Until about six months ago, I would’ve said the HTC Vive was Valve’s virtual reality headset. It wasn’t, of course—merely the product of a mutually beneficial partnership. But with the VR market seemingly divided between Oculus on one side and Valve on the other, the Vive naturally became the face of SteamVR and everything “Not Oculus.”
Now Valve has its own headset though: the $999 Valve Index. Why Valve struck out on its own, we may never know, but either way the Index is now ipso facto the new face of SteamVR—and it finally ushers Valve's infamous “Knuckles” controllers to market after years of rough-looking prototypes.
