•Valve has officially discontinued the Valve Index VR kit and is running a 20%-off sale on its headset and controllers to clear remaining stock.
The end of the Index was arguably inevitable, given that the newer, more versatile Steam Frame launched last month. A memory-shortage-induced price hike has not discouraged enough buyers, leaving a waiting list that now stretches into 2027.
The discount is not particularly effective: buying the Index headset, both controllers and two separate (yet essential) HTC-made base stations totals £1,027. That figure exceeds the price of an entry-spec Frame and also tops the £919 that the full Index kit originally launched at.
The Index, which launched in 2019, was praised for its widened field of view and unusually adjustable headset straps. Its most enduring legacy is the introduction of individual finger tracking, enabling gestures closer to real human expression than the hand-waving or fist-grabs previously possible in VR.
Finger tracking has since become standard across VR hardware, though no other controller has matched the Index’s Meta Quest 3-level commitment. The VR space perhaps isn’t quite as busy and bustling, but even the Steam Frame’s finger sensors do not match the accuracy of the Index’s ‘Knuckles’ controllers.
The move away from lighthouses and tangling cables has been worthwhile for good reasons, but the writer notes that VR digits look and behave like real ones in no small part because the Index pioneered the technology.
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