Valve Deckard: New 'Steam Frame' name emerges for long-awaited Valve Index successor
Valve has not released new hardware in a long time. While the Steam Deck OLED remains the company's most recent hardware release, there have been plenty of leaks and rumours about new devices being in the works. Although the Valve Deckard headset, Steam Controller 2 and Steam Deck 2 appear to have legs, others have been dismissed by a Valve executive as being wide of the mark.
Moreover, another device called Valve Fremont has appeared on Geekbench multiple times in the last year or so. Thought to be a home console of some kind, Valve Fremont is currently not expected to be as powerful as current AMD Strix Halo mini-PCs like the GMKtec EVO-X2 or equivalents (curr. $1,499.99 on Amazon). Then a day ago, a Redditor posting as u/Crafty-Average-586 asked the r/SteamDeck community whether 'Steam Frame' would be 'a good name' for 'the name of a new hardware'.
Distinct from any other recent rumours, the question was initially dismissed by r/SteamDeck members. However, Valve has now been spotted applying for a new trademark using that exact name with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). As the screenshot below shows, Valve hopes to trademark the term 'Steam Frame', which the company hopes to cover the following categories:
computer hardware; computer networking hardware; computer peripherals; computer hardware and computer software for the reproduction, processing, and streaming of audio, video, data, text, and multimedia content.
In other words, it is currently unclear what Steam Frame covers from that description alone. Nonetheless, the likes of Brad Lynch believe that Steam Frame could be Valve's final Deckard branding. With that in mind, recent SteamVR updates have added numerous references to 'Frame' UIs and menus. Unfortunately, more concrete details about Valve's proposed VR headset remain unknown for now despite the wealth of evidence that has emerged from datamining in the last few years.
Source(s)
USPTO via r/GamingLeaksAndRumors, Brad Lynch (1) (2), @Down_90 - Image creidt
