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.
Intriguing. Eager to see the price of the Steam Machine.
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.
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.
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.
With those specs there’s no way it’s going to beat console prices. The CPU alone is ~$200 retail.
Valve isn’t paying retail.
They’re still going to be making a profit off of it. I’d be shocked if it’s below $600.
The profit comes from the games they sell.
It’s a bit trickier with the Steam Machine because it’s a straight-up desktop. There’s a chance for some companies to buy these as mini office PC’s if the price/performance is low enough. If they sell at even a slight loss and enough companies buy like that then they’d lose a ton of money
My thoughts exactly. I’m a console gamer. So a straightforward all-in-one box is great.
… and this also just is a linux computer.
Just go into desktop mode, plug in a mouse and keyboard, your TV is your monitor.
So, that means it can be a light duty office work type PC, webbrowsing PC, home media center, etc.
Just maybe plug an external hardrive into it, or get some SD cards with a TB of storage, for music and movies.
Oh and of course, it can emulate basically everything that doesn’t already exist as a PC game, via something like EmuDeck or RetroDeck.
slaps This bad dude can fit so many use cases on it.
GLaDoS may or may not flood your home with neurotoxin if you try this, but uh, you could run a local LLM on it, and thus just have your own AI catgirlfriend or maybe lightweight coding assistant w/e.
I’ve futzed about with OpenLlama on a Bazzite Deck, there aren’t too many models lightweight enough to run, but some of them work!
… Yeah don’t let GLadOs know about that.
Definetly not.
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.
I think it’s just an accessibility thing. VR is expensive, and it takes people pushing through some disorientation/nausea to really enjoy it. Many will simply feel sick the first few times they try it, decide it’s not for them and leave it.
You really shouldn’t push through the nausea. That’s how it gets worse.
If you start feeling sick. Put it down.
But yes. And that’s why the games are still such a limited selection compared to flat screen.
No long campaigns in VR.
Just place a fan on the floor in front of you. Bam! No nausea. Because now your body instinctively knows your position and orientation in the space you’re in.
It’s such a simple thing but it really works!
As someone who experienced nausea. I’ve tried all kinds of tricks. They all help, just like Dramamine or those bands with the beads that 1/10 pain.
It took quite a while to get over the nausea. A lot of starting and stopping with slightly longer sessions each time.
I fully expect that most people would not be willing to do that but I received the system as a gift and I really liked it. I wish they had more longer games. I’m so tired of the games that are 30s of concept and then do it over-and-over.