Valve Reveals New Hardware Lineup: A Controller, Compact Gaming PC, and VR-Ready Headset

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Valve revealed three upcoming Steam products expected to be available in early 2026. These include a redesigned Steam Controller, a Steam Machine for PC gaming, and the Steam Frame VR headset. More details about when each will launch and how much they’ll cost will be announced in early 2025.

Steam Controller

Valve’s new Steam controller takes inspiration from the popular Steam Deck handheld gaming console. It has everything you need to play today’s games, including advanced magnetic thumbsticks, standard-sized buttons, trackpads, motion control, and grip buttons. You can use it with your PC, Steam Deck, Steam Machine, or Steam Frame. Valve estimates a full charge will last up to 35 hours.

Steam Machine

If you want to play PC games on your TV, the Steam Machine is a small, box-shaped device that could be a good fit. It runs SteamOS and is designed to work with the Steam Controller, but Valve says you can also connect other controllers and accessories for a flexible gaming experience.

The device will come in two storage options: 512GB and 2TB, and you can add even more space with a microSD card. Inside, it features a powerful AMD Zen 4 processor with 6 cores and 12 threads, a custom AMD graphics card, and 16GB of fast DDR5 RAM. Valve claims it can play games at 4K resolution with a smooth 60 frames per second, utilizing AMD’s FSR technology and supporting ray tracing.

Steam Frame

The Steam Frame is a comfortable and lightweight VR headset that lets you play both VR and regular PC games. It uses a Snapdragon processor and SteamOS, and can work on its own or connect to your computer. You can use standard controllers with it for all your games.

The headset features a high-resolution LCD display in each eye (2160 x 2160), a wide 110-degree field of view, and a smooth refresh rate between 72 and 144Hz. It comes with 16GB of RAM and will be sold with either 256GB or 1TB of storage, which can be increased using microSD cards. The Steam Frame controllers offer precise 6-DOF tracking, respond to your finger touch, have magnetic thumbsticks, and can last up to 40 hours on AA batteries.

Valve is thrilled with how well Steam Deck has been received, and player feedback has inspired them to create more options for Steam users. These new devices, like Steam Deck, are designed to work seamlessly with Steam while still remaining open platforms.

Since its release a few years ago, the Steam Deck has proven popular and inspired other companies to create similar handheld gaming PCs. Valve is reportedly developing an updated model, potentially launching in 2027. Competition in this area is growing, with Lenovo and MSI already offering handhelds, and Asus and Microsoft recently releasing the ROG Ally X powered by AMD’s latest Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor. For console gamers, Sony’s PlayStation Portal provides handheld access to games through a PS5 console or cloud streaming.

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2025-11-12 21:11