Valve Announces New Steam Machine, VR Headset, Controller

Valve announced a trio of new hardware products on Tuesday, marking its most ambitious push into consumer gaming devices since the Steam Deck's debut. The lineup includes a revamped Steam Machine compact gaming PC, the Steam Frame standalone VR headset, and an updated Steam Controller, all slated for release in early 2026. The announcements aim to blend PC flexibility with console simplicity, targeting gamers seeking affordable entry into high-performance play.

The Steam Machine, a cube-shaped mini PC measuring 156 by 152 by 162.4 millimeters and weighing 2.6 kilograms, revives a concept Valve first explored a decade ago. It features semi-custom AMD components: a Zen 4 CPU with six cores and 12 threads clocked up to 4.8 GHz at a 30-watt thermal design power, paired with an RDNA 3 GPU boasting 28 compute units at 2.45 GHz and 110 watts, plus 8 gigabytes of GDDR6 video memory. The system includes 16 gigabytes of DDR5 RAM and storage options of 512 gigabytes or 2 terabytes NVMe SSD, both upgradable via an accessible M.2 slot and microSD support. RAM is also swappable, though the CPU and GPU are soldered in place.

Connectivity options are robust, with Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3,...