This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
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
Ah yes, the gabecube
Steam Deck was the Gabe Gear, this is the Gabecube, all we need now is a smaller Steam Deck - the Gabe Boy.
Well, you do have the Gabe Virtual Boy.
They really need to sell these in Walmart next to the Playstation. It'll be the year of the Linux desktop!
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
There are a lot of specs missing from what the streets were hoping for from the holy grail of VR headsets, but I'm starting to believe that they are not going for that. It seems they want to win in the mid-range market competing directly with Meta. Honestly, "Quest 3 without Meta" is already very compelling. I guess it's not all down to how competitively they decide to price it. "Cheaper than Index" is already good news for my wallet at least.
I believe the cost of Meta devices is also subsidized by surveillance capitalism, so if this costs more, doesn’t spy on you, and lets you do whatever you want with your own hardware, then it’s worth voting with your wallet. If Valve somehow is able to price this similarly to a Quest 3 while having better specs and without exploiting their customers like Meta does, then all hail the great and mighty Gabe.
Personal privacy is always worth the cost. The ‘subsidies’ can go away anytime, so better to not be locked into an expensive spyware platform to begin with.
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.
As a Mac user with an Xbox, this thing looks like a breath of fresh air! My Xbox (Series X) is still running well, so I continue to use it, but I kinda want this Steam cube thing, if the price is right. I don't want to buy any more products from Microsoft, and while I tolerate Xbox, I do not like Windows. (I tolerate it at work because I have to, but I'd prefer not to have to mess with it.) I could hang with Linux if I wanted to go down that road, but it looks like this will be a suitable alternative for gaming... if the price is right.
Steve from Gamers Nexus has a solid video where he met with people about Valve and goes into a lot of details on the announced hardware. He reported that they told him that the Steam Machine is not aiming for a console price. This made sense to him as he pointed out it’s basically an ITX computer and you can do computer things with it. Anyway I don’t know what it will cost but I’m guessing north of $500 easily.
I’m in a similar boat. I have both PS5 and series X. Consoles are getting enshittified at an increasing pace. I welcome valve improving Linux compatibility as they invest more in their devices. I don’t think I’ll be getting Sony or Microsoft’s next consoles.
They missed the chance to call the machine the Steam Engine
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.
2026 Year of the Linux desktop?
Surely this will bring over a lot of people to Linux
Year of the Linux living room
Hopefully the Frames can compete with the Meta Quest in both price/performance. It will be good to have relatively affordable VR headset not made by Facebook.
Valve really listened to Saejima's advice:
Steam Synapse when?
I don't like the look of this controller... I'm still gonna get one. Everything else I love.
Especially that SteamOS is apparently going to become available on ARM devices.
Finally, another worthwhile controller with symmetrical sticks. Now to find out how to get my hands on one...
I guess this would be the appropiate post to ask under, isnt the steam frame using a last gen flagship arm soc and running linux a huge thing? That seems like its pretty close to us being abke to run linux on a newer phone. Tho at the same time i know phones are unhinged so thats why im asking, whether this is actually a big thing.
Gabephone in 2027? /s
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?
In their announcement video, they specifically called out that you can install whatever software you want and showed somebody working on CAD. So, yeah, definitely.
I feel like if I use this controller those trackpads will go crazy because of my fat hands.
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
Steam Frame is interesting. Would love a non-Meta VR headset that doesn’t cost $1k and also doesn’t have a million wires and base stations.
Hopefully, this means an official release of SteamOS Desktop. I want to switch away from Windows 11 IoT, if I can get a flavor of Linux with official backing from an 800lb gaming gorilla. While I can try out Bazzite or Cachy, I would prefer to have only one Linux for the rest of my PC's life.
Would have stuck with Windows, if it weren't for the fact that Microsoft has been channeling the spirit of an overly controlling parent.
Steam Machine is interesting. It feels like a solid time for someone to disrupt TV based gaming.
Why does the controller look very uncomfortable to use? I hope it's not.
