Although there have been attempts in the past, Valve and hardware are not two terms that the user relates like Valve and video games. But the success obtained with the portable game console Steam Decklaunched almost four years ago, seems to have encouraged the company to redouble its commitment to hardware; or, rather, triple it. Valve has announced the launch of three new devices grouped under the brand Steam Hardware: the video game console Steam Machinevirtual reality glasses Steam Frame and the video game controller Steam Controller. All designed to work with Steam and its endless catalog of video games.
All three have had previous versions that had varying degrees of success. The Original Steam Machinereleased in 2015, was a commercial failure that the company Gabe Newell he dropped out three years later. VR glasses Valve Index They came out in 2019 and nothing less than accompanied by the video game Half-Life: Alyx. They had some success in what is a niche sector, but Valve lost interest in them a long time ago and the last big launch the device had was Counter Strike 2 in 2023. The predecessor of the new controller, also named Steam Controllerwas released in 2015 and performed better than the Valve Index, reaching one million units sold. Let’s go with the news.
Steam Frame
The Steam Frame is the first wireless virtual reality headset from Valve and will allow you to run both VR games as traditional Steam titles run locally via SteamOS, or stream them wirelessly from a PCalthough without the option to connect it by cable.
For the second case, the glasses include an adapter 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E. This broadcast will benefit from a technology of adaptive rendering which sends the highest resolution signal only to the area in which the user focuses, as detected by the two internal cameras of eye tracking.
Valve claims that this will allow establishing a ‘direct, fast, low latency link’ with the computer, although it has not detailed how much additional latency may occur. This information will be crucial, since every extra millisecond between the head movement and the displayed image can be disorienting in virtual reality.
Frame will be able to function independently of the PC thanks to its processor Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and 16 GB of RAM. The viewer incorporates two 2160 × 2160 pixel LCD panels with refresh rates between 72 and 144Hz. It also has dual stereo speakers and new drivers designed specifically for the system.
Steam Controller
The Steam Controller adopts a design similar to that of the Steam Deck, but without a screen. Since the Steam Machine runs games designed for PC, the controller includes touch panelsnext to TMR sticks which almost completely reduce drift problems, gyroscopic controls, rear grip buttons and a new quick access menu to open notifications, the friends list or Steam chat.
The controller integrates a battery 8.39 Wh and a new accessory called puckwhich attaches to the front for easy recharging without the need to connect by cable.
Steam Machine
The Steam Machine will compete for a place in the room with the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S from Sony and Microsoft, respectively. Its appearance is reminiscent of the Xbox Series AMD Zen 4 of 6 cores and 12 threads, RDNA 3 GPU with 28 computing units, 16 GB of DDR5 RAM and 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM. Valve assures that it will be able to run games at 4K and 60FPS using rescaling technology FSR.
As to performanceValve has not compared it with the video game consoles with which it will compete, but with the Steam Deck, which sextuple. Its hardware uses more modern architectures in its CPU and GPU than PS5 and Xbox Series PS5 Pro and 52 in Xbox Series X-. In RAM memory, it clearly surpasses them, given that both remain at 16 GB.
In terms of connectivity, it has Gigabit Ethernet, DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0a port USB-C and four USB-A. Versions of 512GB and 2TBwith expandable storage via microSD.
‘All our hardware is designed with Steam as a priority and to work perfectly with the platform. The Steam Deck, Steam Machine, and Steam Frame run SteamOS, Valve’s operating system optimized for gaming. It is designed to offer a plug-and-play experience while maintaining the power and flexibility of a PC‘, says Valve.
SteamOS is based on Linux and use the compatibility layer Proton to run games designed for Windowswhich dominate the Steam catalog.
The three new Steam Hardware devices will go on sale early 2026. Valve still has not revealed its prices.