Facebook Connect is certainly the marquee VR event this month, but it looks like other companies are hoping to steal a bit of the spotlight. First HTC teased an upcoming product to be revealed next week, and now high-end headset marker Varjo says it plans to unveil its “most highly anticipated product release yet” on October 21st, just days before Facebook Connect on the 26th.

Varjo today announced an upcoming product reveal slated for October 21st. Details are extremely light at the moment, with the company teasing with phrases like “the time has come,” and “this is the one you’ve been waiting for.” And then there’s the ambitious claim that the announcement will “raise virtual reality to a whole new playing field.” You can register for the event here if you’d like to watch it stream live on the 21st at 12PM ET (your timezone here).

Varjo makes high-end enterprise headsets that make other enterprise headsets, like the $1,400 Vive Pro 2 look cheap by comparison. Despite the price, the company’s headsets really do deliver some unmatched features, like true retina resolution at the center of the display, precise eye-tracking with automatic IPD adjustment, best-in-class hand-tracking, and (for their flagship headset) full-color passthrough with a wide field-of-view.

Just a few months ago I went hands-on with the company’s latest flagship device, the XR-3 and came away feeling like the company is continuing to make its headsets better while at the same time making them cheaper. But they’re still far from affordable, even among enterprise headsets, with prices starting at $3,200 (+$800 annually).

Photo by Road to VR

If the company can continue the trend of offering its high-end features at lower and lower prices, it could start to see demand from the lower end of the enterprise market.

That would be great to see, if the company is announcing a new headset on the 21st, but that’s far from certain. Varjo has also been pursuing a range of interesting ideas based on the mixed reality capabilities of its headsets, like the recently announced ‘Varjo Reality Cloud’ which aims to ‘teleport’ users between real world spaces by using the headset to scan the room around them and then stream that space to others.

More recently the company teased an upcoming ‘real-time masking’ functionality for its mixed reality headsets which allows users to select portions of the real-world to bring into virtual reality experiences. In an example below they map out a steering wheel peripheral to be displayed inside of a VR racing game.

Whether its hardware or software that the company plans to reveal on the 21st, they always seem to have something intriguing up their sleeves and we’ll be watching to see what’s next.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Source Caster

    Now THAT is interesting!

  • jiink

    That steering wheel video is really cool. Looks like it has support for April Tag tracking, that ought to be how it knows its position and rotation!

  • gothicvillas

    Whoa i want this but i know i cant afford it

  • Thud

    Can you post a link to the VARJO teaser?

  • Holdup

    This month is the most exciting month in the vr space, can’t wait to see what the competitions got up their sleeves

  • XRC

    Pupil swim?

  • ViRGiN

    VR is primarily limited by software, not hardware. Nothing will be game changing even with 16K per eye.

    • GunnyNinja

      Say you’ve flown Flight Simulator without telling us you’ve never flown Flight Simulator…

      • ViRGiN

        Says you’re PCVR elitists who is naming the very same few games for years.
        It’s always flight/racing simulator and Alyx, isn’t it?

        • Source Caster

          Dude, we’re at the very start of VR industry. There will be more. Much more. And pretty soon.

          • ViRGiN

            How soon? I’m waiting since 2013.

          • Arturs Gerskovics

            What are you waiting? Just enjoy what there is. Waiting is for fools.

          • ViRGiN

            What am i supposed to play, Beat Saber and pavlov for years to come? I’m waiting cause there is nothing substantial. There is nothing to enjoy out there. Tech is great, games sucks

          • Mrfox Babbit

            This 100%. To me, all that’s worth playing would be sims, flight/race/tank. Beat sabre and all the other “me too” middling shovelware /mobile quality games are of no interest whatsoever.

          • Lulu Vi Britannia

            Echo:Arena, Brass Tactics, Talos Principle, Five Nights at Freddy’s Help Wanted, The Unspoken, Asgard’s Wrath, Medal of Honor, The Walking Dead Saints&Sinner.

            There. None of those games are sims or Rec Room. There is content in VR, you just need to be able to look for it. Apparently that’s too hard for some.

          • ViRGiN

            And? I’ve played over half of your list, the rest doesn’t interest me. And those games outside like two titles aren’t substantial. Listing last year games or even older further proves my point.

          • Lulu Vi Britannia

            Content is content, no matter when it was released. And no one cares what interests you, if you’re close-minded, that’s on you. You said there were no good games outside sims and RecRoom, that’s plain wrong. There’s plenty. As for substance : multiplayer games are unlimited as long as you’re social, and a lot of VR single player games are longer than 8 hours, some are longer than 20, which is a common length for single player.

            VR content is here, it just doesn’t have marketing, so most people don’t know most games.

          • ViRGiN

            Where did i say that? Stop projecting. And stop acting like there is real content out there – it’s primarily tech demos. You must have gotten into vr last year or so, so everything is fresh for you and you’re still in honeymoon.

            So many good games that the top 3 games haven’t changed in 4 years based on online player counts..

            Nothing unlimited about pavlov. Sold for over 4 years, still early access, still as medicore as always. Nobody would play it on flat screen because it has nothing new and substantial. I bet you’re the kind of person telling people who want gta vr to play GangV instead..

          • Lulu Vi Britannia

            That’s in your latest comment, dumbass. “Listing last year games or even older further proves my point.”

            You downplay titles BECAUSE they’re not from this year, to which I responded: content is content, no matter when it was released.

            I’m not the kind to tell people there’s a GTA-like game already, but I’m from those people who have a brain (you know, what every human being is supposed to have). A game doesn’t have to be 200 hours long to be fun (by the way, very bad example, GTA isn’t the kind of game that’s fun on the long run ; people play it for the campaign, which is 30 hours long, and the multiplayer, which is why Rockstar developed GTA Online for 8 years).

            A multiplayer game is unlimited as long as you play with others. I’m not talking about content here, I’m talking about how to have fun. Even minigames are fun with people, but you’re definitely the kind to discredit this type of game because “TheY’re NoT ReaL gAmes”.

            Anyway, I’m done here. Keep making a clown out of yourself.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            Well, I’ve been waiting since 1995, when I got my Forte VFX-1.

          • ViRGiN

            If you bought into the 90s vr hype, that’s all on you. Didn’t take a genius to realise the tech simply isn’t there.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            Well back then it was amazing, still think, despite its size, it was one of the best headsets in regard to comfort and certainly in regard to setting it up, you could focus each eye and set the IPD. Later I got the vuzix vr920 but never really liked how it sat on my nose. Still wonder why vuzix didn’t continue into VR.

        • GunnyNinja

          Never played Alyx. It’s really irrelevant which game it is. I chose a game that needs a nuclear reactor to run it smoothly in VR. Your contention about hardware not being the main limiting factor is just wrong. Your bias about certain types of games is not my concern. My point is that we scarcely have the hardware to run the best games we currently have at decent framerates. There are plenty of games that run just fine on an Oculus Rift and a modest PC. They don’t look that good. MSFS is a photoreal sim, and in VR on a Reverb G2 it looks like real life. In photos…

          • ViRGiN

            Flight/racing simulators crowd niche doesn’t make a viable market.
            And no, there is no computer in existence that can run those titles in high/est settings in vr.

            Of course the original post was a hyperbole to degree, but in general, “better” hardware with current software available will see extremely diminishing returns. You could argue that beat saber and tetris vr in 16k per eye are game changing.

          • GunnyNinja

            I would not argue any such thing. Better graphics would not improve those games. I use VR to do things I couldn’t otherwise do. Like fly a 787. I have no interest in slashing at boxes flying my way to music. For me, the Reality in VR is the reason I use it. You can call these genres niche, but I haven’t seen anything more ambitious yet. I also don’t see what makes me elitist by owning something as common as a toaster.

          • ViRGiN

            Because there isn’t anything more ambitious, that’s the whole point.

            Simulators are like the only games that would really, truly, without being a gimmick, benefit with increased resolution. But that’s still a very niche inside niche, and that doesn’t create a viable market. Hence why i don’t expect a consumer pricing on new Varjo, whatever that means.

            Everything else won’t be truly much better, immersive, or even more fun. The last thing VR market needs is yet another hardware. Software is the king.

          • Raphael

            Actually there are plenty of computers that can run MSFS in VR on highest settings… just not in their current poorly optimised state. Same applies to DCS World. Both simulators don’t even utilise 50% of a gaming PC’s VR potential. It’s like flying an F16 with leaking fuel and broken afterburner.

            If these flight sims ran with Vulkan API and supported multi-threading we’d see a big leap in performance. However, there is more potential VR performance available in the form of Nvidia VRworks. If devs made use of VR hardware acceleration for Nvidia users then you’d get a massive performance boost and that PC hardware would be fully utilised. Performance even on a 1070 would be smooth and on a 1080Ti would be excellent.

            Sadly VRworks VR hardware acceleration is another example of Nvidia failing to push/promote their features. Only a handful of games support VRworks but those games saw a massive boost in performance.

        • ZarathustraDK

          It’s easier to create low-spec games than high spec ones, though I certainly prefer the latter. Some day you’ll get tired of the minimalistic Goldeneye-graphics that keeps the Quest from catching fire and move on from mobile VR to PCVR. Lawnmover Man was cool and all, but consider that this 1992-movie’s VFX is on par with your standard Quest game and you might understand why some of us want to press the envelope of our hardware instead of having the option of running around like a douche in the park with an untethered headset.

          Flex your exclusives all you want, I don’t care about “Big name triple-A titles” when shit looks like polygon-origami upon closer inspection. Get ready to pay a second time for all the “rehashed for VR” early 2000’s games that are coming.

          • ViRGiN

            Thinking i dont have pcvr shows your bias. Pcvr is in horrible state, and over 4 year long dominance of 3 games – bsaber, rec room and pavlov vr – any time of the day, any month of the year – underlines it perfectly.
            There is nothing high end about those games. There are barely quality titles available for pcvr. I’m all for quadruple A games, but they simply aren’t coming, and existing ones are few far in between.

            Tell me the beautiful looking, masterpiece gameplay games, without naming simulators, and alyx.

            Just look at what is actually being released on pcvr. All indie crap that is actually mobile, but so unoptimized that they just rely on horsepower of pc.

            You can build the most expensive pcvr capable pc, purchase even a varjo headset, and there is still barely anything to play that does it’s justice. Remember how much MOH was shat on on release? Granted it’s not perfect, and failed on pcvr, and i bet it will be successful on mobile.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            But the problem is that the hardware needed to drive AAA looking VR games is way too expensive at this time, next to hard to come by, so for many studio’s not an option to release a game like that as the market is too small. But the advantage of having to deal with a platform like the Quest 2 is that you can optimize it to the hardware (like with other consoles), which with PCVR isn’t a viable option due to the gazillion possible configurations.

    • Ratm

      Ofc we dont have games.
      Have you ever wonder why companies didnt trie to take those few vr bucks that are out there just by patching their games in vr?
      Logicaly Even small amounts of money should have been welcome…
      Imagine bioshock in vr…
      Not that lightshow crap from that half life ofered..

      • ViRGiN

        Yeah software offering has been pretty draught all these years.

        Alyx was an overhyped turd that wouldn’t be relevant if it wasn’t for the half life title.

        There is an entire portfolio of games that would work great in VR, released for over a decade. I’m excited for the upcoming RE4. Looks very solid.

        Even COD4 reusing the very same assets would be a game changer. Check COD Mobile – looks great, tons of content, regular updates. Imagine if we had this level of polish for VR games…

        • Janosch Obenauer

          I’d say VR is primarily limited by friction and lack of comfort at this point.

        • Gonzax

          Was that a joke??? yeah, I’ll take it as a joke because no one in their right mind would say Alyx was an overhyped turd.

          • ViRGiN

            So you must be new to vr, cause alyx was designed for handicapped people primarily, that’s why you can finish it all with one hand.

            It was boring. It was not amazing. It had ridiculous amount of guns, interactivity, and shitty puzzles.

            If that game really impressed you, you must have very low standards

          • kebo

            Please tell us your games so we can understand your high standards. HL:A is the best rated VR title (most/best reviews). Nothing exept Beat Saber comes even close.

            Soon we will have Bioshock as a complete mod for HL:A with new guns, enemies and stuff..

          • ViRGiN

            Anything Valve will be glorified by fanboys.

            Even Pavlov, Onward, Contractors, Boneworks beat Alyx to proper vr usage, such as two handed weapons, real reloading, jumping, climbing, using pockets, driving vehicles.. list is infinite. But no, I’m not falling for that turd Alyx. Neither I’m impressed by beat saber which is equivalent of Sudoku for vr headset.

            Anyway, pcvr users collectively agreed the best pc has to offer is recroom, bsaber and pavlov.

            I don’t care about modded games in nearly 2022. We were supposed to get Halo mod too. And if you want rated modded games – even Alien Isolation is a better game than Alyx

          • kebo

            You list online multiplayer shooters. HL:A is a single player story driven campaign.. Only Boneworks is a game you mentioned in that category. It has cool VR stuff (sometimes not quite on point) but it really looks like lego land so it’s hard to get immersed in that world. Yeah: world building and level/character design is a thing, even in VR. If lego land is your standard then you could go for Quest games. You don’t need a PC.

            And Alien Isolation…. jeeeeez. I played the whole game in VR and i enjoyed it. But better than Alyx? Could you please play that mod before you talk about it? The controls are basicly unchanged (no motion controls etc.). It’s like playing the game on a normal controller or mouse+keyboard.

          • Holdup

            Onward is really fun tho, I’ve made some great memories in that world.

          • ViRGiN

            I’ve stopped playing long time ago. Ridiculous how is still early access, 5 years after rolling onto steam, getting help from valve and Oculus, and recently being acquired by Facebook..

    • Raphael

      The key thing to note is that nothing will change with 16k per eye at $3000 or even $1500. If 16k per eye launched at $300 or less then content would begin to appear in the same way as it has for Oculus Quest. Oculus quest uptake is very healthy even when you factor in the mistrust and hostility towards facebook.

      • Andrew Jakobs

        Except good luck getting a GPU that would be capable of driving the headsets. At the moment it’s even difficult to get your hands on a GPU that would have no trouble (with real native settings) driving the latest headsets, without having to fork your life over to the devil.

    • You do realize don’t you, that Varjo is an enterprise-focused company? Not everything in VR is about video games.

      • ViRGiN

        Yeah and? Enterprises are already using Varjo. You do realize, don’t you, that this website is primarily about gaming and so are most of the users?

        Still it doesn’t change the original point of the statement.

        • The site is about VR. Get over yourself — you’re not some sort of VR prophet. You’re just another schmuck with an opinion, one that’s usually wrong.

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    • Charles

      There’s plenty of great VR software by now. But better and more comfortable hardware would draw more users, which would draw more AAA developers.

      • ViRGiN

        No, it wouldn’t draw more developers. We are long time away from lightweight comfortable powerful headsets. Getting more balance by putting most hardware in the back strap has benefits, but it doesn’t change the ultimate form factor. And that form factor and even worse technology never stopped multiple AAA games being developed for PSVR.

        • Charles

          PSVR is a unique case. The Playstation 4 is a massively popular console by a massively-wealthy corporation, and they made special deals with AAA developers to make sure some of their games are compatible with their headset. The PSVR quickly became the #1 best-selling headset, which further motivated AAA companies to support it.

  • John

    I’m hoping for a consumer gaming headset with a ‘consumer’ pricetag… If this is the case, Varjo will likely accelerate the adoption of VR in the world market.

    • What’s the highest you’d pay …?

      • John

        I would pay a similar price to that if the 8KX at most. However that cost is out of reach for the majority of enthusiasts..

      • Arturs Gerskovics

        I would pay up to €1500 and no im not loaded with money :) Same goes for Index 2, I really wish they dont cut corners and pack it full and price accordingly. My Index 1 is now 2 years old, and Im shopping for my next headset for the next 2 years. Not interested in budget HMDs, I have Quest 2 already for little fun experiences.

        • Art Sin

          TBh, If Resident evil 4 VR is a faithful remaster, Quest 2 will have one of the best, fully fledged VR games out there. 16 – 30 hours long. This time next year, I see a lot more Quest games like this.

    • MeowMix

      what we’ve learned the past handful of years is as long as it’s dependent on a VR capable PC, then it won’t accelerate VR adoption. It can be sub-$400 and it won’t matter.

      • Holdup

        That’s why console gaming always been more popular than PC, even tho PC usually have graphics one generation ahead of consoles. People just can’t afford a gaming PC.

        • Art Sin

          yep and that’s why stand alone is the VR market to push it in to the mainstream. PCVR will never be mainstream.

    • John

      The only things that accelerate VR adoption is lowering ther entrybar, imrpoving ease of use and shortening time2play. Only standalone can do that. High end PCVR devices will always push the limit, but they dont accelerate VR adoption at all.

      • Tabp

        Go look at the big adoption increase from Alyx’s release, or even better look at what the original CV1 and Vive releases did for the market. You couldn’t be more wrong.

  • blue5peed

    Any Predictions? I honestly don’t know what to expect I just hope its a consumer headset that doesn’t cost both kidneys. One kidney is reasonable.

    • Rudl Za Vedno

      European Index price ($1300/1059€) is my bet on pricing.

  • mirak

    You still manage to throw Facebook in.

  • Hokhmah

    I’m surprised reading stuff like “But they’re still far from affordable, even among enterprise headsets, with prices starting at $3,200 (+$800 annually).” If you have a serious business/R&D department, then the difference between 1.5K or 4K should be peanuts. You just get the best VR headset as long as it’s still in a reasonable price range.

    That’s why I also don’t understand what was HTCs intention with the Vive Pro 2. It’s neither fish nor meat. For business/enterprise I would go with Varjo. For private consumers it’s too expensive while not even being the best in every aspect. Worse lense design, FOV, audio, ergonomy and mic than Index. Only the display is better.

    Even for VR arcades I wouldn’t say the VP2 is first choice cause the sweet spot between price and performance is better on other headsets.

  • Dawid

    So more likely soon we will see something new from Varjo, Oculus, Valve and HTC. I wonder why HP is silent? Do they have any plans for the Reverb G3?

  • Ratm

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  • Ted Joseph

    Now THAT is awesome!

  • Man, October is becoming VR month, wow

  • Rudl Za Vedno

    MAN, this headset could be epic! I have no doubts it will have the best image quality… It will all come down to pricing. If Varjo can somehow bring price into the 1000 bucks realm this will be THE PCVR headset to buy.

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  • Duckman

    Too bad high end graphics cards are still so expensive.

  • Christian Schildwaechter

    Both the Varjo and HTC teaser most likely aren’t about introducing some revolutionary consumer product. The market hasn’t suddenly exploded and made building consumer VR a viable business model for anybody not in a ten year metaverse dominance race.

    This looks more like proactively protecting their current dominance in the enterprise VR market. They are most likely anticipating that Facebook will present the Quest Pro at Facebook Connect, which will aim at the same enterprise customers. But since the Quest Pro will most likely share a lot of technology with the Quest 2, Facebook can produce it at a much lower price than HTC or Varjo could. And thanks to the billions FRL is allowed to spend, it could have some significantly improved features, e.g. Facebook eye tracking could be way ahead. If Facebook has figured out a way to significantly reduce performance requirements with dynamic foveated rendering, a standalone Quest Pro might even take away the performance advantage the XR-3 or VP2 have thanks to running on high end PC GPUs.

    So my guess is that this is Varjo/HTC making some noise to remind enterprise VR customers that they have well established tools and solutions and are working hard to improve their services. Enterprise business is often less about hardware and more about service, and if FB presents the Quest Pro, they too will most likely talk a lot about Horizon Workroom and the benefits of virtual meetings instead of frame rates or resolutions. By creating news close to Facebook Connect, Varjo/HTC can (try to) prevent that in two weeks people get the impression that FB just invented enterprise VR.

  • Jonathan Winters III

    Ah, same megahype marketing like HTC and others. Followed by a letdown.

    Quest 2 has the consumer VR market by the tail, and there’s no way anyone else is going to become a serious competitor at this point. Which is fine by me – $299 is unbeatable for what Quest 2 offers, both in hardware and the Oculus app store.

    • VRFriend

      well said.

  • High-end consumer headset for €1000?

  • nullcodes

    Varjo is definitely the headset to have, if you can afford it. Even if you can’t, it’s worth downgrading your car for and maybe skipping a vacation or two .. I mean you can go anywhere in VR.

  • VRFriend

    Cables, cables. Should be the end of cables.

  • VRFriend

    Samsung Odyssey 2 – where is it?

  • oomph2

    still a box or your face