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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

 

[64bitmodels]

steam controller and steam frame hell yes
Steam should have done the SC2 years ago, the deck control scheme is easily the best of any gaming system i have used up until now including controllers
Steam Frame is also great too, a streaming focused VR headset is golden especially since streaming to PC on a Quest 3 fucking sucks, and even just linking with a wired cable gives way too many problems. Eye tracking is also a massive plus considering how rare it still is on most headsets despite being a massive revolution for performance and streaming

Steam machine was DOA when they announced 8gb of VRAM.

I see a lot of people talking about hoow 8GB of VRAM is perfectly serviceable in 2025. I can understand that as I too used an 8gb card for many years until getting my 9070 in may

The problem is that this thing will be pricey- whether or not because of Valve greed, or the general shitty state of the tech market at the moment. The PS5 and Xbox at least have the benefit of being already launched products before modern day, so Microsoft and Sony have (even if a small one) an obligation to hold close enough to the original MSRP. Plus the benefit of being multi million sellers with a massive huge used market. even if you dont like the current MSRPs of these consoles (for good reason) theres a million people on Ebay who will give up their PS5s for 300 bucks, let alone the deals you might find on more obscure sites, or a local gamer near you.
This thing will come out of the gate costing 600 or even 700 dollars (remember, 8gb vram in a time where console GPUs can allocate more of that from the ram space) and at that price the value proposition is dumb. It's simply smarter to either cheap out and get a PS5 that will still play plenty or go on a spree and build the parts for your custom built and largely superior computer.

I get that PC's benefits are numerous and large, but Valve is dipping their toes into a market with vastly different standards. A lot of people looking for a cheap gaming device just want something that plays video games.
in my opinion this thing will only do well if they bite hard on the bullet and charge less than 450 for it. Especially since it'd be a beacon of light in the current era of price hikes

 

[petran79]

Niche PC for Steam addicts. Moving along

 

[subcon959]

If anyone is serious about getting a Steam Machine then I would recommend trying to get one as early as possible. There's a good chance Valve got an allocation of RAM a while back and therefore got a decent deal, but at some point they will need to order new components for production and I'm pretty sure that will have to come with a price increase.

 

[Xzi]

Niche PC for Steam addicts. Moving along

Not at all who they're targeting. "Steam addicts" and core PC gamers put together their own PCs with higher specs than this. Only reason they might buy one is for their families to use in the living room.

Rooting for this to fail is stupid, the console space is in desperate need of a strong competitor to demonstrate how far they've fallen in comparison. PS5 is the only home console worth a damn this generation, and that's despite the fact that Sony has wasted years releasing nothing but live-service slop. Very little excitement out there right now for a PS6 or a potential Xbox XXX.

 

[lordofcombo]

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.

marketing issue.The steam deck didnt have exclusive games ,just steam games.

 

[Ondrashek06]

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.

I mean, that's to be expected. Nintendo has a metric fuckton of IPs they sit on and only release for their consoles as exclusives.

Valve's main selling point for the Deck was "you can take most of your PC games with you in a portable format", so there's no incentive to buy it if you don't already have a big Steam library and want to play through your backlog when you're not at home.

 

[Xzi]

marketing issue.The steam deck didnt have exclusive games ,just steam games.

That's the thing people aren't considering. Valve COULD have run ads for Steam Deck on TV and all over the internet. They COULD have had Steam Deck on retail store shelves right next to the Switch. They didn't need to do any of that though, because they already had direct access to a receptive audience. They had the infrastructure for reasonable demand ready to go, and it still sold out for months after launch. For that matter, I don't think Deck has ever left the top sellers list on Steam since.

Yes, technically they are competing with other hardware, but more than that, they're setting a higher standard for it. The tech savvy audience gets to salivate at the freedom their hardware allows for, and the casual audience gets a much more approachable console-like UX to ease them in to PC gaming for the first time. Win-win. Whether they sell ten units or ten million units, Steam still has more than 150 million users, which is what gives them the stability to keep trying new/fun stuff regardless. Well that, and not needing to answer to short-sighted shareholders.

 

[64bitmodels]

For that matter, I don't think Deck has ever left the top sellers list on Steam since.

that's based off of revenue and not units sold. Deck is worth like 4-5 triple A games at minimum so it's gonna stay on top of the list as long as there's a consistent amount of people buying.

That being said, it's still somewhat impressive that Valve's stuff is glued to the top of the list.

 

[Xzi]

that's based off of revenue and not units sold. Deck is worth like 4-5 triple A games at minimum so it's gonna stay on top of the list as long as there's a consistent amount of people buying.

That being said, it's still somewhat impressive that Valve's stuff is glued to the top of the list.

Now imagine Steam Machine is $700, but comes with a Steam controller and three new Valve games, the "black box." Might stay on that top sellers list for a decade.

 

[balemoc]

that's how analogs should be made unlike them pathetic drift cons

It's basically a subscription model with Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo going the built-to-break controllers they churn out.
Some peoplr need dropkicks

 

[Robert Newbie]

Now imagine Steam Machine is $700, but comes with a Steam controller and three new Valve games, the "black box." Might stay on that top sellers list for a decade.

The thought of that would be marketing gold. Even just one sequel from the Orange Box trio would get people talking.

 

[soulfingers83]

I'm really interested in this new living room pc they are releasing. I have a beat up old laptop from work that I maxxed out the memory on a while ago but its really on its last legs and without a dedicated GPU it really sucks at running more recent games or games that have not been well optimised for low spec pcs. I dont have much time or appetite to custom build a pc like I did in the old days because I mostly play older retro stuff but this kind of hybrid machine from Steam would probably suit me just fine!

 

[AnnoDominiM]

Classic Valve W

If I had money I would almost certainly buy the GabeCube, I've always wanted a Steam Deck but this would be cool too!!!

 

[Elrasiel]

I wonder if they sell a bundle with the whole set.

 

[AnnoDominiM]

I wonder if they sell a bundle with the whole set.

That would be so expensive lmao

 

[dragonz]

I would buy a version that's less money and that drops the control it comes with - I already know my hands will give out and hurt after 10 minuts of handling that thing. Ds4 is the only controller my hands can handle ;

 

[SuffahBish]

Regardless of the price of the Machine (although I do believe Valve will try to keep the price as low as they can) I am getting that controller either way. I have a gaming laptop with an RTX 4050 (the higher wattage 2055Mhz one) with 6GB of VRAM, an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (funny enough the iGPU on this APU is the stupidly fast 780M which is also RDNA3 but it's only 12CUs), and 32GB of regular RAM. I've actually fired up games on this iGPU by mistake and not even realize it. The 780M is something stupid like 70% of the performance of the RTX 4050. Anyway, even on this jank low end setup literally every game I've tried runs perfectly fine. I was playing BF6 the other day on my Windows partition and getting 130-ish FPS on medium settings. The Steam Machine (on paper) has nearly twice the GPU compute as my laptop. It's gonna be fine guys. Lol. It's all about the pricing. We'll see what that ends up being with the AI craze making RAM prices SOAR right now. But I think Valve's trying to get it as low as possible. (Seriously though, the 2 pack of 16GB sticks I got for my laptop last year was $71. Now a single 16GB stick is $80 from the same OEM! Same part and everything.)

 

[tech3475]

I wonder if they sell a bundle with the whole set.

I'd expect at the most a bundle with the controller and SM, either as standard or a discount on purchase e.g. buy both save £10.

 

[doorbell8423]

.

 

[SuffahBish]

I'd expect at the most a bundle with the controller and SM, either as standard or a discount on purchase e.g. buy both save £10.

There was a leak somewhere that there's going to be a bundle with the Machine, Controller, and Frame together for $1200.