Phoronix article: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Steam-Machines-Frame-2026
Also listed here: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/hardware
Valve has already sent support for the new Steam Controller upstream: https://www.phoronix.com/news/New-Steam-Controller-SDL
The VR headset is going to be standalone??
That’s pretty nuts right?
even more nuts is that it will support pc games via FEX, an emulation layer that runs x86 windows games on ARM in Linux
In addition to streaming from your battlestation
Any ideas on Linux support?
pretty sure it’s SteamOS, an Arch Linux derivative, on a fairly popular Snapdragon platform. probably not too difficult to hack on it.
The headset itself is running linux and it is meant to be used with the steam machine, which also runs on linux.
Fuck you Microsoft!
Less concurrent is never a good thing. Steam already got too much power. https://www.xda-developers.com/valve-steam-monopoly-real-gamers-chose/
Luckily unlike monopolies in other sectors, Steam doesn’t involve itself in evil oractices that more or less stops others from competing.
Someone just needs to make a better store, but they can’t because no company big enough to compete is willing to be as user friendly.
Epic, probably the second biggest store people thing about, can’t even make a good platform. They try underhanded practices like bribing developers and customers… maybe they should make their store work properly first.
Also, public companies can’t make good products because they don’t have long term vision. They don’t have long term vision because they need to have good short term profits and profit margins. Look at Xbox eating itself just because they need to have a 30% profit margin right now!
I used to work with a guy who worked at Valve prototyping stuff like the steam controller. He was a boomer so he complained about how people were always playing games in the break room and what not. Said he hated that job, his reasons might as well have been a wishlist for my future career. If he wasn’t so damn helpful I would probably hate him to this day.
They missed the chance to call the machine the Steam Engine
I thought the GabeCube was even better.
Aaaaalmost shot coffee out my nose. Almost.
Fuck, they did! 😫
Not gonna lie the controller looks ass but maybe it feels fantastic so I‘ll wait with my final judgement. I‘m interested to see how they will try to push VR since most users are still incredibly uninterested in it.
I’ve wanted to get into VR for the longest time but they all seemed like extremely walled gardens. This sounds awesome to me.
For most of my life VR has been, ‘VR is a great way to experience shitty games and you just have to pay a grand or more for this interactive tummy ache, and your unit may not be supported next year! Buy!’
I’m going to hold out until I can pick up one of these at the pawn shop for a bill.
I got an Index for cheap last year and was very excited to play a number of my favorite games with optional VR mode. Turns out:
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the Index ecosystem is more accessible than expected.
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the games I was looking forward to all played like ass and made VR seem like a stupid gimmick.
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In a desperate move that felt like sunk cost fallacy, I tried several VR-only games, and got TOTALLY hooked on modded Beatsaber. This itself made the buy-in worth it.
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‘VR is a great way to experience shitty games
Have you tried Half-life: Alyx?
I recommend you give that, or something equivalent, a go without even buying any hardware. Either ask a friend or go to an arcade. You don’t need to shell out a grand to try.
If you hate it, move on.
Edit! I’m a 90s kid, and I’m really disappointed that VR hasn’t taken off the way scifi suggested it would. Back then, being absorbed in pure information sounded awesome, but now it is just going the way of 24/7 misinformation advertisements and micro transactions.
I’ll hold off on VR until there is a decent open source unit that isnt $800.
I remember trying the first VR headset game 1990 that ran on a Commodore Amiga in like 7 fps and was terrible in every way.
Yegods. My first foray into VR was at a high end arcade at North Pier in Chicago. I think the game was Dactyl. The headset was super heavy and none of the goals of the game were explained to me. I basically wandered around for five minutes, shooting green polygons in the sky, then time was up.
Dad was pissed that he’d blown $20 on it.
Edit: For historical reference, in the mid 90s $5 could keep your kids occupied at a regular arcade for a couple hours. $20 could have gotten us a couple of movie tickets and some Twizzlers.
I’d of been angry too.
I think that’s the same game I queued up for like 90 mins at a computer fair to have a few minutes of very confused playtime and that was it.
Looks can be deceiving. Coming from someone who uses the steamdeck, that layout looks exactly how I hoped and imagined it would be. The steamdeck is incredibly comfortable to hold and this looks like it would be the same!
It definitely reminds me of that Steam controller someone on Youtube built by sawing a Steamdeck in two and gluing the ends together so to speak. They said it‘s their dream controller so I‘m sure this controller already has some fans. I just can‘t tell by looking at it.
It’s basically steam deck minus the screen. If you are used to the steam deck it’ll be fine.
The first controller looked the same, but was very good to use once you got used to it. The build quality, though, was…fucking terrible.
I had to fix my controllers so many times that in the end I was swapping them out almost weekly. Still, felt great in the hand.
It might be you just got unlucky. Mine is still going strong all this years, and I use it often.
Valve really listened to Saejima’s advice:
Steam Synapse when?
Since the Steam Machine is more like an entry PC and not a console (and will be priced as that), does that mean that SteamOS for desktop will be officially supported?
I forgot where but some time in the last 3 hours I read that the goal for steamOS is to be supported on all PCs, though it’s an ongoing effort.
You’d have to assume so!
No, it’s supported on two specific pieces of custom hardware, the Steam Deck and Steam Machine. They’ll get there with general support, but SteamOS isn’t there yet.
Well, there’s official support for some third party handhelds if I remember correctly? Asus and the like? And they just announced that the steam frame (vr headset) will also run steamos, and that’s on a snapdragon ARM SoC. Pretty exciting stuff ahead
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Because it’s so bottom-heavy. But if you look where your hands will be it’s essentially a Dualshock with touchpads stuck to the bottom.
I guess it depends on how long your thumb is
I feel like if I use this controller those trackpads will go crazy because of my fat hands.
I’m just glad they have dual thumbsticks now. I bought their last model on sale but quickly shelved it. Couldn’t get used to the touchpads and didn’t want to spend the next 2 months sucking at every game I played.
I’d jump on a steam deck with updated hardware, too bad it looks like it will be staying the same
Edit:
Yeeaaaahhhh it’s going to be a while, they want a great performance jump without sacrificing battery life
I think they’ve been waiting for what I’ve been predicting for a while. They’re going to make the next steam deck ARM based so they can make it potentially smaller or at least better battery life. Since the new frame is ARM, I think it’s everything but confirmed now. Since they said they want the new steam deck to be a significant step up they’re probably now waiting for certain components to go down in price so it can be more powerful than the OG but not be too expensive.
Im hyped for a new vr headset.
Yeah, I’m debating getting this one as my first headset. It looks dope.
Dooo it! If you can afford it, it will probably be a little pricey.
They said it will be a direct competitor for the Meta Quest 3, so I’m guessing around $400. I’ve been waiting for Valve to drop exactly this!
Ooh, that price sounds amazing. I would have guessed at least 800.
Definitely will be grabbing the Steam Machine when it releases.
8gb of vram seems… disappointing
Eh, for the number of CUs, it looks fine. It looks like a slightly smaller RX 7600.
They say it can run games at 4k60 “with FSR”, so it seems like it’s targeting 1080p native rendering, which is totally fine for me. I’ll be connecting it to the living room TV and sitting 6-8 feet away so I’ll probably keep it set to 1080p anyway just to keep the framerate high.
Steam Machine is interesting. It feels like a solid time for someone to disrupt TV based gaming.
I’m curious about the “it’s a PC” aspect of the Steam Box. Because a device that plays all Steam games but isn’t a Windows computer is extremely appealing, but I admit if I can’t install a few non-Steam games on it, that’s a spoiler for me. But if the whole “it’s a PC” provides some avenue to that, I’m definitely ready to stop building a gaming PC every 5 years.
Steam Box
Ahem, it’s a GabeCube.
It’s going to be like the steam deck, I’ve yet to find a old Non-steam game that I couldn’t run on the steam deck.
Short of explicit developer lockout
I’ve found some, but they’re mostly obscure and older out-of-support stuff. But anecdotally something like less than 5% of my library didn’t work with it.
If you are looking to get it or try linux gaming in general then I would recommend looking at heroic games launcher which supports games from epic, gog, and Amazon. Past that there is always a huge list of other games (and applications) available for install from lutris’ website. And bottles for specific things, but that is a bit more advanced/nuanced to setup.
Ok but HL3 wen
You just added 3 more years to its release
