descriptor component.

Walker Industries is a company made up of VR makers. In the Kickstarter video, the head of the company says that he had the dream of building a headset since when he was like 13 years old and was watching Sword Art Online. 9 years later, he’s trying to make his dream reality, by building himself together with a bunch of other talented nerds a fully opensource headset packed with features: the Vector Gear.

In today's email from Bigscreen, with the recent news of Valve selling its last remaining stock of Valve Index headset and accessories, they reached out to HTC to ask if 2.0 lighthouses will be discontinued. They responded saying there is no future plan to retire base stations.

Next Fest is a chance for players to go hands-on with anticipated upcoming games while developers get a boost in visibility, potential wishlists, and invaluable feedback to help shape their projects as they approach a release date.

Some of the participating games released demos prior to the start of Next Fest, like Rustmourne, The Rifted Skies, Drifters: Blackout Crew, and RAID VR. Co-op heist shooter Payday: Aces High will have a demo available with two playable heists after its closed playtest in August.

Please note that this list was provided two weeks ago by Valve and is subject to change. Developers can drop out of Next Fest if their demo is not ready or release a demo on short notice.

Valve confirmed with PC Gamer (via Skarred Ghost) that it’s working on a new headstrap with hot-swappable batteries and Balanced Mode Radiator (BMR) drivers which are said to match the off-ear speakers seen in Valve Index.

Index, which was just discontinued, has long been the audio bar for VR headsets since its release in 2019.