Steam Machine | Hacker News Reader

Steam Machine

store.steampowered.com

2,928 pointsdavikr1,514 comments

My theory for a bit now has been that Valve is playing the long game in trying to make SteamOS a mainstay gaming platform as an alternative to Windows, and that the hardware products are essentially a way of breaking into that market. Even a few years ago, the idea of a custom Linux distro based on Arch Linux with both a built-in full desktop mode and a lower-powered gaming mode that you could switch between on a handheld device would have sounded kind of crazy, but now we're at the point where it's fully supported on more than one vendor's hardware. This seems like it could be a similar play in the traditional desktop space; if they can prove that the concept is viable, maybe other vendors will come out with similar products that come with SteamOS by default. All of this insulates them from having to worry about the long-term sustainability of making money from game sales on Windows, and if it works out, they wouldn't even necessarily have to continue making hardware indefinitely.

I don't pretend to have any insight into whether this theory is correct beyond that it seems to track with what they've been doing lately, or any expertise to make claims about whether it will work or not. In a lot of ways, this might just be a projection of my desires as a gamer who enjoys not having had to boot into Windows to play something for quite a few years at this point. I do hope that maybe they're just crazy enough to not only try this, but pull it off though!

I don't think this needs to be a theory. Valve regards Microsoft's flirtations with walled gardens (MS Store) as an existential threat. They see their investment into linux gaming as a hedge against future locked down windows OS, which is at this point probably inevitable.

Gabe is a former MSFTy, left in 1996 to found Valve, he saw games as more popular than Windows. It wouldn’t surprise me if he got into games in order to compete against his former employer which would suggest to me that this plan has been in motion since before 1996, almost 30 years. At least from my point of view, if I wanted to take on Microsoft, doing what he did for the past 30 years is how I would go about doing that.

Not much of a theory when everything you described has already happened.

Didn't Gabe Newell basically confirm 13 years ago already that they were aiming for that ?

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18996377

> maybe other vendors will come out with similar products that come with SteamOS by default

It's already happening. Lenovo released a SteamOS variant of the The Lenovo Legion Go S.

I still remember when Valve first showed an early alpha unreleased version of Steam running natively in Ubuntu for the first time in the early 2010s. It blew my mind that a major company, especially an entertainment company, was targeting Linux at this scale.

Of course, Wine was very lackluster in those days, and for a while I was worried they'd eventually give up with the monumental effort that would be involved in getting it up to snuff.

It's now over a decade later and they're still at it and have made monumental leaps. Valve truly was and still is playing the long game here.

Imagine if Microsoft had never threatened their business with the Windows 8 store and the anxiety of Microsoft locking down their platform.

> "All of this insulates them from having to worry about the long-term sustainability of making money from game sales on Windows..."

The weak link in your theory is that Microsoft is in control of the future of the DirectX API, not Valve, and it is Microsoft who is working with nVidia and AMD and game studios to evolve DirectX to take advantage of the latest GPU features. SteamOS can at best follow closely behind but can never take the lead without Valve developing their own games API that games developers an GPU makers are willing to target.

When his business depends on Microsoft, which has shown untrustworthy behavior time and again, this is a great hedge.

Nice theory and it would make sense with how unstable Microsoft has been in their all encompassing quest to make AI a thing people use by cramming it into everything (along with their other shitty practices)

Though not necessarily the case since selling steam devices also will make steam the default even more which could also be a primary reason it could also be both, who knows.

there is a lot of evidence for this. this isn't a hypothesis, this is what's going on.

why else would Valve spend so much time and money on Proton? To eliminate the dependency on Windows. Windows is still the OS for gaming. Valve doesn't like that and they are successfully slowly changing that.

Now, if they would just build their 1st party titles for arm64 macOS. I would love to play Portal 1, Portal 2, and Half-Life 2 et al on my decked out MacBook Pro, but I can't. Why can't I? Well, MacBooks are such a slim slice of the market. Yeah well it would be slightly more of the market if I could play Team Fortress 2 on this thing.

If that is their goal they need to contribute _a lot_ more than a custom Arch distro with a custom Wayland session changer and Proton.

Because while Proton is nice there are many things in KDE that fall down because of how contribution works.

Until they get rid of their dependency on Windows, they can come with whatever alternatives they feel like, Microsoft has the last word.

> Install your own apps, or even another operating system. Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?

I'm so happy to read this

Valve respects its customers. It is so insane that this isn't a norm; what a world we would be in if all companies did so.

Me, too. I've been meaning to upgrade my HTPC for years, but I kept holding off because I had hoped that NVIDIA would release a new ShieldTV (the last one used the same chip as the Switch, so the community had quietly hoped that the Switch 2's release would coincide with a new Shield--no such luck). Assuming the Steam Machine is reasonably priced, I could easily see it also becoming my new Kodi box when not gaming on it.

it's so refreshing to read something like that from a big company, it's weird, but felt like there's still hope? that there's people in power that still care? strange feeling, still curious about it

the last few in years in tech have been depressing, like no one cares to make something that's actually better for the consumer, it's made me into a cynic and I hate it

Turns out that a company that is not publicly traded and run by people that only care about stock prices, can actually care about their customers.

Props to Valve for not treating freedom like a "pro" feature

Yup. Sounds like its just a PC and not a locked down platform. Its easy for them and convenient for everyone.

I'm sure someone will install OpenStep and recreate a NeXT computer 2.0

Meanwhile Microsoft be like: we are going to ship AI to your computer, eat all the resource, lag your game despite you don't use it and neither you don't want it at all.

Fingers crossed for a smartphone next. So sick of that force fed walled garden crap from Apple and Google.

Might also help to slow down enshittification by a bit if there was a popular alternative. Maybe something like Waydroid could even ease with transition.

And just like that, valve will keep winning spectacularly.

Their "launch trailer" shows the Steam Machine running Windows.

Was going to post, exactly, this statement but found it is already spotted!

I just hope Google & Apple read, understand and follow this.

That stood out to me too but my reaction was “whatever, just another promise that won’t age well”.

>I'm so happy to read this

it rings hollow from a company whose entire bedrock for existence is DRM procedures.

does Steam still disallow accounts from playing more than one independently owned game at a time without special procedures?

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamframe [1]

> Steam Frame is a PC, and runs SteamOS powered by a Snapdragon® 8 Series Processor. With 16GB of RAM, Steam Frame supports stand-alone play on a growing number of both VR and non-VR games without needing to stream from your PC.

So Steam + Proton works on aarch64? Is this something already available/supported, or is this an announcement?

[1] Steam Frame, which is the VR Headset releasing alongside the Steam Machine. Dedicated discussion here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45903325

Valve has been quietly working on integrating the FEX x86 emulator into Proton for a while, and it's official now.

https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/gaming-headsets/han...

Just to clarify that's for the Steam Frame VR Headset. The Steam Machine PC uses an AMD Zen 4 x86 CPU.

Wow this looks great. Foveated streaming, great resolution, wireless, 144hz, looks much more comfortable... As much as I want this, I feel like it'll end up being a really cool thing that just sits on the shelf.

Edit: foveated streaming, not rendering

> So Steam + Proton works on aarch64?

CodeWeavers just announced[0] CrossOver on ARM a couple of days ago, so yes.

[0]: https://www.codeweavers.com/blog/mjohnson/2025/11/6/twist-ou...

I'm more confused that it's running SteamOS which is supposedly Arch based, but arch doesn't officially support ARM. You have to use the ArchLinuxARM distro for that, which is less maintained. They got to be doing something off label for that.

When's the preorders happening?

It also looks like they've launched a new version of the Steam Controller.

I think this is a form of an announcement but without many details. I'm curious to see how well it works

Pretty much the only reason I boot to Windows anymore is to play games with my kids and family. The direction of this thing is dangerously close to being all I'd care about from a desktop computer.

If Valve pivoted into making a well-supported laptop with good hardware that ran Linux and played games...

Like other commenters, I also recently made the switch. Figured I would dual-boot windows but have never needed to boot it back up again.

ProtonDB is a goldmine when a game doesn't work. Oh, and switching from Nvidia GPU to AMD GPU seems to have worked great to get games to "just work".

I was in the same shoes, then one day I decided to give a shot to Bazzite. To my surprise the installation was extremely smooth, and everything worked right away. Now I’m playing almost everything on it (Arc Raiders, EU V, HLL and Horizon FW recently). If you want to _try_ all you need is 15 minutes, some HDD space and an empty USB. You don’t have to give up Windows at all, dual booting is also pretty smooth.

> If Valve pivoted into making a well-supported laptop with good hardware that ran Linux and played games...

SteamDeck is out since February 2022 and does all that. You can use a BT mouse&keyboard, plug a USB-C screen or dongle for HDMI. I did live presentations with that quite a few time. It's just a computer with another form factor.

It's not "dangerously close", it's been there for years now.

Basically only competitive gaming with kernel level anti-cheat are problematic.

I used to also have a dedicated Windows machine just for gaming, but two years ago I formatted the Windows drive and put SteamOS (via ChimeraOS) instead. I can legitimately say that it has been more stable than running the same games on Windows. Just flawless.

Just wondering, what games are you playing that dont run on Linux yet? I can't think of games I'd play much with family that dont work well

Same, if they also released something like a Steam Machine Pro with more ram+vram and bit higher specs I would instantly purchase it. Nvidia and AMD have been rightly criticized for releasing 8GB video cards in the past year and valve shouldn't be immune to that criticism.

>with my kids and family.

if you have an AMD GPU, Linux Mint does everything 'gaming' - on top of installation, bluetooth and printing(!) better than Windows

This promises 4k 60fps gaming and Valve is good with hardware, so this is an immediate buy from me if it's under 1000€

No need to mess around building a gaming PC anymore.

>with my kids and family.

if you have an AMD GPU, Linux Mint does everything - including installation, bluetooth and printing(!) better than Windows

I recently got a tiny and mighty GPD win mini. I booted windows once to shrink the data partition and installed Bazzite Linux. Painless install, never even considered booting in win again, and so far all games I tried worked flawlessly. I know there are issues with anti-cheat, but I usually don't even like those games..

Only reason I even had a windows machine too. I got rid of it because I realized after a long tiring day sitting upright, I really did not find sitting even more upright and playing games relaxing. I wanted to plop down on the couch and do it. And it was a gigantic tower that was taking up too much space in my office

If I could have a machine like this instead, I'd happily buy it instead. Windows has zero use for me other than playing games

I made the switch to Linux for gaming maybe six months ago. I play A LOT of games and have only encountered a single game that didn't just work.

> If Valve pivoted into making a well-supported laptop with good hardware that ran Linux and played games...

The Steam Deck is kind of close to this although the screen isn't the best. I think the closest you can get to this right now is adding a graphics card module on a Framework laptop.

Laptops are difficult to cool down, they're bad for gaming.

Unless they remove fans, or have limited hardware, but that's already a steam deck: just add a keyboard and a larger screen.

I believe you're looking for https://system76.com/

They already proved with the Deck that you don't need Windows for a great gaming experience anymore

Extremely hard pass on a laptop. They already have the steam deck, and now they have this. Whether you want it portable or not, there are options. Laptops always end up being just... so disappointing.

the limit last time was anything competitive or multiplayer that required a weird launcher or some low-level permissions or something. I just want to play CS2 and hunt showdown.

I've been using Pop_OS, buggy as hell but steam games work great!

Everything is kinda a dumpster fire, but they nailed steam games.

In this big hardware refresh, honestly most excited about finally getting a new steam controller [1], which feels like it might finally give us a better, more extensible standard than the extremely outdated XInput protocol (which still doesn't even support motion controls)

[1] https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamcontroller

In my dream world, hardware enthusiasts would be constantly creating absolutely crazy game controllers with bizarre combinations of inputs that look nothing like an xbox 360 controller. There'd be a universal input protocol that would allow for self-describing gamepads with arbitrary numbers of digital buttons, analog sticks and triggers, touchpads, mouse inputs, haptics, gyro sensors, levers, sliders, wheels, etc. etc.

I realize this may not be practical, but it's kind of weird that PCs have been more or less stuck with a protocol designed for XBox 360 controllers for 2 decades now, while the locked-down console space is seeing much more experimentation and innovation around input. The original steam controller at least hinted at being sort of an open platform for this sort of thing, although it didn't really take off. Fingers crossed for the new version.

It looks way too chunky, just like the original Steam Controller, Steam Deck or original duke Xbox controller. Not everybody has Jack Reacher hands.

Microsoft really did it right with the XSX controller. They took the old X360 / Xone design (perfect for large and medium hands) shrunk it slightly and then added cut-outs and and angled button surfaces (perfect for medium and small hands). The Elite is similarly good, with the back buttons being elongated and thin, meaning everyone can reach them comfortably without them getting in the way.

SInput recently released and got supported by SDL, which plenty of games, but also Steam Input uses. So you can already use SInput in Steam Input. Better than XInput for sure.

https://docs.handheldlegend.com/s/sinput/doc/sinput-hid-prot...

I don't think Steam has ever published specs for their protocol. And without Steam, their old controller would fallback to a mouse/keyboard mode. The Linux kernel drivers (that didn't require Steam) were reverse engineered. Hori released a Steam Controller recently. Even that still had an XInput fallback switch.

I love my OG steam controller still. I can't tell if this new one has the dual stage triggers like the og (like if there's an additional click on full trigger pull).

I used that to set things like boost in rocket League and it felt super intuitive.

No mention of dual stage trigger though, which was my cheat code in rocket league to have one button for accelerate and boost

I've been using a Stadia controller with my Steam Deck OLED but finally it'll have a worthy upgrade.

I just hope they give us an option to buy a controller with the face buttons in the "Nintendo" order rather than the "Xbox" order. Like how the 8bitdo pro comes in two versions. The only console I actually still care about these days is the Switch/Switch 2, so it would be nice to not have the button placement suddenly reversed when switching between controllers.

https://www.8bitdo.com/pro2/

I'm just hoping it has a standalone "pretend it is an xbox/generic controller" mode that doesn't rely on steam, so I can bring it to friends easily.

Same here. The trackpads on the steam deck work great. Might get this for docked mode. Kinda wish a splittable controller was more common for ergonomics ( not great to be clenching your chest on a centered object like that for hours on end, similar to non-split keyboards ). Seems like split controllers are still reserved for VR and nintendo switch style systems for now…

If Valve can push a new standard that actually takes modern input seriously and gives devs better tooling, I'd be all for it

The trackpads are a deal breaker for me

They should have put them just above the joysticks, like the PS5 controller

Better, they should have made them detachable with a magnet, similar to the Switch JoyCon's system, what a missed opportunity

I wonder how this will compare to the Dual Sense; the haptics on that would be tough to give up!

Isn't the lack of extensibility kind of the point?

It forces everyone to make the same controller, so the developer knows what the user will have.

I'm really disappointed that the new controller takes AA batteries though.

SteamOS has way more appeal to gamers in 2025 than it could have had in, say, 2004.

On the surface the lack of popular multiplayer titles that require a kernel-level anti-cheat is a heavy downside, but gaming is extremely fragmented these days. In 2004 everyone, save for the casual players, at least tried DOOM3 and Half-Life 2. In 2025 Fortnight has an all-time peak of 12M players, but at the same time there are many millions of Minecraft players who never even launched Fortnight. And DOTA2/LOL players who've never launched either of those 2. And then you see a bunch of indie titles selling tens of millions of copies, and their player base is completely unrelated to those above.

The days of the gaming mono-culture are long gone, and inability to play a limited number of Game As A Service titles is not as severe of a handicap anymore, especially since people who play those kinds of games aren't typically as interested in any other titles. For better or worse, peer pressure doesn't work as heavy these days, as it used to

I was a heavy gamer in 2004 and never played HL2 or DOOM3. I know many such people. I think games like Mario party, smash, and Mario kart were far more ubiquitous.

What made you go with comparing things to 2004? Seems random, there is so much that is different in the Linux ecosystem generally, Valve just put the situation on a rocket and shot it into space.

Point taken, it really is marvelous! When I was running Gentoo Linux, and Windows 2000 back then I never thought things would be so portable and simple!

> the lack of popular multiplayer titles that require a kernel-level anti-cheat is a heavy downside

It's a downside if all you want to do is play those games. But it's an upside if you're hoping they someday ditch all that nonsense. This puts more pressure on those publishers.

Your comparisons are a mess.

"Casual player" is very poorly defined.

You are comparing concurrent players with unique players (IIRC half a billion for Fortnite ?)

"Many millions" hardly means anything when you use it to cover 3 orders of magnitude.

And so on and so forth...

True. Things were better the old way with so many kids at least having a video game like Melee or CoD or Halo in common. I would've liked those to run on Linux, but that doesn't matter so much.

Eh multiplayer games are doomed.

Computer vision based cheats using an external machine that records the game's final rendered frames, process them with specialized YOLO models, and control "mices" and "controllers" to aim for you already exist.

If the aim for kernel level anti-cheats was to combat cheating, they have failed and are completely worthless.

"Steam Machine’s pricing is comparable to a PC with similar specs" [0]

It has to be no more than 800€ then if it also wants to compete against the console market.

Even 800€ is too much imo because looking at the specs it's already not a "future proof" build, more like a previous gen gaming laptop

0, https://www.theverge.com/tech/818111/valve-steam-machine-han...

Unfortunately given the fact that RAM and SSD prices are going through the roof coupled with the fact that a CPU like that alone will be near 150-200 at retail this thing is going to likely cost more.

The console makers have avoided these price increases by mass producing the same sku for a while now. If stocks last into 2027 they will likely remain the same price. If they don't I imagine the console prices might jump a bit too.

600€ is top I would pay for this, and even then the HDMI 2.0 sucks. I get that it's a linux/amd issue with HDMI licensing but it still sucks for a media center when most TVs these days support 4k/120 VRR.

I really like the controller, I think I'll pass on the device and just stream from my PC to TV.

Wow, the heat sink takes up most of the internal space!

thanks for that. The internals photos were what I was really wanting to see!

what kind of specs can we build a mini itx these days? I haven't looked into it, but the small form factor is a pretty big premium. I'm not sure I could build a ~ Raydon 7600xt micro itx build for less than $1K usd? (I haven't really looked, though).

For me, I'm looking at this like a nice micro itx build, and I'd probably pay up to a grand for it. (pending final specs and performance reviews, because it's kind of hard to compare it's custom chips on paper.)

For 800 eur I'd rather get the cheaper Framework desktop motherboard (Ryzen AI 385) and build around that.

I might be the minority, but I frankly would buy it at 1000€ easily if it meant that the hardware was really good.

Paywalled, and also The Verge.

https://archive.vn/ndOmA

Very weird USB-C port placement choices...

- 2 USB3-A on the front

- 2 USB2-A on the back

- 1 USB-C on the back

If you want to plug an external USB hard drive or SSD at full speed, you'll need to plug it at the front? Or use up the only USB-C port...

I suspect most joysticks sold today come with a USB-C to USB-C cable, so if you want to charge your controller you either need to plug on the back, use an adapter, or get a USB-A to USB-C cable?

Also the single USB-C port isn't Thunderbolt/USB4, and they're only including gigabit ethernet, which is disappointing but perhaps understandable if they're trying to keep it at a low price.

Valve / Steam presumably has good data on what controllers and peripherals people are using, so I'd imagine their port choices are based around that. Here's a June 2024 post talking about Steam Input and controller market share: https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail... . At the time of the post they say "59% of sessions are using Xbox controllers, 26% are using PlayStation controllers, 10% are on Steam Decks"

Most gaming peripherals still seem to use USB-A on the computer end for cables and dongles.

Current Xbox and PS5 controllers charge with a USB-C port on the controller end but a USB-A port where the plug into the console.

What do you expect to do with the steam machine that will take more than a gigabit? I mean, it's cool when things are faster, but if you can saturate the link, downloads are still bottlenecked by the drives. And even 4k streaming is under 100Mbit normally.

You'd be wrong C to A is still pretty standard for controllers in my experience.

As for gigabit fewer and fewer people have ethernet routed to their office/TV area much less >1gig networking to take advantage of anything better than a 1 gig.

Most controller/headphone dongles come with USB-A, so 2.0 in the back makes sense. Radio for new steam controller is integrated.

I have a Y-splitter for my PS5 controllers and if I didn't, I would have had some sort of controller dock. I assume I would do the same for this. Either way, TV is too far from my couch for a cable, so I wanted to keep playing and charging I'd use a powerbank from my coffee table.

Gigabit Ethernet...that's sad, I'd take 2.5G, so I can better stream my legally ripped Blu-rays. I assume most people don't care because they would use Wi-Fi or their switch only goes to 1G. Better than JBL making android TV sound bar with 100mpbs.

I think it purposely designed, so you don't try to build a NAS on it.

I think the decision of usb2-a at the rear is for wireless keyboard and mouse adapters. Those ones can behave abnormally on usb3-a, plus it’s nice to have those ugly adapters out of sight.

A lot of devices that you commonly plug and unplug like flash drives and passkeys still make sense as USB-A for a lot of people because of the specifics of the USB spec.

C to A converters for devices are technically verboten since they would allow an enduser to make a A to A cable, which can fry hosts if you plug them into eachother if they don't support USB OTG. You can lose certification if you try to ship a device with a C to A converter.

Because of that, USB-A devices with an optional A to C converter (or neater devices that have both plugs on them natively) are what makes a lot of sense for a lot of people for the kinds of devices that live on a key chain. So it makes sense for that to be the default on the front of a desktop, IMO.

most of the usecase is going to be keyboard, mouse, and bluetooth headset dongles. All three of mine attached to my Steam Deck dock are USB-A.

although I own a bunch of those usb-a->c attachments you plug on the end, so it wouldnt make much difference

You can replace the internal ssd with an off-the-shelf ssd and it also has SD card support, so there should be less need for external SSDs.

Gigabit Ethernet is definitely a bummer when I'm close to having fiber all the way to my PC.

> I suspect most joysticks sold today come with a USB-C to USB-C cable

while things can be charged with USB-C cables, the only thing I've ever received A C-to-C cable is... a USB-C wall charger. Granted I haven't gotten a USB-C iPhhone yet and I gotta imagine that one is C-to-C.

Generally lots of pack-in cables I've seen in the wild for charging devices continue to be USB-A-to-C. Switch 2 ports are USB-A, PS5 front port is USB-A... we're still getting there.

The lack of USB-C on the front is especially odd in 2025

The steam machine has a bespoke wireless connector for the (new steam) controller so it doesn't pollute the Bluetooth network and cause lag.

Yes, the controller is charged through usb-c, but you can just use any charger around to charge that. I mean, the battery should last for 30+ hours so you only need to charge it on a weekly or biweekly basis with heavy usage.

I suspect it'll be like the Mac mini situation, and the after-market USB hubs that fit the form factor will expand rapidly ..

Real question, what would >1 gigabit Ethernet or Thunderbolt do for you in a low/mid-range gaming PC?

Could it be a synergy with the Steam Frame's dual band wireless dongle? I'm guessing they would really want users to plug that into the front of the device.

Adapting A ports to C is much more convenient than going the other way. I have a whole sack of passive A to C dongles that stick out less than 1cm from the port.

The console is on the TV side and I usually just charge my controllers on the sofa side. That way I can charge and play at the same time if I want to.

It's an old semi-custom semi-discontinued laptop soc.

Very interesting! The one killer issue that jumps to mind is anti-cheat. I switched away from gaming on Linux via Proton to gaming on Windows because Battlefield 6's anti-cheat won't work under Proton. Many games are like this, particularly some of the most popular (Rainbow 6 Siege for instance). And BF6 made this decision only recently despite the growing number of Steam Deck players (and other players on linux - in fairness I don't think there would have been that many BF6 players on a handheld).

Edit: I specifically use a gaming-only PC. The hardware is used for nothing else. Hence, discussions of rootkits don't really bother me personally much and on balance I'd really rather see fewer cheaters in my games. I think it would be the same with any of these machines - anything Steam-branded is likely to be a 99% gaming machine and their users will only care that their games work, not about the mechanisms of the anti-cheat software.

I view it as Valve is doing me a favor by adding friction towards me installing a rootkit to play video games.

There's also been numerous userspace ACs that work well and also run in userspace (EAC, Battleye, etc.) that have been enabled for Linux/Proton users (including by EA with Apex Legends at one point). A lot of the support for Linux mostly comes down to the developer/publishers not wanting to and not because of technical reasons.

This is a issue of critical mass. With the continued growth of steamos, steamdeck, and linux as a game platform, eventually it will pull over support.

It's worse than that, BF6's anticheat is kernel level and requires the Windows-only version secure boot to be enabled, at least on my motherboard. There is no way I'm going to faff about with my BIOS when rebooting just to play this game.

Perhaps a trusted execution environment based anti-cheat system could be possible.

I think Valve said something about working with anti-cheat developers to find a solution for the Steam Deck, but nothing happened. Perhaps they will do something this time.

With a TEE, you could scan the system or even completely isolate your game, preventing even the OS from manipulating it. As a last resort, you could simply blacklist the machine if cheats are detected.

There would probably still be some cheaters, but the numbers would be so low as to not be a problem.

Looking at the specs and marketing copy, it sounds to me like you could secure boot windows 11 on this machine.

> ... a discrete semi-custom AMD desktop class CPU and GPU.

> Yes, Steam Machine is optimized for gaming, but it's still your PC. Install your own apps, or even another operating system. Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?

I'd have Secure Boot, and then one root for an user-modifiable regular Linux installation, and another root that is read-only, signed, custom kernel etc.

All Valve has to do is say “Your software cannot deliberately exclude linux support including kernel anti-cheat to be listed on Steam.” And that would be that, the few devs big enough to make it on their own would leave, and everyone else would adapt.

Even without anticheat, ProtonDB has a lot of "gold" ratings it really shouldn't; the comments explain the real experience. See BeamNG and AOE2:DE.

Do we know what kernel SteamOS uses? Is it built on linux, or could it be some sort of kiosk'd mode Windows where this will be a non-issue? One could hope but I truly don't know.

Same. I mainline Destiny2 (well, a bit less these days), and Bungie won't support Linux/Steam Deck because they depend on BattlEye kernel anti-cheat.

(and yet still have a problem with cheaters, see all the bans following the Desert Perpetual raid race)

A bit too sparse on details.

- No price

- No indication for whether the CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD are upgradable or all soldered together on the board.

- "4K gaming at 60 FPS with FSR" but doesn't mention what kind of games it can run at that quality.

- No performance benchmarks, or mention of what the equivalent retail CPU/GPU to their custom one is.

At face value this seems like a $500-600 PC, and that's also the price it would be able to compete with consoles at.

> "No indication for whether the CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD are upgradable or all soldered together on the board"

With 99.9% certainty this box is carrying on the legacy of the Deck and the Deck OLED, which means that it has a 100% custom crafted SoC with soldered components. Which also means they also could perform some trickery not found in "normal" PCs, like UDMA and custom interface.

> "but doesn't mention what kind of games it can run at that quality."

According to the specs it has a custom RDNA 3 chip w/ 28 CUs and boost clock at 2.45Ghz. The Playstation 5 has a custom RDNA 2 chip w/ 36 CUs @ 2.23 GHz and the Xbox Series X has a custom RDNA2 2 chip w/ 52 CUs @ 1.83Ghz.

Given the optimizations AMD made in RDNA 3 (the "budget" 9070XT can easily keep up with the prev gen "enthousiast" 9700XTX) I could make a safe bet it's on the same level of performance as a Playstation 5

> "No performance benchmarks, or mention of what the equivalent retail CPU/GPU to their custom one is."

~7600X, ~RX7700, but like I noted earlier that's meaningless because the overall architecture of the hardware in this box is likely completely incomparable with a generic PC (just like with XBX and PS5, by the way)

There are some early previews where people ran some actual games at it[0].

Here are some of their results:

> In Cyberpunk 2077, running at 4K, it’s a surprisingly stable 60fps, albeit with the caveat of that using FSR 3 upscaling on Performance mode with Medium quality settings. But, also: basic ray tracing, something the Deck can’t even think about enabling outside of very specific games.

> The next game I tested, Black Myth: Wukong, is best run with its own RT effects switched off. Still, it also averaged around 60fps on otherwise similar settings: Performance-level FSR 3 upscaling to 4K, plus the Medium quality preset. And, in an almost unnerving repeat performance, Silent Hill f ran close enough to a solid 60fps (with most drops owed to Unreal Engine 5’s signature stuttering) on the Performance-level graphics settings and, once again, FSR 3 running on Performance mode.

[0] https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/hands-on-with-the-new-steam...

It's basically a more powerful Steam Deck that's connected to a TV. The games will be "verified" and the settings pre-tuned for ideal performance just like the Steam Deck. They did a good job making the most of mediocre hardware in the Deck.

My initial thoughts were that this thing would cost considerably more, but I'm looking at the specs and it might not be too bad. Maybe it'll start at $499 or $599 and go up $749 or $849. I'm guessing SoC and not easily upgraded. It says Zen4 so it won't be Strix Point/Halo, but maybe some bastard variation with a Zen4 core and newer GPU than the Deck.

All my friends have moved on to PC, and I don't really want to build a $1000 minimum computer with crazy LEDs that takes up a ton of space with a monitor at this point in my life. And SteamDeck doesn't support KB+M well.

I have no qualms about couch gaming with a KB+M if I can do it with my friends and my already extensive Steam library. Unless they completely drop the ball on this, I'm in.

8GB VRAM + 4K + FSR3 is very tough situation. Basically bit better than an Xbox Series S but quickly outpaced by midrange PCs.

It will all come down to the price.

> No indication for whether the CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD are upgradable or all soldered together on the board.

Almost certainly. This is the direction the industry is heading, and the perverse unavailability of high-end discrete graphics cards is the nail in the coffin.

See also the Framework PC.

SSD and RAM replaceable, CPU and GPU soldered according to Linus. GPU equivalent to AMD Radeon RX 7600M

Consoles frequently get better performance than an equivalent pc because companies optimize for that specific hardware.

Frame becoming a mainstream device (compared to any random combination of components) might make a difference that way.

"- No indication for whether the CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD are upgradable or all soldered together on the board."

SSD and RAM are user replaceable, CPU and GPU are soldered

> - No indication for whether the CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD are upgradable or all soldered together on the board.

SSD and RAM are upgradable, source:

https://www.theverge.com/tech/818111/valve-steam-machine-han...

> - No indication for whether the CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD are upgradable or all soldered together on the board.

According to a video by Digital Foundry, the main limitation will be the 8 GB of VRAM (some new games may require more), which definitely can't be upgraded.

It's soldered on the board, Gamers Nexus has already reviewed it: https://youtu.be/bWUxObt1efQ?t=591

Yeah, gemini gives $649 - $699 for BOM, $749+ if they want some margin from the hardware. Which is cheaper than most "Gaming PC", but still more expensive than Switch/PS5, and lack the expandability of PC.

I wish they could sell at $300-$500, that's really going to make this a must have for this year.

>RAM 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM

Hmm. Not that it is big deal, but I would be somewhat worried about true longevity with the VRAM. Not sure if SteamOS helps there, but on PC some new titles are going over the 8GB VRAM.

> Install your own apps, or even another operating system. Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?

From your mouth to Tim Cook's ear, friend.

Steam is the only reason I have a Windows desktop, I'll probably just get one of these next time I want a hardware refresh (which admittedly will probably be many years).

Interesting that it uses KDE Plasma for the desktop

I wonder if Steam will finally implement multi-user sign on for local multiplayer games (like all true consoles).

It's something that doesn't get headlines, but a real barrier for enjoyment for a console-like PC. Hate being stuck with 'guest 1' and 'guest 2' or whatever. Many games want each player to progress and without true multi sign on, it just doesn't work. Hence games dropping local multiplayer on PC.

Arch-based? KDE Plasma? There might happen a real "year of desktop Linux", in a way. That is, a Linux desktop that sneaks in as a side dish, but maybe gains some non-zero traction, and bringing FOSS to more people who are not engineers.

Huh, I had just been trying to look into whether there existed a "mini PC but with a GPU in it that's at least as good as the ones in game consoles."

(Or, to put that another way: fundamentally, I want a game console — a piece of well-integrated consumer electronics that lives unobtrusively in my entertainment center, hooked up to my TV, requiring no maintenance, controlled entirely with a Bluetooth gamepad. But I want it to enable me to run both 1. current-gen games at at-least-equivalent fidelity to the console ports of those games; and also 2. "all the games a Windows PC can run." So, anything on Steam, yes; but also, all the weird little indie games on itch.io that never make it to Steam; and old DOS/Win31/Win95 games (either as polished ports from GOG, or through various forms of virtualization/emulation I'd set up myself); and even the little freeware games floating about on the "old internet", that someone made in Game Maker or RPG Maker 2000 or even as a standalone Flash projector executable, way back when.)

The closest thing I had found to that description so far, that even might work for the use-case, was the ROG NUC.

I wonder how this compares to that?

>Yes, Steam Machine is optimized for gaming, but it's still your PC. Install your own apps, or even another operating system. Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?

In a world of locked bootloaders and ever more locked down device, valve is pushing the envolope with a linux based gaming console.

> you can wake your Steam Machine without leaving your couch. [using the built in steam controller wireless adapter].

This one simple thing is the only thing that makes my SteamDeck+Dock feel like a second class console. So far they only claim it's for the Steam Controller, but I'd be great if it worked with the handful of 8bitdo or Switch controllers I've been using.

Valve, please partner with Framework. I think this could be a great partnership in the future and the whole ecosystem as a whole.

> Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?

i'm having a hard time describing the feelings this makes me feel. like i've been stressed, bedraggled and worn down, and suddenly there's a moment where i can just rest

it's nice to be excited about something for once instead of the baseline expectation of a horrible adversarial experience, which is the case for most tech in 2025

it is somewhat depressing that it's this novel to expect a piece of hardware to actually exist to make my life nicer vs the default of being an abomination that tries constantly to extract money and information from me like a fucking vampire

(and i guess, not having used this yet, this also speaks to valve being one of the last companies that i have any trust in to be capable of making a business decision that makes them less money in the short run in order to deliver a better product)

There goes the XBOX. Microsoft have been letting their consumer products rot for a while now and they're finally going to start feeling the consequences.

Cool but I wish it had a single big APU chip like the consoles and Strix Halo - and unified memory. PCs are long overdue for adopting this change, and the only reason it makes sense to keep the separate is to make graphics cards swappable.

Considering how big GPU silicon is, when you have both integrated and custom, it'd have made sense to integrate them.

Being able to play PC-ish games without Windows (all on its own) makes this pretty interesting. Looking forward to seeing its real world performance. The fact that it doesn't take up the space of a household appliance is a plus too.

This seems to have been targeted especially at someone like me: I don’t like to play on PC, have no interest in building a gaming PC and I only reluctantly buy consoles because of their (kind of) plug-n-play experience.

If this thing can get me a console-like experience and allow me to play my extensive library of games (most of them classic/vintage games you can’t get on modern consoles) hassle-free, then I’m (probably) sold!

And on top of that it runs Linux. Awesome, just absolutely fantastic!

Excited for Steam/PC games on ARM to get better as a side effect of the Frame running using a Snapdragon CPU.

Running x86 PC games on higher end Android devices already works better than you might expect via gamehub/gamehub lite/winlator, but it requires much random trying of different driver and runtime versions for every game and even then a lot don't work or have issues.

A mainstream desktop PC that supports most games without windows is actually a massive deal in the long term as I know plenty of people who don't like windows but didn't have an alternative

> "SteamOS 3 (Arch-based)"

Holy shit, it's the Year of The Linux Desktop, for real this time. It's happening. It's actually happening.

A standard Arch Linux/KDE[0] PC for every home, in a polished, vendor-supported package. Like Apple, it's a single standard hardware/OS pair, so, FOSS' fatal hardware-support hell might well be made obsolete. The vendor is a household name corporation. There's an incredibly fortuitous (for Linux) market dynamic at this point in time, of "commoditize your complement"—the dynamic that Valve has incentives to invest massively in giving away a nice thing for free, because that does bad things to its competitors. And Steam is... the killer super-app to end all killer apps.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SteamOS

This is real life!

I wonder what video codecs will have hardware decoding support. Because having this able to support HTPC options with AV1 and h265 decoding would pair amazing to sticking this on the main TV for family gaming as well. I'd be shocked if it didn't have h265 support but AV1 is not quite guaranteed at this point.

I find it weird that a new device in 2025 still comes with only one USB-C port and otherwise only USB-A. Is USB-C that much more expensive? Is it about power delivery?

Linus Torvalds was right. Valve will save the Linux desktop.

Wow the whole line-up being "just linux computers" that is compatible with everything else really makes me wish they come out with a Steam smartphone instead of the walled garden crap we are being force fed from Apple and Google.

This project is a gaming console dream.

Compact and looks nice, no qualms about displaying it in the living room, with customizable front panels.

Optimized to just barely hit 4K 60 fps as cheaply as possible.

Controllers designed to avoid stick drift, easy to charge, and featuring low-latency wireless connections.

Stream from a Steam Machine to a Steam Deck or a Steam Frame if you have one; the Steam Machine enhances your other purchases further.

Instantly supports everyone's libraries of dozens, if not hundreds, of games acquired over the years.

And you can just use it as a desktop computer if you like?

Give me the Gabecube!

Hell ya! A new gaming OS, linux based, getting console and portable hardware that is well built, it's what I've been waiting for, something that gives you a good console UX but lets you play PC games.

A bit of topic, but I was wondering how much bigger is the steam machine compared to the mac mini m4, since that's what I have and is my frame of reference. Obviously comparing apples to oranges and only talking about physical volume, not features, compatibility, price, personal preferences, etc.

Mac Mini m4: 127 x 127 x 50 mm = 0.8 L

Steam Machine: 156 x 162 x 152 = 3.8 L

That's 4.76 times more volume.

Seems to me that there is a fourth platform emerging: Windows, Mac, Linux and now, Steam.

PS: I know its custom Arch Linux under the hood, I'm talking about mass market nomenclature.

> Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?

What a refreshing thing to hear in 2025... :D

Video games were the only reason for me to use Windows, now that Steam solved this problem no reason to look back anymore. I am also not big fan of multi-player games, so not being able to play games with anti-cheat system buried deep into their binaries isn't an issue.

The best part was that there was no mention of generative AI anywhere.

It's glorious. The year has finally come. It's nice to feel excited about tech sometimes, especially when the company isn't completely horrible, and more competition! Great! Microsoft's move really, Sony and Nintendo are doing pretty okay!

W shadow drop.

It is truly amazing how far Proton/Steam OS has come along. I recently installed it on some old AMD hardware I had lying around, hooked it up to my TV and everything just works - zero problems. I look forward to checking out this Steam Machine!

Does anyone know the price?

In 2026 we should be getting Windows on a Xbox console with the Xbox skinned version of windows. This would be a direct competitor to that since most PC gamers have the majority of their game library on steam.

I hope someone out there creates a "GabeCube" boot up screen, based on the Game Cube animation.

Dave2D has additional info. User upgradable RAM and SSD, but not CPU.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=356rZ8IBCps

> We may be new but it's like we've known each other our whole lives: All Steam Hardware works great together, whether you’re streaming or playing games across devices, including Steam Deck. And because Valve remains committed to an open PC ecosystem, we also play well with others (as in, your other devices).

I am skeptical about this, especially streaming. I assume the steam box will be running steam os aka Linux with iirc kde and leveraging game scope.

I have my steam deck docked to the living room tv and regularly try to stream from my gaming rig running manjaro and hyprland, to mixed results. Moonlight/sunshine has only ever crashed, and steam's native solution will often crash on the deck side immediately, leaving the game running on my PC. Or the game will play but no video will be sent. Or the controller input won't be sent.

They still as of last week have a bug where native steam streaming simply doesn't work if you have the deck docked with Ethernet but also have wifi on. You gotta switch off wifi for it to work or unplug Ethernet.

I've tried to keep a thread going listing options for streaming and the problems with each but valve locked it https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/11/382078096812...

Perhaps as a non-gamer I can tie my wagon to the hope that Valve will make a phone that doesn't call installing "side-loading"? Gabe seems to remember why computers exist.

GabeN send me a devkit! I make Rogue Stargun VR (roguestargun.com) which should be able to run on standalone

8GB vram in 2026?!

The one with the front panel replaced by an Eink screen really looks cool https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/202...

>Valve won’t necessarily sell any of those extra panels, but says it’ll release the CAD files so you can design and 3D print your own.

I know everyone says such good things about the steam deck, but my personal experience hasn't been great. Steam games are the best case scenario, but even those often require hunting down the best version of proton and doesnt work out of the box. why cant steam auto default to the version that works with the game? Getting discord running properly often involves switching to desktop mode, and then its hard to play handheld. if i connect a display in handheld mode i cant increase the resolution to match my monitor. and then we get to 3rd party stores, requiring all kinds of hoops, and once you get it working and you come back to a game after a couple of months, its broken again. Installing ISOs requires even more painful work (tbf thats not an intended use case i guess). Disclaimer: my use of the steam deck has been as a fairly non technical user. For me the whole point of getting it was a slightly console like experience, so I wasn't willing to hack into it too much.

I've installed Debian Linux recently, and it was EASY installing Steam and Heroic Games Launcher. Testing Rocket League and Thief:TDM and worked really well.

I also purchased a Steam Link and Controller a few years ago. Still works like a charm.

I was planning to build my own PC in 2026 to be the new Family gaming system. I don't plan to purchase game consoles, now. However, after seeing the new steam machine, I will wait to see the costs before I make a decision.

Seems like the Steam Machine.. if powerful enough and decent price.. can still be used as a PC. Otherwise, I will just build my own and stick Debian on it.

Be interesting to see how the Steam Machine does against XBox and PS. Seems like Microsoft may lose this battle unless they do something different with their next-gen. By different I mean that gets people excited.

Honestly, I think this is a good thing for Games Consoles. Lets me honest.. Games Consoles have not been proper "Games Consoles" since the GameCube, PS2 and first XBox. Since then, they are been more PCs than anything.

I knew I was building a library if unplayed games for a reason.

A reason to get this instead of Playstation/Xbox is that games on Steam are significantly cheaper through keys sites like g2a.com or just waiting for discounts.

Playstation/Xbox know you're locked in because you've already sunk money into the console, and they use this pricing power against you.

> Yes, Steam Machine is optimized for gaming, but it's still your PC. Install your own apps, or even another operating system. Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?

Isn't it just a relief to see a product announcement where this is a proudly announced selling point.

I really hope for Steam that the timing is right. Given the rising GPU, RAM and now storage prices, I hope they secured their supply chain with a fixed price for components, and at least first batches are going to be affordable enough for the public.

USB2-A ... what? Why? It's <checks watch> almost 2026. Apple hasn't shipped USB-A since 2017. But ok, apparently there's a bunch of PC folks still rocking USB-A. Cool, love that for them. But why not make them all USB3-A?

I've been using my Steam Deck + Steam Dock to play Hades II on my TV using my Xbox controller. It's been a fantastic experience. I can't imagine how much better a device like Steam Machine and Steam's own controller would make it.

Looks like the og Nintendo Gamecube but modernized.

> HDMI 2.0

The HDMI Forum yet again rearing it's ugly head by continuing to block GPU manufacturers from implementing HDMI 2.1 in the Open Source drivers

It sounds like a similar idea to what Atari launched. https://atari.com/pages/atari-vcs Let's hope Steam put a bit more effort into it than Atari have.

Welp, I probably just found the final reason for not bothering to maintain a Windows PC at home any more in addition to my personal laptop.

Apparently js on both this and Frame page causes the webpage to die (entire page grey area) when scrolling on iphone with link opened from steam app.

What's the cost? Doesn't seem we can buy yet.

They haven't mentioned it anywhere, but non-upgradable CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD would be a massive deal breaker.

Also why announce it without a price?

Huge streamers/youtubers were already listing games to test on the steam machine... which I already know they do not work on valve proton... (and the lack of official and legally required technical support will show on the medium/long run since proton/wine is not reliable in time).

This may backfire if valve does not come clean with this technical support.

Storage seems small to how crazy big some games have bee EDIT: Maybe it needs a combo ssd for system + hdd for storage

The only thing I'd like to know, if the CPU/GPU will be replaceable? The specs say "Semi-custom AMD Zen 4" and "Semi-Custom AMD RDNA3", but I don't see "soldered" anywhere, so I guess maybe they'll be switchable? If not with off-the-shelves components, maybe Valve will offer their own upgrade kits in the future?

I am hyped for the improved gyro controller. Gyro aiming is so good that after some time it became way better than my mouse aiming.

Sorry… expandable via microsd? They’re terribly slow and unreliable, just cattle-chute us to using ssds over usb like consoles

Many comments here and on similar posts bring up only keeping Windows for games, and only then for games that require heavy anti-cheat.

Is there a reason there couldn't be non-regulation copies of games that don't do anti-cheat but are otherwise fine. Like metal baseball bats, oversized golfballs, etc. Official, but not allowed in competitions?

"One USB-C and four USB-A ports."

I'm confused...

Valve is cooking. Their work is paving the way for an open computing ecosystem that is gonna be lit.

No external power brick. Instant buy.

> There's an LED strip, y'all!

I've never seen marketing embrace southern culture like this.

I love it, y'all!

But will it be able to run GTA VI?

Truly the only litmus test for any gaming system released from now until 2027.

If they can make it play Microsoft Flight Simulator then that'd be pretty enticing

I bet they decided to crash their skin market in part because too many people were exploiting the Steam Deck loophole to take the skin money out of the system.

Now people will need to give Steam real money to buy their new devices.

They mention FSR specifically in the trailer, but this comes with RDNA3, meaning no FSR4 currently. Does this mean that the int8 path for fsr4 is gonna become official to support this and the ps5 pro?

The body is really simple and appealing but as these are rare nowadays I wish they'd consider squeezing an optional optical drive inside or perhaps maybe some external one that would stack on top.

This kind of inspires me. I have an i5-1340p NUC I’m not using for anything at the moment, I wonder if I could press it into service as a sort of “dry run” for this type of experience

How does this compare to the Framework Desktop as a gaming Linux box? I notice only the RAM and storage is upgradable for the Steam Machine, but is there significant performance difference?

the 8gb vram is very concerning to me. it claims to be 4k ready and 8gb of vram is nowhere near enough for 4k gaming natively. they say that this is offset by using fsr upscaling, which is fine, but then you need whatever amount of vram that is necessary for running the game at 1440p or 1080p and then additional vram for the fsr. this will be fine for casual games or even AA games, but I can't imagine AAA gaming on this thing being anything less than a disaster. hopefully i'm proven wrong.

Can't wait for benchmarks. I have a Corsair One running exclusively Linux but it is getting old. I wouldn't mind replacing it with something even more compact and quiet.

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When's the preorder?

I priced out an upgrade for my machine: Radeon 9070XT, motherboard and PSU, coming in at roughly $1000. Part of me knows I should probably just buy this instead.

The PC looks pretty cool in a small form factor case. And since it runs ArchBTW, you can run a bunch of other games too outside of Steam. Wondering how the pricing will be...

Steam machine so close to perfect, but 1x USBC and 1GB Ethernet are huge misses for a 2026 device. Also needs more VRAM. May be better to just do custom SFF build.

I really like my steam deck. After buying it I wanted to Download Musik and checkout some Films just to realize they removed all non game media years ago

I pretty much already use my Steam Deck as my main Desktop computer at home (I have a laptop for work). If I wanted to upgrade, this would be a no-brainer.

I've been looking at getting a Bee-link box to run as a TV computer and plex server. I'm definitely holding of buying until I see the pricing on this!

[off-topic rant]

Two companies, both (quasi) monopolies in their field.

Company A built its fortune by exploiting people.

Company B built its fortune by building (somewhat) decent products.

Company A developed a very advanced approach to hiring: specific questions to assess a candidate’s psychometric profile, screens to weed out bad choices, and a laser focus on the "top 0.1%".

Company B made it very public that hiring well is vital and encouraged every employee to think about it and participate. They even published an Employee Handbook years ago [0]

Today, many startups copy Company A’s playbook: crafting advanced questionnaires, trick questions, and trying to detect behavioural traits in their candidates.

No startup (that I know of [1]) has adopted Company B’s strategy.

Take your pick on who Company A is. Company B is Valve.

[0]: http://media.steampowered.com/apps/valve/Valve_Handbook_LowR...

[1]: I kjnow of one that <<pretends>> to

Does this suddenly become the best supported ARM desktop?

These links open the Steam app on my phone and crash. :(

The non upgrade-ability of the components is a deal breaker for me considering the estimated cost (800eur?). I'm not sure who the target market for this is, the pc games already have pcs they can upgrade.

What would make the console players consider paying effectively twice (compared to the current ps5 prices) to play the same games? I think such a device would have to be priced competitively with ps5 for me to even consider having a separate gaming device/replace the console in the living room.

Switch and Pi both pointed this direction. May we even have netbook back for simple gaming cum internet devices.

Seems like this is very under-spec'd in terms of RAM. I have my doubts that this will run modern games at acceptable performance.

I'm surprised they went for ARM in the desktop, but for x86 on the handheld. Does this mean the handheld will move to ARM aswell?

Has anyone managed to scroll to the bottom? The page crashed on me if I scroll down too much. Is there a price point at the bottom?

How much?

Two very important questions are: How long before the steam machine gets obsolete? Would it be hardware upgradeable?

Does anyone know if the resolution is good enough to use it for work? I.e., e-mails, programming, etc

EDIT: I mean the VR googles.

Maybe this will have better luck this time, and who knows, studios might finally care to do at Steam OS native builds.

Will it be able to play AAA games with shitty DRM such as Battlefield 6?

Not being able to play these huge titles on Linux really sucks!

This is likely the push i need to fully ditch windows and go install linux on my PC. Can't wait to preorder!

This is exciting. I can't wait to get rid of Windows altogether. I only put up with it for gaming purposes.

Wonder if there is a good remote with voice input to use for YouTube and Kodi so I can replace my shield TV.

A little time capsule from when Valve was still trying to drag desktop Linux into mainstream gaming

Is this the end of Windows for gaming?

Any idea on cost? Wish the GPU had 12 or 16GB of ram but this is serviceable.

I think I’ll wait for the gen2.

I just need more RAM. 16GB is unfortunately not enough for me.

With some luck it would be easy to upgrade ourselves.

After years of Cloud gaming with GeForce Now, this might just be what I‘ve been waiting for!

I thought it is very easy to burn and SD card. Since when can you use it as storage expansion?

I’m just not seeing the market for this. Why not build a better steam deck dock instead?

oh boy here comes the GabeCube

For everyone talking about anti cheat, you can just install windows then, right?

If they want to capture the console audience its better be priced like one too and not prevent me from playing multiplayer games due to Linux and anti cheat software not playing nice

Anything above $600 is DOA and that's with accepting the fact that the most popular games will be not available on the platform

> No giant brick! Steam Machine's power supply is built right in.

Great! Extremely great!

Steam is starting to become the 'Apple Computer Inc.' everyone wants.

I wonder if AMD have bothered finishing the gfx drivers for this before release.

I doubt those specs are enough for running games at good graphics settings.

I really, really hope people start calling this device the GabeCube

I'm really wondering about the CPU+GPU.

Like in some contexts it sounds like a single APU with both.

But then it has normal and graphics RAM?

So is it 2 SoC? Or one connected to two kinds of RAM? Does the GPU have direct access to the non graphic memory?

The dedicated RAM makes it looks like 2 chips, but number of CU and similar make it look like an APU/integrated graphics???

I mean even with FSR 8GiB of graphics RAM is a bit tight for 4k60fps. But on the other hand recent consoles (e.g. PS5 Pro) do promise similar things and have 16GiB for _both_ the CPU and GPU which in effect also means only roughly around 8GiB dedicated to the GPU. So it still is viable. And if the GPU could directly access the non graphic RAM then it could easily outperform a classical 8GiB RAM GPU????? But I guess it's probably nothing fancy like that.

One good thing about it not having a AMD Max SoC or similar is that it probably will have console pricing. I mean for Valve Steam devices are about making sure Windows can't kill Steam and Steam staying relevant even if Windows decides to suicide themself with ads. So I would guess the price concept is similar to the Steam Deck, no loss, but also not a huge profit margin.

Damn. Windows might lose!

Just waiting on a steam pass and I’ll never buy a console again.

For this to truly become a console replacement, Steam needs to mint agreements with Netflix, Spotify and Discord.

Netflix and Spotify could live as a 'game' application in the store. Spotify also is fairly easy to plug into Steam's overlay music control (currently via Decky plugins).

Discord just needs integration with the Steam Friend List. I know Valve wants Steam Friends to compete with Discord, but that ship has sailed every since 2020 (and frankly, the entire decade before that when they let it languish).

valve shouldering entire linux desktop growth for 10+ years

i hope they can put some price pressure on other small form factor gaming pc

the asus rog nuc is extortionate pricing, and beelink are constantly raising their prices too now

Been waiting for this

Oh, c'mon. I've been waiting for that machine for years. So much that I bought the Steam Deck out of frustration b/c it was so close.

Two weeks ago I got tired and built a mini-ATX gaming PC with a RTX 5080.

Way to go Steam nonetheless. I can get 100% behind a Windows-less gaming future. I may even buy this for a 2nd screen or for the kids.

Wait. Will I be able to play Subnautica 2 on this?

> CPU Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T up to 4.8 GHz, 30W TDP

> GPU Semi-Custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs 2.45GHz max sustained clock, 110W TDP

> RAM 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM

All of those seem a little low (at least judging by power usage) when compared to your average tower gaming PC build, but modern parts are pretty power efficient and given the form factor (and hopefully reasonable price) it seems like it's gonna be a pretty good device - definitely enough for most indie titles, all e-sports titles, even AA/AAA games with some upscaling/framegen, although I predict that your average UE5 slop game will wipe the floor with it. That doesn't reflect badly on the hardware, just how the devs use the engine in some cases, but at the same time being able to use it as a regular SFF PC is nice as well, actually a good reason to buy it compared to most consoles.

Will wait until dosdude1 upgrades it to 32GB :D

I'm still waiting for Steam Deck 2! Come on!

What can I do with steamos besides Gaming?

Wonder if they'll ship worldwide.

The year of the Linux coffee table.

i am ditching my ps5 for this, go valve!

What on earth is this abomination of a website? My locale is Greek and I'm presented with an auto-translated page in which most sentences don't make any sense. And I don't think it's AI slop, it's too bad to be even that. It feels more like google translate from a decade ago, translating everything word by word. FFS, go to fiverr and hire an actual human that knows how to translate stuff.

Oh, and of course you're presenting greek text, as awful as it is, but didn't think to check if the font you're using supports greek at all.

I'm sure it's the same for lots of other languages. sigh

it's meant for 'high-end' gaming but doesn't come with a lan connection(?)

It looks pretty bad on the photos.

Can I use it as a jellyfin server?

not everybody has to be Apple, but the ugliness of this page (and the others) is astounding

They're gonna sell millions

"Yes, Steam Machine is optimized for gaming, but it's still your PC. Install your own apps, or even another operating system. Who are we to tell you how to use your computer?"

I couldn’t see a purchase link anywhere. Too lazy to check, they potentially lost a customer due to this UI.

echoing others here in that I want Steam Lap(top).

I am old and never into controller/couch gaming after the Atari era. I prefer either keyboard/mouse or gameboy for those nintendo exclusives.

I also travel a lot and a console or desktop PC just doesn't make sense in my life.

Maybe soon!

The Ouya finally realized.

Half-Life 3 when?

When Steam Pass?

great news both for linux and gaming

>HDMI 2.0

So no 4K 120 Hz ?

This will be a great reality check for consoles. If they don't drop their atrocious fees for online play I can't see what is the incentive to purchase PS/XBox in 2026.

Good bye M$

The elephant in the room: "will this game run on my Steam Machine?"

This is really the part a lot of people don't understand and not a qestion you even have to ask when you buy/download a game for a console.

Some of the biggest games right now like BF6, COD, or Fortnite, League of Legends, chinese gacha games won't run on this. That excludes a massive part of the market, many of whom would be the exact audience for a simpler, more console-like PC experience. There's also no guarantee that future AAA games will be compatible with this day one (8GB VRAM is very limiting already).

Yeah yeah indies but if people want to play X then offering them Z is not an option.

This will be DOA anything over $500

it looks like an ugly mini fridge. Valve's UI aesthetics carried over to their hardware too.

We can now start to dream of a future without Windows Kernel level Anti Cheat software in every competitive multiplayer game.

release date?

One disappointment is that's not geared towards media playback or apps like netflix. In the interviews, they mention relying on the web-based versions of apps. Unfortunately, they often come with artificial limitations (limited streaming quality) by companies such as Netflix.

To the HL3 faithful, this is your reminder that

NOTHING

EVER

HAPPENS

it's meant for gaming and doesn't come with a LAN connection. sad lol.

One more nail in the coffin of the xbox hardware business. Ouch.

another slam dunk from Valve

Meh, I'm hopeful, but I'll wait for specs.

I really hope that we'll be able to put Windows on this.

"Over six times the horsepower of Steam Deck" ≈ RTX 3060 Laptop?

Why does Steam/Valve care so much about Linux? I know as devs we all would prefer to use Linux/Unix. But developer experience isn’t a good business justification.

16 GB of RAM, 4K@60 FPS, with USB3.

I’m afraid that this steam machine is so underpowered that it is no better if not much significantly slower than a MacBook Pro with a M4 Max.

The specs appear to be from late 2019. Might as well get a PS5 instead.

No thanks and No deal.

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