New Steam Hardware releasing early 2026. The Steam Controller, Steam Machine and Steam Frame (VR Goggles).

[balloonshark]

Steam Hardware

The Steam Hardware family officially expands in early 2026.

store.steampowered.com

Steam Controller: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamcontroller

Steam Machine: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steammachine

Steam Frame: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamframe

I like what I see so far. The Steam Machine would be an awesome console replacement or emulation machine.

 

[Racan]

I'm more interested in the new Steam controller for gyro aiming. It has some nifty features to make gyro easier to use.

 

[WelshBloke]

I'm more interested in the new Steam controller for gyro aiming. In has some nifty features to make gyro easier to use.

The controller is probably what I'd get. It should have really robust Linux support as well.

 

[MoragaBlue]

My first impression is that I like it, and my views on it are becoming more favorable. It just strikes me as providing a solution to gamers such as myself who would like the option to play our PC games on our big TVs, but would rather not endure the hassle of lugging around our gaming rigs.

I had considered picking up a gaming laptop to hook up to a TV, but then I'd still have to deal with the OS. At this point, I hate Win 11 so much, if there's any reason to not use it, I'd take it. The notion I'd have that sh*t crap OS on a 70+ OLED is so perverse, you couldn't pay me enough to do it.

Moreover, the Sony PS wants to charge a monthly fee for online pay and cloud saves. Suffice it to say, most gamers from generation (X) simply ain't ever gonna pony up $$ for online multiplayer gaming. If they can get the newer generation to pay for it, more power to them.

 

[gorobei]

tested with more in depth interviews for steam controller 2 and steam machine.

controller has ir lights so the Stm frame can see it.

the phawx had a take: the steam machine is the min spec for a pc console like the steamdeck was for handhelds. good enough for non-cutting edge games and couch games.

 

[Stg-Flame]

After Xbox pissed off so many people and with many console games now being made for PC as well, this was probably the smartest move they could have made. If they can keep up the momentum, I think Steam could squeeze in and become a fairly mainstream alternative to Xbox and Playstation.

 

[MoragaBlue]

Unless it's overly priced, I'm going to pick one up, especially since I have an ever growing Steam library. It seems as if during every sale, I pick up several games.

Also, while slightly OT, I'm not sure why, but I may be losing a little of my PC building enthusiasm. Perhaps, it's because I'm getting older? Or, having picked up the PS5 just to play Bloodborne, and then realizing while PC gaming is of course superior, the difference isn't as vast today, as it had been 20 years ago. It just seems games are made to play well on the specs of the least common denominator.

So, if this cube gains traction and gamers adopt it, I think it's a great solution for me and my evolving preferences.

 

[sze5003]

Not sure who the system is for. It's not like we don't have small form factor PC's. The problem isn't really entry into the market or windows UI. It's also that most games are not designed for 55 inch TV's. It looks like they just looked at the steam survey results and built a system off of that.

8gb vram is troubling and I would not expect to play the latest games out. It is a good fit into their ecosystem and I think that's what they are going for. If it's priced anywhere from $700-900 I don't think it will do well.

I was looking to replace my quest pro too for flight simming but the frame doesn't even have display port or HDMI.

 

[MoragaBlue]

8gb vram is troubling and I would not expect to play the latest games out. It is a good fit into their ecosystem and I think that's what they are going for. If it's priced anywhere from $700-900 I don't think it will do well.

Regarding the low gpu memory, I've heard and read it posited that with the higher RAM will allow for better frame gen where the bottleneck is more RAM than GPU memory. I'm not a tech guy, so idea. Seems plausible enough, but we'll have to see some real world numbers.

As to the pricing, I've always viewed it from a valuation and comp perspective--just what I do reflexively. It appears the new Steam machine is slightly below the power or performance metric of the PS5 standard version. So, if it's priced above the PS5, it's a no go for me. Kind's like I just can't pay over $60 for any game since it was the asking price for ER.

From the components, it appears it would cost around $700 to build the Steam machine? So, unless Steam is willing to subsidize the unit or attach the rumored (highly skeptical, but anything is possible) new Half-Life to it, it'll be interesting how receptive it will be for "causal" gamers.

However, if according to both Sony and Microsoft, the days of subsidizing hardware has come to an end, then it's all fair game, and we'll have to reset the valuation analysis and proposition.

PS - For gamers who play online, they should have a higher pain threshold by factoring in an additional $10 - $15 per month PS requires for online play. Since I have zero interest in online anything, this cost is zero for me.

 

[marees]

Regarding the low gpu memory, I've heard and read it posited that with the higher RAM will allow for better frame gen where the bottleneck is more RAM than GPU memory. I'm not a tech guy, so idea. Seems plausible enough, but we'll have to see some real world numbers.

As to the pricing, I've always viewed it from a valuation and comp perspective--just what I do reflexively. It appears the new Steam machine is slightly below the power or performance metric of the PS5 standard version. So, if it's priced above the PS5, it's a no go for me. Kind's like I just can't pay over $60 for any game since it was the asking price for ER.

From the components, it appears it would cost around $700 to build the Steam machine? So, unless Steam is willing to subsidize the unit or attach the rumored (highly skeptical, but anything is possible) new Half-Life to it, it'll be interesting how receptive it will be for "causal" gamers.

However, if according to both Sony and Microsoft, the days of subsidizing hardware has come to an end, then it's all fair game, and we'll have to reset the valuation analysis and proposition.

PS - For gamers who play online, they should have a higher pain threshold by factoring in an additional $10 - $15 per month PS requires for online play. Since I have zero interest in online anything, this cost is zero for me.

It might be $600 for the base model, because they might have got the CPU & GPU at a discount from AMD. Otherwise they could have gone with the 9060xt

The 2 TB model could be $800 or more. From the point of view of headlines / sentiments only the base model price matters

 

[Stg-Flame]

It might be $600 for the base model, because they might have got the CPU & GPU at a discount from AMD. Otherwise they could have gone with the 9060xt

The 2 TB model could be $800 or more. From the point of view of headlines / sentiments only the base model price matters

Most of the rumors I've seen as well as the surveys they released, it seems most people are fine with a $500 price point. I feel like they'd make far more sales if they kept it comparable to current-gen consoles rather than try to boost the cost for recouping on hardware costs.

 

[MoragaBlue]

Most of the rumors I've seen as well as the surveys they released, it seems most people are fine with a $500 price point. I feel like they'd make far more sales if they kept it comparable to current-gen consoles rather than try to boost the cost for recouping on hardware costs.

Yeah, the $400 - $500 range would be a buy for me. As with most PC gamers, I have virtually all of my games on Steam now, but do buy my favorite games again on the Sony store when they go on sale--the Steam machine, assuming it's within my price tolerance, will likely end that practice.

While PC gaming is superior (obvious to any rational gamer, in my view), the spread has been narrowing. For RDR2, the PC version is far superior and noticeably a better experience than on the PS5, probably because it was made for the PS4 gen and locked at 30 FPS. Conversely, for ER (itself locked on 60 FPS on all platforms), the difference while noticeable when one looks for it is marginal. I'd say, it's 20% better on the PC? I can run ultra settings at 4K @ 60 FPS without ray tracing.

It had cost me about $2,000 to build my gaming rig with a sale on the OC 12GB 3080 for - $600 - $650 with a NewEgg sale, while my PS5 cost $399 with Astrobot as a free game. Is it worth paying 5 time more to play RDR2 & ER, my favorite games of all time, for, at most, a 50% RDR2 and 20% ER better performance experience?

No, not IMHO.

 

[gorobei]

between $500-600 and this could have been a small disruptor in the console market, but with tariffs/economy uncertainty/venezuela warmongering the end price will have to be closer $800. it all depends on how much of a discount amd gave valve on the last gen unsellable chips and how much the ai bubble drives up the price of ram. but it is a little low spec for upscaled 4k@60fps when the next playstation is maybe a year away. with no ray tracing units, future aaa games are going to be unplayable.

if it does well it could be the turning point for gaming on linux and people jumping off of windows. the nerdnest podcast went over the performance hits of the translation/emulation from win-android-linux. if ms doesnt get rid of the os processing overhead then game devs will start to target linux, and it is only the drm that keeps gamers on win. which is kind of a shame as i hear that bf anticheat on secureboot is actually working to supress hackers.

 

[marees]

speculated price for the steam machine

https://twitter.com/x/status/2009654308598579314

 

[Stg-Flame]

speculated price for the steam machine

https://twitter.com/x/status/2009654308598579314

Honestly, with the way PC hardware is going, I can see people flocking to this thing in droves even at a $1,000 price tag. It could just be this thing and the newer handhelds keeping PC gaming going while all the hardware companies are busy circle jerking each other over the AI bubble.