Steam Frame, Steam controller and Steam Machine Revealed

hououinkyouma00 said:
Console pricing I guess has changed but I would say $399-499 especially with the specs. Valve was able to price the Steam Deck very well so I'll keep my hopes up for now.

Valve seems to have subsidized the Deck so I could see that continuing here.
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I'd love for these to be in the $400-$500 range, but the cheapest Steam Deck is still $399, and these are much more powerful. I'm not holding my breath.
 
Kvally said:
8gb of VRAM
HDMI 2.0
GPU Spec

Seems like with those low specs, DF feels $399 is a good entry point for this.

"For those who plan to use Steam Machine as an all-in-one living room box, be warned. Your favourite streaming service will need to function on Linux web browsers. Valve has no plans to offer bespoke media-streaming app downloads via the default SteamOS interface, and as you can currently test on Steam Deck, some streaming services' DRM implementations block access to Linux-based browsers by default.

We still don't know what Steam Machine will cost, and that number will likely colour our future impressions and thoughts. $399 for this combination of specs would go down a lot more smoothly than prices that reach or exceed current-gen consoles with, at least on paper, seemingly superior specs. We don't envy Valve or, really, any gaming hardware manufacturer that has to reckon with rising component prices in 2025, and there's a chance that number will be higher than consumers and Valve alike won't love.

If the price gets quite high, then it will be up to Valve's own software engineering efforts and optimisations to earn that price tag. A good-enough Steam Machine that can contend with the biggest 8GB VRAM offenders, exceed Windows performance on like-for-like hardware and squeeze out competent RT performance in select games would certainly be dreamy - but it's a dream at this point, not a reality we can test."

And this is coming in 2026? This won't stand a chance against the XSX/PS5 I am afraid.
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$399 seems expensive.
 
evanft said:
  • Steam Machine doesn't make sense as a product. Anyone who wants something like that is going to buy a console. If you want a PC, you're going to be much better off with a real pre-built or building your own. I doubt they're going to price the thing low enough to make it compelling vs. a PS5 Pro.
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i'd say this is a better competitor for the Mini-PC market rather than the console one.
evanft said:
  • The Frame looks like a more expensive Quest. I don't see how someone willing to spend $1000 on a VR headset would be compelled to buy this over the other options available, some of which will be cheaper.
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They haven't released the prices yet
evanft said:
  • The controller is kinda pointless. The Xbox controller is standard for games that support controller, and steam input makes it compatible with basically everything. The touch pads and other features are useful on something like a Steam Deck, but don't seem necessary for a PC.
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I imagine they just made it so they'd have something to ship with the Steam Machine
 
pepeno said:
Linus dropped a bomb.

Steam Frame SteamOS can play PC games like Alyx yes... but it also can install normal android APKs which means whole Android (Quest3/Pico4 and others) ecosystem is ready to be released on SteamVR.

Essentially PC + ANDROID ecosystem in the same device.
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How is that a bomb or revelation, every other headset already supports both PC and Android. You do realize all the other stand alone VR headsets already support PCVR streaming, yes? Why would anyone be interested in re-buying or buying their stand alone VR games on Steam? You'd be locking yourself out of any future Oculus headset (Facebook will never put third party stores on their headsets), and locking yourself into Valve's 7+ year hardware cycle of headsets equipped with the worst displays you own.
 
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Kacho said:
It's obvious this is bad news for Microsoft. DF said Valve is looking to partner with companies on more powerful machines.
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Yep, it's gonna be a massive paddling.

Have no clue why Welfare thinks Valve is not competing with Microsoft lmao. If anything, they are arguably the most direct competitor now!
 
Topher said:
The specs may seem low to us but steam hardware surveys suggest PC gamers are extremely diverse in their hardware wants/needs.

John Lewis Lol GIF by Waitrose & Partners
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Yeah PC gaming is not only about "more power", this is a common misconception among console bigbrains.
 
evanft said:
None of these look particularly compelling, especially without pricing or release dates.
  • Steam Machine doesn't make sense as a product. Anyone who wants something like that is going to buy a console. If you want a PC, you're going to be much better off with a real pre-built or building your own. I doubt they're going to price the thing low enough to make it compelling vs. a PS5 Pro.
  • The Frame looks like a more expensive Quest. I don't see how someone willing to spend $1000 on a VR headset would be compelled to buy this over the other options available, some of which will be cheaper.
  • The controller is kinda pointless. The Xbox controller is standard for games that support controller, and steam input makes it compatible with basically everything. The touch pads and other features are useful on something like a Steam Deck, but don't seem necessary for a PC.
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So much of it is going to come down to pricing. If the rumor (high) prices are true, I agree with all your points. But also to mentiom: the track pads are meant to be mouse replacements for couch PC gaming. But if this new controller's pads are like the Steam Deck's, those never felt as intuitive or responsive as I'd like.
 
I would actually be interested in the frame mini PC pending the price. I would love to have something for upstairs to play with so I don't have to worry about dragging my PC around. The VR is interesting although I'm pretty content with the quest 3 and I have it decked out with Bobo VR accessories.
 
Odinnii said:
The frame is pretty much all I wanted from my next VR set and the controller looks cool too.
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I'm just wondering, have they shown the straps so the controllers don't fall when I open my hands? They are nowhere to be seen in the web page.
 
CrimsonTide said:
Yeah but the Deck has to have the screen and all

I REALLY hope for $399
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Assuming the Steam Machine comes with the controller (kinda DOA for most mainstream users if it doesn't) there's probably more manufacturing and component costs involved between the machine + controller than just the single unit Deck with a screen. The $399 Steam Deck has the much cheaper to produce LCD screen, and it's 1280x800. The parts cost for the screen on the low-end Deck is probably negligible.

But again, I'd love to be wrong, but I'm expecting $500+ on this. Maybe even $599.
 
jshackles said:
I'd love for these to be in the $400-$500 range, but the cheapest Steam Deck is still $399, and these are much more powerful. I'm not holding my breath.
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This would be a less custom affair though then the Steam Deck. I went over the official Steam page multiple times and there is no mention of it including a Steam Controller.

So no display, no controller bundled (possibly), much simpler and cheaper hardware design (the cube shape and seeing the inside of the machine it's literally just a mini pc inside of a square piece of plastic), no battery, and chips that are probably much cheaper to get then the ones in SD I would imagine.
 
jshackles said:
Assuming the Steam Machine comes with the controller (kinda DOA for most mainstream users if it doesn't) there's probably more manufacturing and component costs involved between the machine + controller than just the single unit Deck with a screen. The $399 Steam Deck has the much cheaper to produce LCD screen, and it's 1280x800. The parts cost for the screen on the low-end Deck is probably negligible.

But again, I'd love to be wrong, but I'm expecting $500+ on this. Maybe even $599.
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The DF video confirms that the machine comes with the new controller in the box.

They expect $399 fwiw.
 
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jshackles said:
Assuming the Steam Machine comes with the controller (kinda DOA for most mainstream users if it doesn't) there's probably more manufacturing and component costs involved between the machine + controller than just the single unit Deck with a screen. The $399 Steam Deck has the much cheaper to produce LCD screen, and it's 1280x800. The parts cost for the screen on the low-end Deck is probably negligible.

But again, I'd love to be wrong, but I'm expecting $500+ on this. Maybe even $599.
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That would be a bummer. $499 is kinda top end for what I would want to pay. We will see. $299 would be EARTH SHATTERING (512gb model) and $399 would sit well. But you likely are right lol
 
I think Valve have nailed it with the console. This is where consoles need to go. I admit it could do with being a like beefier, but consoles need to get cheaper again. Plus, we're already at a point it'll be hard for the next playstation and Xbox to really show any great difference graphically in the time between the generations. Games are taking so long to make now too, that we're only getting one game per franchise in a generation.
If the next gen console are going to be near the prices people are speculating, I think people will think twice, I don't believe they'll sell anything like the numbers they're used to. And I'm fairly confident that the next Xbox will sell very little if it's over a grand.
 
Are there any improvements to the software side for VR? We have a quest 2 in our house, but nobody uses it. Used it for beat saber and I enjoyed a little bit of things like Witcher 3 in VR was neat to explore the world in VR, but it just all felt gimmicky. I hear Half Life: Alyx is genuinely good, but my limited experience with VR has just been gimmicky. $1k is too much for gimmicks. I've just yet to see a genuine reason to spend the money on VR.
 
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RIP Xbox & PlayStation, Steam OS is no joke.

I had hopes that the Frame was going to be some kind of mix using AR /VR as a form of spacial computing similar to Vision Pro. Still looks slick. There might be an uptick on 2nd hand Index units hitting Ebay soon.
 
delirium trigger said:
The Steam Frame, which I'm most interested in, just looks like a Quest 4. If it's not 500 or less, I'll wait for the next Quest. As much as I hate Meta, they're the best thing in VR right now.
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Haint said:
Why would anyone be interested in re-buying or buying their stand alone VR games on Steam? You'd be locking yourself out of any future Oculus headset (Facebook will never put third party stores on their headsets), and locking yourself into Valve's 7+ year hardware cycle of headsets equipped with the worst displays you own.
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I'm a bit torn on that... the hardware itself looks nicer than we'll get from Meta, when it comes to little details. Much better controllers (my Quest 3 sticks are already drifting too now, after I dealt with replacing them back on Quest 2; the sticks and buttons are also just barely acceptable on Quest in general), nicer streaming from PC due to the custom stick, etc.

But indeed it would be hard to give up the Meta ecosystem. Do we really think they'll ever port Batman Arkham Shadow? Seems highly unlikely since it was funded by Meta, and that goes for a lot of other must-have VR titles.

If I stay in the Meta world and get a future Quest 4, I'll still have all those games plus can still connect to a PC for all the Steam VR games, so I lose nothing.

LiquidMetal14 said:
I'm pretty content with the quest 3 and I have it decked out with Bobo VR accessories
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I agree that Q3 with a nice battery-added strap (I use Bobo too, it's great; with 2 batteries on a charging base so I can hot swap and never run out of power) is already a pretty perfect experience. Except the horrible controllers, I'd probably pay to just replace them with Steam Frame ones but of course that won't be possible.
 
Mortisfacio said:
Are there any improvements to the software side for VR? We have a quest 2 in our house, but nobody uses it. Used it for beat saber and I enjoyed a little bit of things like Witcher 3 in VR was neat to explore the world in VR, but it just all felt gimmicky. I hear Half Life: Alyx is genuinely good, but my limited experience with VR has just been gimmicky. $1k is too much for gimmicks. I've just yet to see a genuine reason to spend the money on VR.
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Don't agree with your assessment at all, just got done playing The Room and Ghost Town VR. Nothing gimmicky about it, they are full-fledged games.
 
I have been waiting a long time for the Frame, my only disappointment is that it is not OLED. Otherwise inside-out tracking as good as with the lighthouses, and wireless streaming from my PC? F yeah count me in!
 
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