Support NeoGAF

[Haint]

Is the box powerful enough for VR games?

Probably about as good as a base PS5 and PSVR2, which is not a good thing considering you're talking about a 5 year old console, and a brand new device that will probably be the same price as a base PS5.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

And the D-Pad on those VR controllers? Like... that makes so little sense.

desperately needed IMO... I've been playing a ton of VR games where I wish I had a D-Pad. Something like the Pixel Ripped series, where you're playing old school games inside a VR metagame. Using a stick is extremely annoying and no one wants to have to pair a separate controller just to get a d-pad. I've been constantly wishing I had a d-pad on the Quest 3.

Will this blow the quest 3 out of water in terms of specs?

It's visually comparable in its resolution / FOV / etc, but will have a stronger GPU / RAM by a bit, will probably feel like a Quest 3.75-4 in its power (for standalone headset-only games) if I had to guess.

For the other VR use -- streaming VR content from your PC -- it looks to have major advantages over Quest 3, due to their custom streaming stick it uses.

Steam Frame display is a fucking joke for rumored $1200 price.

2160x2160 L fucking C fucking D

I bought PICO4 3 years ago with same resolution for $399. The only difference here is that it runs steamOS and MAAAAYBE it will run some pc games becauause sure as shit it won't run them all with new Frame aproved program.

I've been gaming at essentially this resolution with similar pancake lenses (Quest 3) for the past couple years as well, and I think it's the perfect sweet spot. When games have sufficiently well rendered content -- like the Red Matter series -- the resolution isn't a problem at all, it's perfectly crisp. The only limiting factor on current gen VR like the Q3 for me is the rendering power / GPU, not the resolution which would be a waste to optimize for in terms of price etc.

But I agree that $1200 is ridiculous, hopefully that's incorrect.

 

[daffyduck]

I will NEVER get the race to be the most powerful, hence pushing prices sky high. Nintendo learnt this years ago and have been reaping rewards ever since. The VAST majority of gamers don't need 4k 120fps or whatever. Most just want to play games that are affordable on affordable devices. Assuming this is cheap, this could be huge.

This is exciting to me and I love Steam so I am all in. Lets just hope Australia gets it on day 1 unlike the phenomenal Steam Deck...

Nintendo is amoung the least powerful, yet they push prices sky high anyway.

 

[Zuzu]

I'd like to see them release a more powerful Steam Machine Pro. This Steam Machine is not powerful enough. I like the concept though and the controller appears to be really good.

 

[Brakum]

It will be struggling to run games. I could see an appeal if Kernel level anti-cheat games ran on this.

Struggling to run SOME games.

There's like 20k steam verified games. If i had to get a console like device, even if this only played indies, it would have significantly more value to me than any console.

 

[cyberheater]

So you can take your SD card out of you Steam Deck, plug it into the VR headset and play the same games. Very cool.

 

[yogaflame]

This is humiliating for Sony, not only do they give Valve all of their games, while Valve gives them none of their own games, now Valve are making their own console lite hardware as well. If Sony continues to port their games to Steam now they must be braindead. Either stop PC ports now or only release it on a PS storefront and launcher on PC.

Valve is no less a competitor to them than Nintendo, so porting stuff to steam makes about as much sense as porting it to the Nintendo eshop.

I think Sony is shifting back to full exclusives for it's first and second party games. If you read Sony recent business plans they are again focusing on single player exclusives. Ps6 looks like will also be back to that direction. Gaas or live service is a different story, since gaas and live service depends on engagement and micro transaction and it is practical to put it into other platforms for broader audience.

 

[Kacho]

If like to see them released a Steam Machine Pro. This Steam Machine is not powerful enough. I like the concept though and the controller appears to be really good.

I'm sure they will if this is successful enough. I suspect they're testing the waters with an affordable box first.

 

[Stafford]

For anyone wondering about Steam Machine's TF power, it's 8.78 TF for single-precision floating point (FP32), assuming the calculations are similar to RDNA2 GPUs.

So just a tad shy of base PS5. I'm expecting it won't be priced any higher than $399, it could even be $349. $299 is a low probability but if they hit that price then it's just an automatic win and impulse buy for many (even more than it already is without price even announced).

I'm liking everything they're showing, and I'll be looking to pick up all three within 2026. The VR headset might be last tho, only because out of the three I'd have the least immediate use for it. Now I'm just curious what volumes these things are going to be produced at, and how the distribution's going to be. If it's larger in scope on both fronts than how they did Steam Deck (up until they got OEMs like Lenovo involved), then we could be seeing some big movement in this PC/console hybrid space.



Valve subsidized the Steam Deck.



Steam OS. These are running Steam OS, not Windows.



8.78 TF RDNA3 vs. 10.3 TF & 12 TF RDNA2...it's effectively the same when accounting for architectural improvements of RDNA3 vs RDNA2, including better data compression.

Similar situation with the CPU, even if it has less physical cores & threads. Zen4 shits all over Zen2.

Hmm I see. I guess it remains to be seen but this console might not be for me if it's really not significantly better than what I got now, which is XSX. I mean , I get my third party titles for XSX and have Game Pass for their own games.

On par with the base current gen consoles in 2026 is honestly disappointing. But we'll see how it pans out. New consoles are always exciting either way.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Weak hardware and Steam OS. Nah.

You mean the OS that runs games better on Microsoft's own hardware than Microsoft's own OS?

Also it's basically on par with base PS5 and Series X in terms of overall performance. People once again doing the dumb thing and only looking at base numbers while not even understanding architectural improvements between Zen 2 to Zen 4, or RDNA2 to RDNA 3, especially in areas of efficiency.

It's the TFLOPs ridiculousness all over again.

Hmm I see. I guess it remains to be seen but this console might not be for me if it's really not significantly better than what I got now, which is XSX. I mean , I get my third party titles for XSX and have Game Pass for their own games.

On par with the base current gen consoles in 2026 is honestly disappointing. But we'll see how it pans out. New consoles are always exciting either way.

Yeah in a use-case like yours I can see if this isn't necessarily your cup of tea. But I do think the market for this type of device is larger than some are willing to consider, and I know for myself it'll be a great vector to start shifting out from the Windows ecosystem next year, particularly once my extended security updates for Windows 10 run out.

I'm sure they will if this is successful enough. I suspect they're testing the waters with an affordable box first.

Yep there's also that. This PC/console hybrid market is still in its infancy, and most companies don't have the cash flow to potentially waste dozens of billions on a failed high-end venture into the space right of the bat like Microsoft does (assuming their gambit with Xbox Magnus and related products doesn't pan out).

Start with something more modest, that aims to hit performance and pricing the majority of the market will actually consider valuable. If/when that segment's established then you scale upwards with more powerful designs. And I'm sure Valve have such variants in the planning stages, might just be a couple years before they show up is all.

 

[justiceiro]

No release date, no price. I hate companies announcements these days so much.

 

[Hudo]

So game announcement next week? That's what some of the rumors say.

 

[TrebleShot]

Hehe this thing with Moonlight or Steam Link, thia thing running nintendo emulators haha fuck

Xbox cloud for gamepass

 

[PauloRoberto]

This controller looks SO uncomfortable...

 

[Metnut]

Will be interesting to see if this can sell 2% as well as the PS5. The steam deck failed to sell 2% as many units as the Switch sold, so I'd bet against it.

 

[Guilty_AI]

It really depends on what you want to accept. I have a 360hz oled monitor and the idea of sub 100fps is just unacceptable to me. The difference in my enjoyment is to the point I just wouldn't play a game running that shit.

I doubt this is targeted towards people who cannot accept less than 100fps

 

[solidus12]

Sony has a rival again. The PConsole

Yup, and they're releasing their games on the rival's machine… lmao. Way to go, Sony.

 

[whyman]

8gb vram is not enough for anything these days. It will have to be really, really cheap for that to be appealing.

 

[Team Skoda]

So what are the chances that the USB-C on the controller will allow full audio pass through for a headphone jack? Besides price, this may be a make or break for me.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Yes. And modding will be difficult. For me a big part of pc gaming is being able to mod and in Linux everything is so confusing and convoluted. Not interested in this

I'm kinda with you but this seems like a cool device to mess around with in the living room.

It will be an emulation beast and work immediately with EmuDeck. I would never want this as my main PC.

 

[yogaflame]

Weak hardware and Steam OS. Nah.

Well again it depends on the price as well as performance for thia to succeed. Some are saying this will be the new competitor for PS but actually, for me, I think this will be more of a competition for MS xbox new pc hybrid direction.

 

[Astray]

Microsoft getting beaten to market by a company a fragment of its size is seriously baffling. This is getting announced right as Microsoft pushes a half-baked Xbox interface for Windows 11 too.

Meetings are almost assuredly happening in Redmond about this lol.

The "who is this for" and "why not just put your own PC in the living room" crowd are strangely silent


Steam machine certainly seems underwhelming, power wise. But the VR headset will be mine, for sure.

Lol people are still digesting the news so give it time.

Off the cuff, I think this will really depend on pricing.

SteamOS is definitely preferable to me than Windows for this usecase, but I think the lack of anti-cheat is gonna be a massive deterrent to the majority of gamers.

This will probably sell to the same ppl who bought the Deck imo. People with big Steam libraries who want a nice couch experience.

 

[thief183]

Does this mean that Steam OS is coning out for everyone soon? Can't wait to remove this malware from my PC.

 

[GoldenEye98]

Definitely curious on the price of Steam Machine.

I don't know if I like the controller though. I just don't get the insistence on the trackpads...

 

[SneakersSO]

Looks like our buddies get completely caught off-guard. Again.

You have to hand it to Valve - they have engineers out here claiming theres no real plan to expand the SteamOS footprint outside of Windows, then putting out slates of HW that are infinitely more sellable than anything MS can produce.

The only silver-lining is this will finally give the Windows OS team a real competitor for them to worry about, because this slow bleeding of the PC audience can go from a trickle to heavier flows real fast. I already moved off of Windows to Bazzite myself and have no reason to go back.

 

[nial]

Casual gamers are not going to buy an 800-1000$ next-gen system.

They are not going to exist, either. Sony's big final announcement yesterday was literally them acknowledging the fact that they do, indeed, need affordable prices.

Studios will not solely develop games for a console userbase that is shrinking.

They will not develop for an almost non-existent console userbase, which will be the PS5 by 2032.

Playstation came out yesterday and said that the PS5 is "midway through its journey".

Yes, Sony has always committed to selling its consoles for, at least, 10 years. The PS4 was only discontinued early last year.

Hell, most AAA developers want to put their games on Switch 2. That system will exist for another 7-8 years

They want as long as it's possible. You will eventually run into situations like Battlefield 6.

 

[pepeno]

Now I like the look of the Steam Machine. I like the look of the Steam Frame. But no OLED?
Will Alyx work on the Frame without the Steam Machine or will it need to be connected to it?

Alyx is pretty light these days so it should work on Frame.
Buy yeah those specs are nuts for rumored price of $1200.

Again for comparison. I bought Pico4 headset with exact same specs for 399 in 2022, 3 years ago. And it comes with Snapdragon XR1, 256GB storage, proper android ecosystem with ability to install any android app (like emulators etc)

The only thing going for Steam Frame is the SteamOS and ability to use it effectively like gaming PC for all PC gaming which i seriously doubt because again it's ARM chip and conversion between ARM and X86 is pain in ass still.

Eye tracking is another feature i was looking forward but it doesn't seem that it will be used for fovated rendering but instead for fovated streaming lol.

Imo, everything depends on a price. If this thing is $599 It's a steal with extra features over Quest3/Pico4 that tier of hardware. For $1200 they can shove it up their ass.

 

[kevboard]

RDNA3 is highly disappointing... like... really really disappointing...

I also just saw its only 8GB VRAM...
uhm...

no...
like...
no thank you...

 

[Kvally]

People once again doing the dumb thing and only looking at base numbers

DF tested it and said it falls between a Series S and PS5.

 

[Crispy Gamer]

Valve can get away with this level of hardware performance because Steam is so dominant. I actually think it'll be really good hopefully the price is under $500 and if HL3 is exclusive to it I'm definitely getting one.

 

[ShirAhava]

lol@ the specs

all you kaby lake GTX 1000 series gpu holdouts upgrade time is finally here!

 

[jzbadblood]

Seems like a waste of money. Controller looks big ass.

 

[vdb]

I'll probably get a Steam machine.

I don't need one at all.

 

[Senua]

Hmm I see. I guess it remains to be seen but this console might not be for me if it's really not significantly better than what I got now, which is XSX. I mean , I get my third party titles for XSX and have Game Pass for their own games.

On par with the base current gen consoles in 2026 is honestly disappointing. But we'll see how it pans out. New consoles are always exciting either way.

It's the access to infinitely more games than the power tbh

 

[The_hunter]

GPU is trash, fsr3 lol

 

[delishcaek]

The only thing I really dislike about it is the VRAM, on the other hand the GPU isn't all that great either, so 8gigs make sense.

Gonna be a good enough 1080p machine, pushing 1440p at high settings for older titles.

I could see myself replacing my ancient HTPC (Ryzen 1600x, GTX1070) with that, depending on price.

 

[JayK47]

Looks nice. I am interested in the controller and cube.

 

[AndrewRyan]

What a glorious day for pc and vr gaming! Definitely getting the frame and controller day one. The rumored prices though are gonna hurt real bad if true. The cube looks interesting too. Dont know what daisy-chaining is? Surprised it's only hdmi 2.0. Thought vrr requires 2.1, but it support freesync.

DisplayPort 1.4

• Up to 4K @ 240Hz or 8K@60Hz
• Supports HDR, FreeSync, and daisy-chaining

HDMI 2.0

• Up to 4K @ 120Hz
• Supports HDR, FreeSync, and CEC

 

[Kacho]

I doubt this is targeted towards people who cannot accept less than 100fps

Obviously not. Look at the top 20 games played on Steam Deck every month.

 

[ReasonBeing]

You have to hand it to Valve - they have engineers out here claiming theres no real plan to expand the SteamOS footprint outside of Windows, then putting out slates of HW that are infinitely more sellable than anything MS can produce.

Do you believe any one of these announced devices will outsell the Series consoles, or are you referring to the Magnus devices?

 

[Stafford]

So game announcement next week? That's what some of the rumors say.

Speshal Nick said next week something that can match the hype of GTA. I don't think he meant this, unless his source was wrong about reveal date.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

In the official Valve video announcement, they say the Steam Machine is meant for 4K, 60fps, while showing footage of Silent Hill f and Black Myth: Wukong. Maybe at lowest settings?

 

[BigBeauford]

Very curious to learn more about the Steam Frame's ability to stream. I've been toying with VR/AR glasses to play games in bed. The Xreal Air2 was kinda mediocre for me in this regard.

 

[Tommi84]

I hope Steam Cube doesn't cost me a kidney because this would be dope to have at home and play all those Steam games I have but have a potato laptop and can't play them.

Also, please, please, PLEASE allow me to play Richard Burns Rally on it

 

[Alexios]

Hope they do a Steam Machine DX by the new year or by end of March (my bday) so I can comfortably upgrade to it. Say 10x more powerful than Deck and with double the VRAM or similar. Otherwise I'll build a desktop again, not that it will be a monster or anything, a modest one, but still, please.

 

[CentralScrutinizer]

Definitely buying a Machine if the price is right. I have a 4070s but I want a way to play PC games in my basement game room.

 

[Comandr]

Lookin' good, Valve. Super interested in the controller. I love the DualSense, but the back buttons of the steam deck really spoiled me and I'm not willing to shell out the dosh for the DS Edge. Interested in the Frame to finally potentially replace my OG HTC Vive, and the Machine would be great for tucking under a TV in one of the bedrooms. Great lineup all around tbh. Since they're running SteamOS, I wonder if Decky would work on any of these. Would certainly make modding in FSR4 easy enough.

 

[Banjo64]

But do you not already have a PC? I'm always confused by posts like this on an "enthusiast forum". I think the steam machine looks really cool but then I have my PC already running HDMI 2.1 to my OLED TV. I have no use for it.

No I don't have a PC, I've worked on windows systems 9-5 for the last 10 years +. Buying an old M1 Mac Mini this week though.

I like games, but I'm not a hardware enthusiast. Loved my Deck Oled and Switch Oled. Currently own a Switch 2 only. Had a Series S and a PS5, liked them both. I can take 30fps 720p no problem.

 

[Pasta la Vista]

Oh fuck yea

 

[IDKFA]

8gb vram is not enough for anything these days. It will have to be really, really cheap for that to be appealing.

Agreed. 8GB of vram made me doube take. It does need to be affordable based on those specs. If it's silly money like north of £500 then it's going to be a tough sell.

However, this is suitable for most of the games I'd play on PC, so I'm not fussed. If priced correctly, I'd get this rather than spending a lot more on a gaming rig.

I'm hoping it will be priced correctly. I assume the idea is to make PC gaming more accessible, and to do that it needs to be a lot cheaper than a PC.