These niche, expensive VR headsets will fill the gap Meta Quest has left behind in 2025

Earlier this week, a prominent Valve leaker promised we'd finally see Valve's wireless VR successor to the Index, codenamed Deckard, in 2025. With Meta fully targeting the low end with budget hardware and free-to-play games, I'm relieved that at least three XR companies are swooping in to keep VR power users happy in 2025.

According to Gabe Follower, several people "have confirmed" Deckard will arrive "by the end of 2025," running the same SteamOS as Steam Deck and priced at a whopping $1,200 for the full bundle with "in-house games" — and it'll still "be sold at a loss" despite that price.

Unlike Valve Index, its long-awaited successor will be wireless and won't require a separate PC to play games. Valve clearly recognized the mass appeal of wireless, standalone Quest headsets and the recent popularity of portable PCs like Steam Deck when designing Deckard.

The key difference from Quest is that Meta makes strategic design cutbacks to target the lowest possible price point for mass appeal, while Deckard isn't holding anything back, with a price that reflects that philosophy. Does that make Deckard irrelevant?

Former Meta CTO John Carmack recently trivialized PC VR as a "boutique niche" and downplayed the critically acclaimed Half-Life: Alyx as less "important" than Beat Saber. Right now, mainstream VR fans are flocking to the Meta Quest 3S and spending all their time playing Gorilla Tag and Horizon Worlds. Meta itself pivoted to prioritize free-to-play content because microtransactions make more money than high-quality Quest games.

So, in that context, you might assume that the ultra-powerful Deckard will be nothing but a PC VR novelty for a tiny ecosystem of vocal fans with too much money. But I'd argue it represents much more than that.

For starters, even if PC VR sales are much lower than Quest's, that was always in part because of the effort required to get Steam Link working and the extra PC cost. An all-in-one device with native Steam Link — instead of Meta's often-irritating and buggy wireless workaround — will give PC VR the same mainstream appeal as the Meta store. And we could see more VR-2D crossplay with Steam games like Among Us 3D bridging the gap.

More importantly, with PSVR 2 flopping and Apple's unclear XR future after the exorbitant Vision Pro, we need more competition in the VR gaming space. Specifically, I think we need a AAA alternative to Quest to remind gamers that VR isn't fully becoming a kiddie metaverse. The "boutique niche" matters, at least to keep developers invested in the space.

Valve, Samsung, or Asus? Take your pick!

Valve Deckard is just one potential Quest "rival" that'll provide a much-needed breath of fresh air for consumers and developers, even if its raw sales can't compete with the eventual Quest 4.

Another competitor is Project Moohan, Samsung's premium headset powered by Google's Android XR platform, which could cost even more than Deckard. Google and Samsung have assured devs that they want to support VR games on Moohan; even if it's more of a Quest Pro or Vision Pro analog, Samsung's headset should appeal to people who want a better balance of games and apps, as well as a high-res virtual desktop space.

In some ways, I'm most intrigued by the third-party Meta Horizon OS headsets, like the upcoming ASUS ROG VR headset. Meta is sharing its software and gaming library with companies like Lenovo and ASUS, and the latter is specifically making a "performance gaming headset."

Prominent VR leaker Lunayian claims this headset is codenamed Tarius and that it "will likely be one of the first 3P Horizon OS HMDs to ship." Tarius allegedly has eye and face tracking, as well as advanced displays with either "QD-LCD with local dimming or μOLED."

Whether we get micro-OLED on par with the Apple Vision Pro or simply get local dimming like the original Quest Pro offered, it'll be a step up on most Quest headsets, not to mention eye tracking for improved performance via foveated rendering and better avatars for social VR with face tracking.

I wouldn't be surprised if this version ends up costing twice as much as the Quest 3, but it'll feel like a version of Quest that's no longer holding back in terms of performance and cameras. Meta's concept art above seems to suggest the ASUS ROG headset will have an Elite-style strap built in, which any premium headset should have by default. Best of all, your Quest library will carry over to this headset because of Meta Horizon OS.

We don't know if this headset will arrive in 2025 like Moohan and Deckard, but we have a strong reason to hope!

Our best VR headsets list has been too short and Quest-dominated for a long time. It's not that I dislike Quest, but I believe that competition is desperately needed to keep the VR space fresh and exciting.

I'm increasingly hopeful that 2025 will be the year that the VR world is shaken up. Aside from Valve Deckard, Samsung Project Moohan, and ASUS ROG Tarius, we have Sony's productivity headset running Android XR and Lenovo's productivity headset running Meta Horizon OS. The latter two aren't especially exciting to me personally, but I know they'll appeal to folks who couldn't afford the Vision Pro.

Personally, based on the leaked info above, I'm going to take a long, hard look at my budget to see if I'll be able to afford Deckard later this year.