Valve Announces New Steam Machine, Steam Frame Headset, and Steam Controller

After launching a first series of Steam machines a decade ago, followed by the Valve Index VR headset and the Steam Deck handheld, Valve is getting really, really serious about hardware. Today, the company announced a new Steam controller and two upcoming devices running SteamOS, the new Steam Machine for the living room and the Steam Frame VR headset.

The new Steam Machine looks like a miniaturized version of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X, and Valve said that it’s six times more powerful than its Steam Deck handheld. As for the Steam Frame, it’s mostly designed for streaming VR and non-VR games, but the Qualcomm-powered headset will also be able to run games natively, even those designed for the x86 architecture.

These three new Steam devices will be released in early 2026, and there are no pricing details yet. However, Valve allowed Digital Foundry and other publications to go hands-on with its new products, and there are many reasons to be excited.

Steam machine

Valve’s new Steam Machine looks like a roughly 6-inch cube with a built-in power supply, a customizable LED strip on the front, and Valve said it’s powerful enough to support 4K gaming at 60FPS with AMD’s FSR technology. Users will also be able to upgrade the storage using the microSD port and the motherboard’s M.2 slot, which supports both 2230 and 2280 form factors.

The Steam Machine features a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 CPU with 6 cores running at up to 4.8 GHz. There’s also a semi-custom AMD RDNA3 GPU with 28 compute units running at up to 2.45 GHz, with 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM and 16GB of DDR5 memory. The Steam Machine will be available with a 512GB or 2TB NVMe SSD, and the MicroSD slot will allow users to hot swap cards between Steam Machines, as well as the Steam Frame headset.

The list of ports on the Steam Machine includes one Gigabit Ethernet port, one DisplayPort 1.4. port, and one HDMI 2.0 port. There are also two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports on the front, plus two USB-A 2.0 ports and one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port on the back.

Valve told Digital Foundry that developers will get access to an API that will help their games recognize the Steam Machine, so that the best settings can be applied automatically. There’s a similar API for the Steam Deck, and this helps to provide a console-like experience to users who prefer not to mess with game settings.

Digital Foundry still had some reservations about the 8GB of VRAM on the Steam Machine, though Valve told them that the company made this decision with “affordability” in mind. While we don’t have pricing details for the Steam Machine yet, Valve will need to reach the $500 price range if it wants to compete with current-gen Xbox and PlayStation consoles.

Steam Frame

The Steam Frame is Valve’s answer to the affordable Meta Quest 3 VR headset, but it comes with some distinctive features. First of all, it runs SteamOS, just like the Steam Machine, and it can stream VR and non-VR games from a PC and also run them natively.

Just like the Meta Quest 3, the Steam Frame relies on camera-based tracking to visually map and track a user’s room, head, and hands. It’s also fully untethered, and Valve will include a wireless adapter in the box for streaming games from a PC via Wi-Fi 6.

While Valve believes that game streaming makes the most sense on the Steam Frame, its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip and 16GB of LDDR5X RAM will support running x86-based Steam games natively via a new translation layer. The company will also launch a “Steam Frame Verified” program to encourage games to optimize their games for the headset.

The Steam Frame weighs 440g, which makes it slightly lighter than the Meta Quest 3 (515g). It features two LCD panels with a 2160×2160 resolution and a 72-144Hz refresh rate, a 21.6 Wh Li-ion battery in the back-of-head portion of the strap.

On the storage front, the headset will be available with either 256GB or 1TB of storage. As I mentioned earlier, the built-in microSD card slot will also support hot-swapping cards between devices.

Lastly, the new Steam Frame controllers support motion controls and capacitive finger tracking, and their split gamepad layout will support the entire Steam game library. Valve promises up to 40 hours of use with the built-in batteries.

Steam controller

Valve released its first Steam Controller back in 2015 and discontinued it four years later. This new controller mirrors the experience of using a Steam Deck, with a built-in gyroscope and dual trackpads replicating the function of a mouse.

However, Valve upgraded the joysticks with Tunneling Magnetoresistance (TMR) sensors to improve responsiveness and longevity. The new Steam Controller also features touch sensors on the thumbsticks and the back of the controller.

Valve also created a new puck accessory that works as a magnetic charger and wireless adapter that can connect up to four Steam Controllers via a 2.4 GHz connection. The Steam Controller also supports wired and Bluetooth connections, and it can be used on PCs, Macs, smartphones, and other Steam devices.

Overall, it looks like Valve’s new devices, especially the Steam machine, may give serious competition to established living room console brands. Games are usually cheaper on Steam, and players also don’t need to pay for online multiplayer. Moreover, with its Steam Deck handheld and Steam Frame headset, players will be able to get even more out of their Steam library. If Valve nails the pricing and execution, the company may seriously shake up the video games industry next year.