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Yesterday's morning came alongside a couple of interesting reveals, with one huge reveal being the "Super Mario Galaxy Movie" trailer, and another huge reveal that came as a surprise to many, was a brand new video announcement from Valve unveiling a handful of new hardware that they have planned for release in early 2026.

This new announcement came with 3 new hardware reveals by Valve, with the Steam Controller, the Steam Frame and the Steam Machine joining Valve's lineup in the hardware space.

To start off, the new Steam Controller is based on what the Steam Deck's controller scheme is, featuring the following:

• Usual 4 face buttons (A,B,Y,X)
• Two analog L2/R2 triggers alongside the digital L1/R1 triggers
• Two analog sticks with L3/R3 buttons with next generation magnetic thumbsticks and capacitive touch sensors
• 4 additional buttons similar to those from the Steam Deck, with two functioning as Start/Select, and the other two being the Steam button, and the 3-dot Quick Access button for opening the SteamOS menu.
• Four grip buttons, similar to the L4/R4/L5/R5 from the Steam Deck.
• Two trackpads below the sticks similar to those found on the Steam Deck.
• Motion controls
• High definition rumble
• Grip-enabled gyro
• Rechargeable lithium ion battery with up to 35 hours of playtime
• Each Steam Controller will include a "Pluck", which is a wireless magnetic charger for the controller.

Second, we have the new next generation VR headset by Valve, the Steam Frame, which features the following:

• Stream VR and non-VR games
• Wireless 6Ghz adapter for plug-and-play streaming of games into the headset
• Foveated streaming, which focuses details on parts where the eyes are focusing
• Camera-based tracking
• Special Steam Frame controllers, which can be split up and include almost every feature from the Steam Controller, like the magnetic thumbsticks, motion sensors, and works with the user's normal Steam library
• High-fidelity audio with dual stereo speakers
• 2160x2160 optic lenses, one-per eye
• Steam Frame is basically a PC, with it also running SteamOS, so users can play without a host PC
• Expandable storage with microSD.

Lastly, and without a doubt the most attractive part of the presentation, was the reveal of the brand new Steam Machine, which will serve as a main gaming PC running Steam OS with much higher specs than the Steam Deck, with Valve claiming it's about 6 times more powerful than the Steam Deck. The Steam Machine features the following specifications:

• Runs SteamOS 3 with KDE Plasma, games marked as verified for Steam Deck will be automatically verified for Steam Machine as well. However, the Steam Machine will include an exclusive verification system to let players know if a game is fully compatible with the Machine or not.
• Up to 4k 60 fps gaming with FSR.
• Customizable LED strip
• Small-form factor, with the whole hardware fitting into a 6inch cube, that some labeling it the "GabeCube", with 2.6kg in weight.
• Several peripherals:
  • 1 Gigabit ethernet port
  • DisplayPort 1.4 HDMI 2.0
  • Two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports in the front
  • Two USB-A 2.0 High speed ports in the back
    
  • One USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port in the back
  • One high-speed microSD card slot.
• 2x2 Wi-Fi 6E, plus Bluetooth 5.3 with a dedicated antenna.
• Available in two storage options, 512GB and 2TB, both being NVMe SSDs.
• Steam Machine's power supply is built right into the console.
• Full hardware specifications are as follows:
  • CPU: Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T, up to 4.8 GHz, 30W TDP
  • GPU: Semi-Custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs, 2.45GHz max sustained clock, 110W TDP
    
  • 16GB DDR5 RAM + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM

Without a doubt the most interesting part is Valve's entry into a main gaming console, or PC as some would like to see it, and most importantly, the operating system featured in the device will also be SteamOS, the same as the Steam Deck, giving users complete freedom over the device to install programs, emulators, or even bring their own PC/ROM/ISO library and play at their hearts content.

What new hardware from Valve are you most interested in? Let us know in the comments below!

Source

 

[subcon959]

Steam Machine is a cursed product name it seems. In this case, the timing of the PC will coincide with a massive jump in RAM cost due to AI and therefore Valve will find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Anyone familiar with modern PC gaming will know that price to performance is everything. Even the lowly 8GB VRAM would be acceptable if the system was cheap enough, but will they be able to keep costs down now?

 

[Xzi]

Steam Machine is a cursed product name it seems. In this case, the timing of the PC will coincide with a massive jump in RAM cost due to AI and therefore Valve will find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Anyone familiar with modern PC gaming will know that price to performance is everything. Even the lowly 8GB VRAM would be acceptable if the system was cheap enough, but will they be able to keep costs down now?

I don't think it will be hard for them to beat the price of a comparable pre-built PC, which would be somewhere in the $800 to $1000 range.

 

[subcon959]

I don't think it will be hard for them to beat the price of a comparable pre-built PC, which would be somewhere in the $800 to $1000 range.

I'm not sure if that was ever a concern. It's more a case of if they can still hit whatever their projected price point is. I'm hoping they choose to eat the extra cost of the RAM for launch and make it up later.

 

[Taleweaver]

As I've said in a user submitted thread: curious about all three, mostly the vr thing. Need to know price point, though. And i won't fund a totalitarian regime, so fix that first, okay?

 

[Xzi]

I'm not sure if that was ever a concern. It's more a case of if they can still hit whatever their projected price point is. I'm hoping they choose to eat the extra cost of the RAM for launch and make it up later.

Eh I think that's why they went with 16GB instead of 32GB. They did say it would be priced like a PC though, so people shouldn't expect miracles. It'll have long legs regardless, what with Nintendo pushing game key cards and PS6 most likely being digital only.

 

[yoyoyo69]

Thats exactly what everyine said about the Steam Deck and the Switch and here we are with only 4 million Steam Decks sold and 154 million Switch sales lol.

That stems almost entirely from lack of marketing and the fact Valve lacked any distribution channels, which they still mostly do.

Valve really need to consider expanding to more sale vendors, it's a double edged sword, there's more cost and complexity involved, but sales will never come close to the other consoles without it

At he moment, Valve almost entirely supplying to existing customers, not many new customers come to steam, as the device isn't as well known or experienced outside of their ecosystem

If they were to market and sell elsewhere they would attract a lot more new customers - Microsoft/Xbox dropping the ball immensely has worked out great for Clave and other competition. I wouldn't be surprised if

Microsoft announced details of the next console or some big change with the service, prior to the Steam console release (Valve seem to be avoiding the "Console" monicker)

One thing I haven't noticed anyone make the link on so far, despite it being rumour by a couple of people last year, the VR console can stream to the headset, whether the dongle would allow this as a direct link (not over home network, for reduced latency), who knows

The GPU in the hole console combined with eye tracking and likely other tricks Valve have I place, possibly even making use of the headsets onboard grunt to offload some basic work (unlikely), should be a very capable combination for a lot of vr gaming

 

[Plume]

While my interest in the Gabecube™ is low due to it being mostly a low-mid range PC in a small form factor (Which they mentioned in an interview as being priced higher than console as it's a PC.), the other two hardware bits are appealing.

First is a second generation Steam Controller which honestly might be the most feature packed without going for one of those terrible "Premium" controller. (Every 150+ bucks controller I ever bought lasted barely 1.5 years without showing issues. I don't trust that garbage anymore and stick to standard first party models and maybe 8Bit do.), the only thing I might miss are the adaptive triggers from the Dualsense.
Although I'm sadly not fond of the symmetrical stick layout. Xbox/Nintendo's stick layout has always felt comfier to me.
While I rarely use it nowadays, I still got a first generation Steam Controller and I still like it a lot.

Second is basically a dream VR headset... And the software powering it.
That bad boy runs SteamOS... On ARM. What the heck?! So, it basically is a PC that you can wear on your head, and that can run some flatscreen PC games and apps too. Valve, what kind of black magic is that?
They clearly made some price-cutting decisions, such as LCD panels and monochrome passthrough, but since it's intended to be a gaming-first headset, not an XR device, it makes sense. They also mentionned in an interview that it won't be priced higher than the Valve Index (Without mentionning if they were talking about the Index bundles or the index itself... I personally expect it to be priced at least at 700 bucks with the tech it embarks.)
But overall, SteamOS, Eye Tracking, a WiFi6 dongle, nice looking VR controller with actually good sticks (VR controller sticks so far were all garbage, especially meta's.), and a front expansion port that may allow color passthrough/face tracking addons... Yup, it may be the VR headset I've been waiting for.
The software powering it is neat too... I cannot overstate how insane an emulation layer basically allowing x86 stuff to run on ARM is. So it can run PCVR games in standalone mode. Also, that WiFi 6 band and dongle dedicated to streaming, coupled with foveated streaming ro maximize quality while guaranteeing low latency is quite cool. Hopefully a mainstream headset getting eye tracking might lead PCVR developers to also consider implementing foveated rendering in more of their games too.

Anyways, overall I'm excited. Not that I can afford any of that lol

 

[vlababa]

Finally some exciting times for PC gaming again. I’m optimistic for a low price compared to what you’d get buying the parts yourself. I don’t think they can get away with pricing this higher than a console either.

 

[MarkDarkness]

Finally Valve is progressing towards replacing Windows in desktops, as I said they would. It'll be such a pleasure to be rid of Windows 11... up until 10 it was still a good trade-off, but 11 is just a funnel for Microsoft's subscription services, not an actual OS.

 

[lordelan]

Steam Frame is basically a PC, with it also running SteamOS, so users can play without a host PC

It's even better. It's basically a PC while technically being a "phone". Jokes aside: It runs an ARM processor (Snapdragon) but still ships with SteamOS which makes it the first time ever for Valve to enable x86-64 games to run on ARM based chips thanks to their new translation layer FEX.
This is huge because while we already had other solutions like GameHub, Winlator, GameNative and whatever else, this comes officially from Valve, meaning they will pump as much money as needed into it to run as good as possible, just like they did with Proton. And guys, you all should take a short break and think about what Proton actually achieved. If you had just any slight experience how gaming under Linux was before Proton, with only Wine and its few forks, you realize how amazing and how big of an achievement it is.

I don't think FEX can become as good as Proton, letting us play the newest AAA games even faster than on Windows, because directing sys-calls within the same architecture (what Proton is) is still hugely different from translating between x86 and ARM but nonetheless, FEX will highly likely surpass those other current (already great) solutions.

What that means is, that this potentially (!) turns every single of those chinese handhelds from Anbernic and Retroid into little Steam Decks, of course depending on their power, the community devs and whether the bootloader is open or not.

With GameNative and other services and thanks to the new ES-DE update, it's already possible to play Steam Games relatively easy on something like the Ayn Thor:


This'll only get better in the future. Great times ahead, folks!

 

[Skelletonike]

Unless it costs less than a PS5, it will not be worth it.
Most of the games aren't really plug and play as many people seem to think, PC games still focus more on the traditional keyboard+mouse controls. There's also that unlike the Steam Deck, this does not have the benefit of portability so it will definitely sell less than the Steam Deck, I doubt most devs will even bother to optimize their games for this.

 

[UltraHurricane]

Eh I think that's why they went with 16GB instead of 32GB. They did say it would be priced like a PC though, so people shouldn't expect miracles. It'll have long legs regardless, what with Nintendo pushing game key cards and PS6 most likely being digital only.

i hate that this'll probably be the most exciting hardware announcement this decade cause personally what could Sony even offer that'll realistically entice people to a PS6? Slightly better hardware at a higher cost on their still closed ecosystem of dwindling exclusives?

hell... even at $700 it would still feel like a better value than anything a PS5 Pro or PS6 could offer

 

[Dark_Ansem]

While the Gabecube is real, I can't say I am overly impressed

 

[UltraHurricane]

Unless it costs less than a PS5, it will not be worth it.
Most of the games aren't really plug and play as many people seem to think, PC games still focus more on the traditional keyboard+mouse controls. There's also that unlike the Steam Deck, this does not have the benefit of portability so it will definitely sell less than the Steam Deck, I doubt most devs will even bother to optimize their games for this.

bruh... unless you only play Civ or Counter Strike, most PC games today are also made for consoles and have controller options readily available through Steam, like this ain't the 2000's anymore lol

and also there doesn't need to be much optimization given that it's already a PC and should run 99% of games fine at 1080p which most gamers are playing at anyway if we're going by Steam Hardware survey

 

[voddy]

thats some good news but my wallet will surely cry after those releases

 

[subcon959]

Finally Valve is progressing towards replacing Windows in desktops, as I said they would. It'll be such a pleasure to be rid of Windows 11... up until 10 it was still a good trade-off, but 11 is just a funnel for Microsoft's subscription services, not an actual OS.

They seem to be taking a bottom-up approach by targeting the low end users. It's smart in a way but also frustrating for those that just want a proper desktop release of SteamOS.

 

[Lumpofcoal]

There's something to be said when xbox is seemingly pulling back from its own console while valve confidently expands on it.

But I hope that valve will make it available in more regions this time. While the deck was popular, it was not officially (ie couldn't buy directly from steam nor its distributor) available in many parts of the world.

 

[Skelletonike]

bruh... unless you only play Civ or Counter Strike, most PC games today are also made for consoles and have controller options readily available through Steam, like this ain't the 2000's anymore lol

and also there doesn't need to be much optimization given that it's already a PC and should run 99% of games fine at 1080p which most gamers are playing at anyway if we're going by Steam Hardware survey

View attachment 539307

I've had a Steam Deck since day one. A lot of games that have console ports do not have the same controller support on PC, most CRPG's for example come to mind. Same goes for games that have the little green checkmark.

 

[UltraHurricane]

I've had a Steam Deck since day one. A lot of games that have console ports do not have the same controller support on PC, most CRPG's for example come to mind. Same goes for games that have the little green checkmark.

Mind citing some specific titles? Cause most games i play on my Steam Deck have console ports too and run with little issue, even stuff like Balder's Gate 3

nearly every normie AAA title will run fine and play like it's on a console for the most part, which is clearly what this machine is aimed at but there's nothing that actually stops you from using it like a pc if you need to play games like a pc, that's it's major advantage over something like a PS5

 

[PatrickD85]

Well, might be neat to have a Steamcube ... but price is going to be the factor here.