Based on the recent development work that appears to be happening in SteamVR for Linux, which hasn't gotten that much love since a couple months after Alyx released, my money is on this being a "standalone" VR headset. That said, I'll be happy with almost anything at this point, I really enjoy pretty much all the hardware Valve has made over the years, and trying out their ideas for new ways to interact with games is always fun.

My money is on Steam Controller 2, but what do I know.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

South Korea’s National Radio Research Agency has certified a “low power wireless device” from Valve with the designation “RC-V1V-1030,” as spotted by @dxpl at Arca.live (via Brad Lynch).

The South Korean certification tells us basically nothing about the device, save that it uses 5GHz Wi-Fi, which most computers already have at this point.

But telecommunications regulatory agencies typically don’t require certification for internal prototypes — only if you’re going to import at least a small quantity of devices in a country, and maybe put them on sale.

There are other hints in Valve’s own code, however — Phoronix’s Michael Larabel spotted that Valve has added new changes around the Steam Deck’s Van Gogh APU, including the mysterious product name “Galileo” and product family “Sephiroth.” (Aerith, closely connected to Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII, is another name for the Deck’s APU.)

While Larabel initially suggests it might just be a Steam Deck refresh reference board, Valve’s Greg Coomer told me in 2021 that the Steam Deck’s existing APU might make sense in a standalone VR headset.

A standalone VR headset codenamed Deckard was at least being prototyped inside Valve, sources confirmed to YouTuber Brad Lynch and Ars Technica back in 2021, and some patent images made the rounds last June.

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I would love a slightly narrower and overall smaller steam deck. It’s great at home but I think twice about bringing it when flying already with a laptop and iPad.

This is exciting, regardless of what it could be!

Steam Deck 2 with detachable controller, like the switch. I'd buy one right away.