Valve have been awarded a patent for a new virtual reality motion controller. It looks a lot like the Meta Quest controllers, with a ring design at its top rather than the flat face of the previous Valve Index motion controllers. Its inclusion could be a further suggestion that Valve’s next headset will be standalone, without the need to be plugged into a PC.

ndex. A few months ago Valve was advertising for someone to help them design and ship a VR headset, they’ve made references to standalone headsets in interviews about the Steam Deck, and they filed a similar patent for a VR headset with a strap back in June.

I love the Valve Index and I use it regularly, but I’m keen for a virtual reality headset with a higher resolution display and without the need to either have wires or to sell my soul to the metaverse. I hope all this adds up to something.