Valve job listing points to new VR headset

Valve Index VR headset — (Image credit: Valve)

Valve appears to be developing new VR devices.

As spotted yesterday 10 by Brad Lynch on Twitter, Valve is hiring for the position of ‘Software Engineer - Computer Vision’ at their headquarters in Washington. “At Valve, we are pushing the boundaries of virtual reality (VR) experiences,” the job description reads, pretty transparently outlining Valve’s ambitions for further VR ventures.

Valve added a new job position focused on computer vision for VR hardware“The main scope of this position is to prototype, ship, and support consumer gaming products leveraging visual-inertial tracking, camera passthrough, environment understanding, eye and hand tracking” pic.twitter.com/LmAdm9nyrPOctober 10, 2022

The job description goes on to state that Valve is after someone who can help the company achieve “the next steps in VR.” Considering Valve already has several VR devices to its name, including the Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest, it’s anyone’s guess as to what the “next steps” up from these high-end products could be.

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The Software Engineer position is specifically looking for developers who have proven experience in “camera passthrough, environment understanding, eye tracking, and hand tracking.” That’s just in case Valve’s previous name checks for VR devices weren’t crystal clear enough.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Valve hint at an entirely new VR headset. Earlier this year, a patent filing was released by the U.S. government offices, which showed Valve filed a patent for an entirely new VR headset design. Back in September 2021, ArsTechnica claimed Valve was developing a new VR headset codenamed “Deckard,” which could well be both the device in the patent, as well as the one the new job listing mentions.

Read our full Steam Deck review to see what we made of Valve’s latest gadget in the PC gaming space.

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.