Following on from the success of the Steam Deck, Valve is creating its very own ecosystem of products. The Steam Frame, Steam Machine, and Steam Controller are all set to launch in the new year. We’ve tried each of them and here’s what you need to know about each one.
“From the Frame to the Controller to the Machine, we’re a fairly small industrial design team here, and we really made sure it felt like a family of devices, even to the slightest detail,” Clement Gallois, a designer at Valve, tells me during a recent visit to Valve HQ. “How it feels, the buttons, how they react… everything belongs and works together kind of seamlessly.”
For more detail, make sure to check out our in-depth stories linked below:
Steam Frame: Valve’s new wireless VR headset
Steam Machine: Compact living room gaming box
Steam Controller: A controller to replace your mouse
Valve’s official video announcement.
So uh, ahem.
Yes.
Valve can indeed count to three.
GabeCube
You know what’s fucking funny? I went to search for that on Tumblr and found this fucking post from ELEVEN YEARS AGO.
Bro was not given the dodgeball of prophecy nicely, he got straight up sniped in the dome by Apollo with a 90 MPH shot LMAO
As long as they don’t F up the price of the Steam Machine, then this would be wonderful for both the gaming and Linux communities.
I suppose it’s not the first time Valve has counted to 3; in terms of releasing 3 projects. They released the Orange Box which had 3 games in it. But they never put out a 3rd iteration of things.
So expect this to be the last Steam Controller and Steam Machine, if we count the old 3p hardware Linux boxes and Index headset they helped with.
Are you talking about the Steam Link?
Intriguing. Eager to see the price of the Steam Machine.
Me too. I’m not really into VR but I definitely want the GabeCube.
I have a PSVR2 and I don’t consider the capability of VR to be its failure. I have to assume it’s just that much harder and more expensive to develop for VR. Like the FPS genre is hugely successful, and that’s such a natural fit for VR.
Some are estimating around $800, but Steam has commented that affordability is a primary focus.
I feel like they’ve got to beat console prices. I’m hoping we see prices similar to steam deck at launch complete with varying tiers.
My guess would be that around $800 sounds roughly right… if you try to approximate a small form factor pc with… roughly those specs?
You’d kinda end up around there, but… the architecture is so nonstandard, its hard to say.
You gotta think of it as an SFF PC not a console.
Because its closer to an SFF PC than it is to a console.
Right like, this thing is also a PC, its a laptop or w/e if you plug a mouse and keyboard into it.
I run desktop mode on my Deck all the time, use it as a laptop/tablet of sorts.
As far as tiers go, GN has said there are plans for a 512 GB and 2TB variant, so, there’s at least two tiers… I would not expect like, more or less GDDR5/6 RAM variants though, the whole thing is built too much around the exact power draw and thermal load.
But on the other hand, Valve have economies of scale, so they can build this thing cheaper than a normal person can build a PC. Plus, they don’t need to make a huge profit on this stuff. The purpose of the hardware is to sell games. At least that’s what I’ll keep telling myself until we find out more.
But on the other other hand, tariffs, and RAM just doubled in cost in like the last month, because… well this time its not bitcoin miners buying all the GPUs, its… the entire AI industry is a multi trillion dollar scam.
Hilariously, one way to read this announcement is that Valve expects the AI bubble to blow up by ‘early next year’, thus lowering RAM costs, ahahaha!
Holy shit, Valve is clowning on MSFT so fucking hard right now.
Gamers Nexus reported cost will be in line with budget PCs and not competing with console pricing
If it hooks up to the tv and has controllers, it is 100% going to compete.
They didn’t say that it wouldn’t compete. They said that it wouldn’t compete on price.
Very possible. I’d pay a premium to bring over my steam library rather than getting a console and starting over tbh.
Agree it has be price competitive with consoles. Though I wonder if making a docked Deck be on equal footing with the Machine would have been a better use of R&D. Maybe simply improving having the dock house an eGPU and bumping the Deck specs.
The deck is a bit underpowered for 4k. Most TVs are 4k these days, so the machine needs to be good at that.
Right, that’s what I’m saying. Make a v2 Deck with upgraded CPU/memory, and put the GPU in the dock so it can do 4k on a big screen. I’m sure “Deck v2 is 4x more powerful than v1 and you can dock it for 4k @ 60fps on the big screen” would be just as good a marketing line as “Machine is 6x more powerful than a Deck”.
I don’t think it has an Occulink port, the Steam Machine.
So… yeah you can maybe try to eGPU it a bit through USB 3.2 Gen 2?
Maybe?
I don’t know that would make much sense though.
Or!
Maybe we do the FrankenDeck thing, take the SSD out, adapt that as an Occulink, run all the storage memory off of MicroSD cards, LOL.
I mean like a v2 Steam Deck and Dock. Give the Deck a bump in CPU/RAM/storage specs and new external ports to facilitate having the GPU in the dock. It could technically even be an externalized PCIe connector instead of Thunderbolt/USB. In handheld mode you get the iCPU limited to 1080, but dock it on the big screen and now you get full 4k @ 60 FPS. Add an HDMI port so you do 1080 on a big screen without a dock.
At this point, you would think that if they wanted to go with an Occulink/Thunderbolt thing… they’d make it in the Steam Machine, the thing that doesn’t move around as much.
They… the Valve video says the Steam Machine is 6 times as powerful as a Steam Deck.
… I have no idea what that actually means, maybe its TFLOPs, who knows, but uh, yeah, if you’re making a 6x thing thats more stationary, I would think that would be the thing you’d make with an option or variant to just jam more compute into it via modularity.
I dunno. It seems like more news about the Deck 2 or whatever is coming, at some point, Valve’s whole actual video is basically making fun of how its not talking about the Deck… stay tuned, goth gamer nation…???
Either way, we always have this:
Oh god are there going to be some very very salty Nintendo fans, very soon.
At this point, you would think that if they wanted to go with an Occulink/Thunderbolt thing… they’d make it in the Steam Machine, the thing that doesn’t move around as much.
I hadn’t heard of OCuLink before, apparently it’s an external PCIe connector! Eh, that would seem like a waste of engineering team to build that into a stationary desktop PC. They can just build the PC case to whatever size is needed to house the GPU and related cooling, which they did. This is the second desktop PC they’ve released, no? They had one like 10 years ago that was a commercial failure? My impression as a console gamer is that the Deck is very successful and popular, but it’s under-powered for playing on a big screen.
They… the Valve video says the Steam Machine is 6 times as powerful as a Steam Deck.
Right, my point was just bumping the chipset/CPU/memory would give a nice marketing tagline like that without designing a whole new desktop PC. Obviously, you can’t put a giant modern CPU and heat sinks and fans in a handheld. So spend that engineering R&D money on giving the dock a GPU so now the Deck performs as well as the Machine would have, and you have it using a successful branding rather than reviving a brand that already failed once.
It seems like more news about the Deck 2 or whatever is coming,
Hope so.
You might say that will be a red letter day.
My thoughts exactly. I’m a console gamer. So a straightforward all-in-one box is great.
So we got the Gabecube? That’s funny.
All hail to the GabeCube!
Now we just need a power modification so that all of these devices run on actual steam, and controlled by valves.
The Machine, the desktop/living room console… It has a 300W PSU. GN has the Valve designer saying its generally just a tad over 200W of draw.
So uh… that’s practically nothing, you could probably actually power that out of a homebuilt steam turbine + power station (like for solar panels, home backup power unit type thing).
For reference, an Nvidia 5090 needs 575W… just by itself.
An AMD 9070, non XT, on its own, uses 220W, approximately what the entire Steam Machines uses.
The Steam Machine does not even have a 3 prong connector.
Its just two, like a power brick for a console.
So we have SolarPunk gaming now, I guess?
Already did with steamdeck to be fair
That shouldn’t be too hard.
I am at least getting two controllers but the steam frame and the steam machine looks super cool too!
Anyone in the market for a kidney or two?
Not myself no, but, you may have some luck with Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, which is available at… well, you know where.
I thought the link would lead me to the Rimworld page.
Fair guess, haha!
Nope, turns out, thats a whole game in and of itself.
Also, while vanilla Kenshi doesn’t really do specific organs… you can always just peel somebody, swap some limbs around, or just toss a torso down a hole, I guess…
Valve can indeed count to three.
…
Steam controller
New
(X) doubt
It… is new though.
I had one of the older original ones from a decade back, this one is significantly different, totally different form factor, amongst other details and changes.
Old Steam Controller:
New Steam Controller:
