Valve Announces New Steam Machine, Steam Controller & Steam Frame
Phoronix article: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Steam-Machines-Frame-2026
Also listed here: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/hardware
Valve has already sent support for the new Steam Controller upstream: https://www.phoronix.com/news/New-Steam-Controller-SDL
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Ah yes, the gabecube
Me in 2001 with a stuffed nose:
Stuffed because that cute person didn't like me back cause they were busy blowing all their inheritance from their estranged uncle that died when the towers fell.
Oddly specific, but ok.
I was talking about the release of the GameCube 😬
Steam Deck was the Gabe Gear, this is the Gabecube, all we need now is a smaller Steam Deck - the Gabe Boy.
Well, you do have the Gabe Virtual Boy.
They really need to sell these in Walmart next to the Playstation. It'll be the year of the Linux desktop!
I am European but no. That would increase the price and i believe valve wants to sell as cheap as possible.
I thought it was the okama gabe sphere. It's spherical!
The announcement did not include Copilot? No mention of 300 useless AI features being shoved down our throats??!
It's wild how by virtue of the fact that Valve isn't a publicly traded company beholden to shareholders, the same Valve which has a history of putting out half-baked goods and which has an always-on DRM client called Steam, seems poised to surpass most of its competitors both in the user privacy and hardware hardware spaces with just straightforward products. They have a product to sell, and that's it. They don't need to micro-optimize for bullshit like seemingly every other large tech company does.
It feels like just yesterday that VR was the big hype tech.
VR is so fucking cool tho
To be 100% honest, I like Bitcoin and LLMs too. Could use some pigouvian taxes though.
BTC is neat and I do have some, but I didn’t get into LLMs, no use case for me at this point. But I think VR is in a completely different bucket. VR was so fucking awesome for my partner and myself to chill out in with our friends in 2020 when we couldn’t go out and see peeps. It’s also easily the best most fun form of exercise.
I'm sure you and your partner can think of a more fun form of exercise. 😉
VR has actual staying power though. It genuinely adds a lot to a game or a simulation. VRchat especially is like a deeply emotional thing to folks who don't feel like they belong in their real bodies and can exist in VR a more true representation of themself
That's because they make an insane amount of money by taking 30% of every sale on their platform, which nearly everyone uses because they're a near monopoly and the alternatives are terrible. Around $3.5 Million per employee, nearly 5x the next highest company, which is Facebook at around $780,000 per employee.
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/valves-reported-profit-per-head-from-steam-commissions-is-out-there-and-at-usd3-5-million-per-employee-it-makes-apple-and-facebook-look-like-a-lemonade-stand/
I should note that 30% is incredibly standard in the industry, and Valve offers a LOT more for that 30% than literally any other digital publisher. Physical publishers take substantially more, and the only digital store that offers less is EGS, which is simultaneously absolute dogshite and also has been trying very, very hard to astroturd the '30%' thing for ages.
Nintendo, Sony, and Apple all take 30%. I think MS does as well, but don't quote me on that one.
don't forget google. that applies to all paid apps, in app purchases and donations on the play store, not only for games. google also forbids you from showing any other donation option on your website if you link to it from your app.
Can confirm; my app was removed from the Play Store due to a donation link to my PayPal. Absolutely insane.
I'm going to be honest, I have no idea how I forgot google. They also definitely take 30%.
Fwiw, GOG has no DRM for their titles (its own niche space, not competition). Not sure if they charge 30% too, but even in such case they're giving you more because of the lack of DRM.
Steam is quite virtuous, they gave us Proton. But is far from being based.
GoG also sold the modern hitman games which have DRM.
There are also many games on Steam that are DRM free, you may need to use the Steam Client to download them (but possibly also Steam CMD) but then you can copy the files off as a backup and run them without Steam
Can confirm. Serious Sam Classics are copy and paste-easy to share
GOG has no DRM, but they also don't offer the same kind of services, like workshop, updates, cloud sync, etc.
Not trying to say they're worse or anything, I love GOG, but it's really kind of comparing apples to oranges here.
https://www.gamesradar.com/games/over-5-000-games-released-on-steam-this-year-didnt-make-enough-money-to-recover-the-usd100-fee-to-put-a-game-on-valves-store-research-estimates/
"Over 5,000 games released on Steam this year didn't make enough money to recover the $100 fee to put a game on Valve's store, research estimates"
It's fucking wild. Like, I love Steam, don't get me wrong, but holy shit just suck less (edit: than other stores do) and charge less (edit: of devs) and you could gobble up a lot of that market share. But none of them do.
Notably Epic charges less than 30% (something like 12% IIRC) to try to get more of that market. They even give away games. But their app is still inferior so it gets less use.
Because Epic doesn't care about end users and won't add necessary end user features like reviews.
It's cool that Epic wants to pay developers more, but the way they disregard the consumer makes the platform non-viable
company: "I want what steam is making and more" shareholders: "brilliant"
"I want what steam is making but I'm not willing to improve service OR charge less!"
Most other competitors charge less than steam, but steam has a clause which prevents devs from putting their games cheaper elsewhere. This is the real big shitty move made by valve, otherwise they do mostly everything right. I hope someone challenges this clause in a court of law someday, it looks very monopolistic to me
Except that is a thing only for selling steam keys outside steam. There are no price parity clauses.
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/keys
Also here is a gamedev saying that they'll sell their game for a cheaper price on EGS: https://twitter.com/HeardOfTheStory/status/1700066610302603405
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/heard-of-the-story-ff3758
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1881940/Heard_of_the_Story/
If what you saying was actually the case I am 120% sure Tim Sweeney would be all over it lol.
Lastly, there was ALREADY a case like that (Valve vs. Wolfire). The courts couldn't find anything regarding Wolfire's claims and then dismissed the case.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-22-judge-dismisses-wolfires-antitrust-lawsuit-against-valve
Ho ok, my bad, I completely misunderstood the issue then. It seems reasonable to impose a price equivalence on steam key
No worries! And indeed!
that's a bullshit metric only useful to incite hatred. why the fuck do you want to say that valve is "this many times worse than facebook!"? it is obviously false.
only thing this proves is that they have relatively few employees. which also probably means that most of them do real work instead of being overloaded with managers
The numbers just show that they are 8x as efficient. I only referenced Facebook because they're the next closest company for comparison.
I never said they were worse than Facebook. That's your assumption, reading what you want, not what's actually being said.
Their efficiency is largely due to their flat organizing structure. They have no real hierarchy to speak of.
Which is also one of the reasons so few new things get done, and why they (until now) haven't been able to count to 3.
To get anything done you either have to be able to do it entirely by yourself which is unlikely, or get enough others organized and on board to make it happen.
What? Valve released CS2 like last year? They do stuff all the time. They have like three games they're actively maintaining while making HL3 and three new pieces of tech? This is a wild, unfounded take and feels ideologically bound.
That was 2023, and one of very few things made not to specifically promote their hardware or as a cheap spinoff of existing IP. And define "actively maintaining", because general bug fixes for decade old multi-player games and managing item marketplaces doesn't require much manpower.
Going further back there's Aperture Desk Job which was a tech demo for the Steam Deck in 2022. Then an extended cut version of Artifact originally meant as a sequel in 2021, which is a Dota 2 card game, but still remains unfinished, so effectively abandoned. Then Half Life: Alyx in 2020 which 90% of gamers can't play because it's VR only, and clearly made to further promote their VR hardware. Dota Warlords in 2020 which was originally a community game mode. The original Artifact in 2018, which had abandoned iOS and Android ports. The Lab in 2016 which was made to promote the launch of the HTC Vive. A zombie CS spinoff in 2014, Dota 2 in 2013, CS:Go in 2012, Portal 2 in 2011, and Left 4 Dead 2 in 2009.
If you remove the spinoff and niche stuff from the list you get game releases in 2023, 2020 (arguable since it's VR only and thus inherently niche), 2013, 2012, 2011, 2009.
That's a pretty big gap of not much for the last decade game-wise. Its been previously documented and published that Valve has issues getting games developed because of the flat organization structure. Articles like this.
You‘re getting downvotes for no reason. Also anyone who ever had to contact Steam support felt how criminally understaffed they are so it makes sense they make tons of money per employee I guess.
They need their products to be as clean as possible to hook people into microtransactions and their proprietary platform. Valve is a for profit company and the ceo owns a fleet of mega yachts
The VR headset is going to be standalone??
That's pretty nuts right?
even more nuts is that it will support pc games via FEX, an emulation layer that runs x86 windows games on ARM in Linux
In addition to streaming from your battlestation
Crazy...
But does it have a crazy price?
Im guessing Vive prices. Id be suprised at less than 1k, but no word on it yet.
Valve said they expect it to be cheaper than the Index, so it shouldn't be more than 1k
Frankly it all three are logical next steps. With the way windows is going, valve needs to decouple it's store from the windows dependency. The deck was the tester, now we get the not so cheep next generation
I just want them to let me isolate Anticheat BS like the virus it is. All of these hostile Game Studios are full of shit for forcing it. Not happy with BF6 over it still.
I mean, that was the goal of the original steam machines from 2012 or whatever
I'm sure they'll be as aggressive with price as the Steam Deck was. The tiny battery and knuckles hand tracking being an optional accessory this time suggest that.
Any ideas on Linux support?
They talked about streaming VR games from the SteamOS based steam machine to it.
So with that I'd assume we're finally getting some much needed progress to SteamVR on linux.
Yeah, this is what I'm most looking forward to in the immediate sense tbh. It'll be nice to play HLA without crashing every time it loads a new level as it currrently does for me in SteamVR (Monado doesn't have this issue, but I can't use my left-handed controls without Steam input :-|)
The headset itself is running linux and it is meant to be used with the steam machine, which also runs on linux.
pretty sure it’s SteamOS, an Arch Linux derivative, on a fairly popular Snapdragon platform. probably not too difficult to hack on it.
It days right in the marketing text that the headset is "a PC" which to me implies full SteamOS distro with no limitations on installing a different OS, if you can get the many hardware drivers to work.
It says that it can run Windows applications so it might be the first VR headset that you can actually develop a game on.
My understanding from the video is that the headset will run SteamOS itself.
Its a standalone headset that runs steamos.
There are a lot of specs missing from what the streets were hoping for from the holy grail of VR headsets, but I'm starting to believe that they are not going for that. It seems they want to win in the mid-range market competing directly with Meta. Honestly, "Quest 3 without Meta" is already very compelling. I guess it's not all down to how competitively they decide to price it. "Cheaper than Index" is already good news for my wallet at least.
Personal privacy is always worth the cost. The ‘subsidies’ can go away anytime, so better to not be locked into an expensive spyware platform to begin with.
”Quest 3 without Meta” is what I’ve been dreaming about. I feel like Steam Frame could be my entry to the VR space, if the price is decent.
I just recently upgraded from my OG Vive because I didn't want an inside out tracking or wireless, but... let's see what the price is and if the thing is actually as good in real world conditions as Linus makes it look. I might just try those pancake lenses (because the Vive Pro 2 lenses are bad).
And yeah, I will never give Meta money. Not directly, and indirectly as little as I can.
I don't see it in the hardware design, but from a software perspective the groundwork is there for modularity. Offloading the core compute to the PC frees up onboard processing to run peripherals like full color front cameras (onboard are black and white / IR) and more advance proximity detection, hell hook up lidar and go nuts with full body tracking.
That said, all of that would depend on decent I/O. 2x USB4 ports would go a long way.
https://youtu.be/dU3ru09HTng
Welp, looky there, an expansion port right on the bridge of the headset with PCIE compatibility.
I used to work with a guy who worked at Valve prototyping stuff like the steam controller. He was a boomer so he complained about how people were always playing games in the break room and what not. Said he hated that job, his reasons might as well have been a wishlist for my future career. If he wasn’t so damn helpful I would probably hate him to this day.
Fuck you Microsoft!
As a Mac user with an Xbox, this thing looks like a breath of fresh air! My Xbox (Series X) is still running well, so I continue to use it, but I kinda want this Steam cube thing, if the price is right. I don't want to buy any more products from Microsoft, and while I tolerate Xbox, I do not like Windows. (I tolerate it at work because I have to, but I'd prefer not to have to mess with it.) I could hang with Linux if I wanted to go down that road, but it looks like this will be a suitable alternative for gaming... if the price is right.
Steve from Gamers Nexus has a solid video where he met with people about Valve and goes into a lot of details on the announced hardware. He reported that they told him that the Steam Machine is not aiming for a console price. This made sense to him as he pointed out it’s basically an ITX computer and you can do computer things with it. Anyway I don’t know what it will cost but I’m guessing north of $500 easily.
I’m in a similar boat. I have both PS5 and series X. Consoles are getting enshittified at an increasing pace. I welcome valve improving Linux compatibility as they invest more in their devices. I don’t think I’ll be getting Sony or Microsoft’s next consoles.
Same. I have a PS5 and a switch, both that I hardly use now.
I've been an Xbox user for the longest time and have been dreading them losing the latest console war. I've never been a huge Nintendo fan, and fuck Sony. This sounds like it'll be my next big gaming platform.
There isn't really any point in comparing this to a games console. There would be no real point valve developing a console because pretty much all of the games on their platform expect to run on a PC so they'd end up having to emulate keyboard inputs as a lot of their library won't really work with a controller in any logical sense, so they might as well just make a PC.
Have you, uh, seen steam input and the new controller with the touch pads? It sounds like you haven't...
They missed the chance to call the machine the Steam Engine
I thought the GabeCube was even better.
Aaaaalmost shot coffee out my nose. Almost.
banger
Huh, neat. Til.
That would be impossible to search online
Fuck, they did! 😫
2026 Year of the Linux desktop?
Surely this will bring over a lot of people to Linux
Year of the Linux living room
Hopefully the Frames can compete with the Meta Quest in both price/performance. It will be good to have relatively affordable VR headset not made by Facebook.
@[email protected] @[email protected] it would certainly be good for it to be relatively affordable but they're really not promising it will at the moment since they only said aiming it to be cheaper than an Index.
Considering that Quest is sold at a loss and tries to make money forcing you to buy games, I don't think it's likely
Wish I didnt have to wear glasses, otherwise I'd use my Index alot more.
Inserts?
It will be priced as it isnt locking you into a ecosystem like meta, so it will be of course a bit more pricey. ( rumors say roughly 1200$ )
Not gonna lie the controller looks ass but maybe it feels fantastic so I‘ll wait with my final judgement. I‘m interested to see how they will try to push VR since most users are still incredibly uninterested in it.
I've wanted to get into VR for the longest time but they all seemed like extremely walled gardens. This sounds awesome to me.
The problem is to really make an informed decision you have to try it first-hand. The sensory experience unlike any other device, so descriptions aren't super helpful, video doesn't convey what it's actually like, so you really have to experience it to understand it.
Also given how common it seems to be anecdotally to get sick from it, no one wants to jump in just to have to jump back out.
And unless you know someone that already jumped in and can try theirs, a lot of people like me just don't want to commit sight unseen. (I mean I'm also broke, but this would be true anyway)
I don't have a way to try it out, so until I do it's not on my radar to care. I'm very curious about it. Even if I don't like it I do really want to see what it's like at least once. But I'm not gonna pay for that chance. It's gotta impress me without effort on my part (more than driving to it anyway).
you can build a resistance to it. It takes time, and it was the case for me
Maybe so, but you probably need to enjoy your first exposure to want to drop money on an entire setup for it.
It's already crazy enough to drop that money just hoping you like it, but if you drop it hoping it stops making you nauseous, that's a much bigger ask.
I'm still hoping I won't have that problem. I do get car sick on meandering drives, but not even close to as bad as I did 10-15 years ago, but the worse the drive gets, the more I have to stay staring out the car windows.
I assume the VR effect would be similar, given it's a similar symptom, but backwards. (In VR you don't feel motion, but you see it, whereas in a car, you feel it, but either don't see it from not looking, or if you have wide visibility it looks like you're not moving as much compared to the background)
As someone who used to get sick in cars and boats, I got it, so you might as well
If the technology interests you, then sick or not, you’ll probably like it. Won’t play every day, but it’ll be a nice experience.
Start with games with not a lot of motion (beat saber for example), then move to more intensive games. You’ll get sick after 15mins, then 20mins, then 25… until you last for a couple hours, and at this point you’ve built your resistance.
Just stop playing when you feel sick and try again an hour later when you feel better or a few days later
But yea, VR isn’t straightforward or an obvious purchase. It requires time and will, and money, obviously
It’s clearly a luxury and you need to have too much money or be really motivated to purchase it
Personally that's what I'd like to do anyway. I'm saying that to discuss the growth of the technology among the masses.
Assuming it doesn't make me violently ill, i like tech and gaming enough to keep it around otherwise. But the potential for the issue and the committal involved off the bat are difficulties for any new, different-enough tech.
I'm someone who has gotten sick in cars before (rarely) but I have done a lot of crazy stuff on VR and never felt remotely sick. I'm an outlier though
For most of my life VR has been, 'VR is a great way to experience shitty games and you just have to pay a grand or more for this interactive tummy ache, and your unit may not be supported next year! Buy!'
I'm going to hold out until I can pick up one of these at the pawn shop for a bill.
I got an Index for cheap last year and was very excited to play a number of my favorite games with optional VR mode. Turns out:
the Index ecosystem is more accessible than expected.
the games I was looking forward to all played like ass and made VR seem like a stupid gimmick.
In a desperate move that felt like sunk cost fallacy, I tried several VR-only games, and got TOTALLY hooked on modded Beatsaber. This itself made the buy-in worth it.
For the most part VR "ports" of traditional games are not worth buying. The developers usually put 0 effort into them. There are exceptions like sim racing titles, but for the most part games developed specifically for VR will be way better designed
Have you tried Half-life: Alyx?
I recommend you give that, or something equivalent, a go without even buying any hardware. Either ask a friend or go to an arcade. You don't need to shell out a grand to try.
If you hate it, move on.
Edit! I'm a 90s kid, and I'm really disappointed that VR hasn't taken off the way scifi suggested it would. Back then, being absorbed in pure information sounded awesome, but now it is just going the way of 24/7 misinformation advertisements and micro transactions.
I'll hold off on VR until there is a decent open source unit that isnt $800.
I remember trying the first VR headset game 1990 that ran on a Commodore Amiga in like 7 fps and was terrible in every way.
Yegods. My first foray into VR was at a high end arcade at North Pier in Chicago. I think the game was Dactyl. The headset was super heavy and none of the goals of the game were explained to me. I basically wandered around for five minutes, shooting green polygons in the sky, then time was up.
Dad was pissed that he'd blown $20 on it.
Edit: For historical reference, in the mid 90s $5 could keep your kids occupied at a regular arcade for a couple hours. $20 could have gotten us a couple of movie tickets and some Twizzlers.
I'd of been angry too.
I think that's the same game I queued up for like 90 mins at a computer fair to have a few minutes of very confused playtime and that was it.
I remember seeing the Virtuality kits on TV in the 90s.
Clearly absolutely unplayable nonsense, and yet I still wanted to play on one.
It took so long for hardware to catch up.
I've got a Meta Quest 2 as a hand-me-down and yes, it's extremely locked down. It's possible to use a third-party app store, but to make it work you have to get a developer account with Meta and enable wireless debugging.
I also recieved a quest 2 recently, any good guides on getting it set up with third party apps that you found?
I haven't tried it myself yet, but I hear the SideQuest app store is the place to go.
I really want to love VR, but it's just not for me. And i don't think i'm alone with that. To me, VR is something you try in a mall for 20min and think it's cool and not something you want to play around with home.
There's a reason we don't see any big Let's Players do more than a couple episodes of VR games.
That doesn't mean they're not having fun, but it's quite physically demanding and the experience just doesn't translate to 2D.
I love Half life alyx. I played maybe half an hour, and i don't think i'll ever play more. Just the thought of putting the vr headset back on puts me off. I thought VR would be great for me, because i do a lot of sports anyway and i like to move around. But sweating while playing video games isn't as fun as it seems. Especially when you sweat a lot in and around the goggles. Like i said, it's an experience, not really more. On a side note, i also learned i'm a huuuge pussy when it comes to VR games. I really don't know what it is, i was never scared of a movie or video game or anything really. In vr looking into a dark hole where something might jump scare me, really isn't for me at all.
Fortunately I don't sweat that easily, Alyx was fine for me so far (about 2 hours in). What REALLY gets me going is (modded) Beatsaber. I can only play it wearing briefs and it's a serious workout if you want to challenge yourself, but it's so much fun that I've managed a few play sessions that lasted for over 3 hours.
I mean, you can certainly pick up a used Quest 2 if you wanted to try it out. There's a handful of exclusive stuff in the Quest store you'd be able to use, but not much of value. Resident Evil 4 VR is about it for the Q2. I think there was a Batman game for the Q3. You'd have access to anything the Steam Frame has access to if you're streaming from a PC.
I think the PSVR2 works as well, but it's wired only.
Half Life Alyx is certainly worth a blast through.
Stories like Ftumch's reply, and the fact that it's owned by Meta 🤮 have deterred me from wanting to try that one.
Looks can be deceiving. Coming from someone who uses the steamdeck, that layout looks exactly how I hoped and imagined it would be. The steamdeck is incredibly comfortable to hold and this looks like it would be the same!
It definitely reminds me of that Steam controller someone on Youtube built by sawing a Steamdeck in two and gluing the ends together so to speak. They said it‘s their dream controller so I‘m sure this controller already has some fans. I just can‘t tell by looking at it.
The first controller looked the same, but was very good to use once you got used to it. The build quality, though, was...fucking terrible.
I had to fix my controllers so many times that in the end I was swapping them out almost weekly. Still, felt great in the hand.
I have the first controller, just dug it out the other day because I thought I was going to be able to use it on my new tablet, it still sucks. I never could get used to it, but it's a far sight better looking then this thing.
It might be you just got unlucky. Mine is still going strong all this years, and I use it often.
It's basically steam deck minus the screen. If you are used to the steam deck it'll be fine.
Valve really listened to Saejima's advice:
Steam Synapse when?
I don't like the look of this controller... I'm still gonna get one. Everything else I love.
Especially that SteamOS is apparently going to become available on ARM devices.
Arch linux ARM (the base of such steam os) has existed for a while now. Not to diminish Valve efforts, just putting in some context.
Fex works for most games now! This is amazing.
And now there are arm systems that are powerful enough to compete with consoles easily (consoles probably already using ARM?)
I'm running it on my raspi but it seems like the repos have been frozen for a while now?
Same, but at least it feels like the focus was on usability rather than looks. Keep it humble, Steam!
I do appreciate that the grips are flared out at least a little on this controller. The 90° ones on the Steam Deck can be quite uncomfortable, especially given that it's a pretty heavy and cumbersome device.
My biggest skepticism is the dpad though. It looks nearly identical to the Steam Deck's, which is easily one of the worst dpads I've ever used. Hopefully the underlying mechanisms and feel of it has been improved.
Finally, another worthwhile controller with symmetrical sticks. Now to find out how to get my hands on one...
I typically just have one hand on each side
That usb port being off center though....
I did notice that in this picture, but I don't think it actually is. Pretty sure this is from the "animation" where the puck with the USB cable is put under the controller to charge, and not with the USB cable connected to the controller. From what I see though it should all be centered, even the puck and charging pins, so not sure why they made it off-center here
This will invoke someone's OCD
There's plenty of videos of it on YouTube and the port is not off centre.
That controller looks ugly and bulky as fuck.
Well thank God I don't give a shit how my controller looks as long as it is well designed.
It looks ass on this picture. However, it kinda looks like a steamdeck without a screen which is no surprise. And I quite like the steamdeck controls..
Yup, I love my Steam Deck and usually prefer asymmetric joysticks, so as long as it feels like the SD, it'll be fine.
I mean, sure it looks a bit odd, but if you remove the trackpads and reshape the controller based on not having those then it's a pretty standard controller, no? It's not like the added part for the trackpads does anything to change how you would hold the controller or anything, so I doubt it'd make much of a difference in use even if you never use the trackpads.
Yup, looks just like a DualSense controller from the PS5 without the trackpads.
Do you remember the old Xbox controllers that had the attachable keyboard? It's essentially just that kind of shape. So you would use the controller and kind of ignore the touchpads on the bottom unless you actually need them, then you just move your hand down and use the touchpads for something like mouse control. I doubt the intention is for you to use all of the inputs at once like you would an Xbox or PlayStation controller.
I feel like if I use this controller those trackpads will go crazy because of my fat hands.
The Steam Deck uses the capacitive thumb stick sensors to completely disable the trackpads as soon as the stick above the respective pad is touched. This works very well, so I think they‘ll implement the same thing here.
That’s so fucking cool
On the opposite of the spectrum, my small hands doesn't play well with that feature. The capacitive sensors only works if your fingers touch the top of the sticks but I usually move the sticks by pushing on the round edges of it so I still occasionally brush against the touch pads which is annoying.
You should be able to disable them on a game by game basis if needed. Annoying thiugh
That brings up my following question.
If the thumb sticks are capacitive and they wear smooth over time how do you replace them? Are the capacitive sensors under stick caps? Do you just have to replace the rim only?
Does your capacitive phone screen wear smooth over time?
(The point being hopefully they'll be made of something that doesn't wear down from human fingies)
The case around it does. That's what I want to replace.
I assume the same way the steam deck gets replacement sticks. You'd replace the entire thumb cap and run a wire under and to a specific connector. So its unlikely you'll get a third party solution with capacitive touch but getting official parts shouldn't be impossible either, just more tedious.
I've not had any wear like that on my deck, but I'm not crazy hard on controllers. At worse the whole stick can be pretty easily replaced. The repairability on Valve hardware gets a high priority.
Steam did an amazing job on the controller management, you can already remap everything. Disabling track pads should be easy
Almost everything. I've got this weird issue where my controller gets misrecognised as the wrong type, and there's simply no way for me to force steam to recategorise it.
I'm just glad they have dual thumbsticks now. I bought their last model on sale but quickly shelved it. Couldn't get used to the touchpads and didn't want to spend the next 2 months sucking at every game I played.
"The hands you have used to game are too fat. To obtain a special gaming wand, please mash the controller with your palm now"
You would need REALLY massive hands to touch those when your thumbs are resting on the analog sticks or the face buttons.
I guess this would be the appropiate post to ask under, isnt the steam frame using a last gen flagship arm soc and running linux a huge thing? That seems like its pretty close to us being abke to run linux on a newer phone. Tho at the same time i know phones are unhinged so thats why im asking, whether this is actually a big thing.
Gabephone in 2027? /s
You can run Linux on current gen flagship arm SoCs. The framebuffer, gpu and cpu stuff mostly just works (with some support from hardware vendors). It's the rest of the device that's the problem: the phone part, the camera, sound, power management, etc.
I'd consider it a significant advancement. Phones have much tighter regulations than many consumer devices and this may not necessarily align with Valve's long-term business objectives, however, so I have some skepticism but would be pleasantly surprised if they pursued such an endeavor.
I'd say a lot of the backend stuff has the stars aligning now for such potential. Front end user experience is increasingly the sore spot now.
Not just this but if the compatibility layer on the snapdragon works on over ARM chips for other Linux distros, we could have desktop Linux on arm (including on new macbooks if you want).
Someone far more knowledgeable is free to correct me but that might have been the single biggest announcement they made
Oh and maybe even install steam OS on a meta quest and use it with Linux but that's a bit of a cake dream
Doubtful, phone vendors already had access to binary blobs to run Linux (Android) on them.
It's no surprise Valve who is buying those SOCs is also provided with them.
Since the Steam Machine is more like an entry PC and not a console (and will be priced as that), does that mean that SteamOS for desktop will be officially supported?
In their announcement video, they specifically called out that you can install whatever software you want and showed somebody working on CAD. So, yeah, definitely.
I think they mean SteamOS on other hardware, like a custom built PC.
I mean the recovery images for the deck have been available and I'm pretty sure you can just install that on any x86 system.
I forgot where but some time in the last 3 hours I read that the goal for steamOS is to be supported on all PCs, though it's an ongoing effort.
That's a big challenge, but a worthwhile one. The reason that Microsoft exploded in the DOS era was because it ran on everything that was "IBM compatible" aka x86. Meanwhile Apple was over there with a competitive product, but you could only run the software on their OS that ran in their hardware. People were able to get cheap third party x86 compatible computers and run MS-DOS (and later Windows), and they were not locked into a specific vendor doing top to bottom hardware/software support.
If they do this right, they'll be the go to option for a lot of people who generally use their PC primarily for gaming.
Not to mention that Steam does have competition as an app store, stuff like GOG. I mean, it's a little bit obnoxious to use both at once, but really not that much of a hassle.
You'd have to assume so!
No, it's supported on two specific pieces of custom hardware, the Steam Deck and Steam Machine. They'll get there with general support, but SteamOS isn't there yet.
Well, there's official support for some third party handhelds if I remember correctly? Asus and the like? And they just announced that the steam frame (vr headset) will also run steamos, and that's on a snapdragon ARM SoC. Pretty exciting stuff ahead
Yeah, it's not released or supported outside of the Steam Deck or handheld partners. So you're probably not going to get Nvidia drivers or anything else that's not built in to the kernel.
You don't need it though, you can just run Steam in big picture mode on whatever distro you want.
I’d jump on a steam deck with updated hardware, too bad it looks like it will be staying the same
Edit:
https://www.ign.com/articles/valve-says-it-has-a-pretty-good-idea-of-what-steam-deck-2-is-going-to-be-explains-why-its-holding-off-for-now
Yeeaaaahhhh it’s going to be a while, they want a great performance jump without sacrificing battery life
I think they've been waiting for what I've been predicting for a while. They're going to make the next steam deck ARM based so they can make it potentially smaller or at least better battery life. Since the new frame is ARM, I think it's everything but confirmed now. Since they said they want the new steam deck to be a significant step up they're probably now waiting for certain components to go down in price so it can be more powerful than the OG but not be too expensive.
With a strong internet connection and more capable desktop device, you can already stream for hours with high fidelity graphics, 60+ FPS, and no fan noise.
With that in mind, buying a new Steam Deck is probably going to be multiple generations off for me.
I’ve given that a shot and just can’t stand the input lag I get, even on LAN, unfortunately, I’m glad it works for others though.
And I don’t like to use hotel or other public WiFi when I travel, I’d rather just have the device in hand
That’s surprising to hear, for me the latency is not noticeable even over WAN. We’ve had VR capable streaming for years now, and area where latency issues cause physical sickness.
You might have a network level issue. Gigabit ethernet to the host, WiFi 5 or better for the client, QoS configured to prioritize both devices in the router settings?
I think a wired connection is the key, one of my house projects this winter is running Ethernet through the attic finally
Having both on a different connection is essential!
If you have a spare router, you could connect it via ethernet to the host and then connect your client to that WiFi.
Host would then be able to maintain its internet connection over WiFi and there would be a separate dedicated LAN just for the stream.
Big same. I can only assume one is in the works and likely the most anticipated piece of steam hardware. If we're lucky they'll be saving the news for the near future after these products gets their hype cycle. Marketers love to tease ya.
Literally I just want a steamdeck with thunderbolt 5 so I can plug it into an egpu. That is my dream; a handheld gamestation that plays locally, which I can beef up when I want to.
Steam Machine is interesting. It feels like a solid time for someone to disrupt TV based gaming.
If it's priced at or around $500/$600, I'm getting one. Price will be very important to the success of these products.
Hopefully, this means an official release of SteamOS Desktop. I want to switch away from Windows 11 IoT, if I can get a flavor of Linux with official backing from an 800lb gaming gorilla. While I can try out Bazzite or Cachy, I would prefer to have only one Linux for the rest of my PC's life.
Would have stuck with Windows, if it weren't for the fact that Microsoft has been channeling the spirit of an overly controlling parent.
Not what you asked for but as someone else who used W11 IOT as a daily driver, CachyOS is fantastic. It's just Arch Linux with really strong gaming first additions.
Haven't had a hitch.
Eh... aren't most of the largest corporations contributing to Linux already? I'm not sure what you need beside Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, Samsung, etc https://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/members
Those companies aren't exactly releasing consumer-facing distro's, though.
True, but would one want to have a BigTech labels on their Linux distribution? Wouldn't that kind of miss the point and bring us back to e.g. ChromeBooks?
Maybe. As it stands Valve is rather open with their implementation, but who's to say it will remain indefinitely so.
I do get the desire, though. I've gone to Bazzite and Fedora and – even though it's a lot better than just a year ago – it still requires some commandline tweaking. It isn't entirely smooth sailing yet.
Will SteamOS be? I do have some doubts.
FWIW been using SteamOS on the SteamDeck for ~3 years now and from gaming to tinkering, no major problems. Never had to tinker hard or re-install. A couple of time it didn't suspend properly or I had to hold power button of to force a shutdown but that's about it.
I doubt Valve would back of from the openness because that's their one single advantage.
Not on the short term, but who knows. If SteamOS becomes a major player in the PC space, at a post-GabeN Valve–
But that will take many more years, if ever it does happen. I do think it is a legitimate reason to be somewhat cautious.
Right, better be safe than sorry. The important point though IMHO that with Proton and now FEX they have shown that compatibility layers are not that costly or complex :
So... I don't want to diminish how amazing that is, technically speaking, but we now all know it's feasible. Initially it looks like supporting an entire OS architecture was ridiculous (and it was, emulation was just "good enough" for games that were some years old and for much more powerful machine) until somebody tried "just" swapping or fixing the right API (i.e. DirectX) and ... that was actually OK.
Again, it's a TON of work. A lot of it also comes from Wine. But... now we now why it works and how to do that. Even if Valve were to lock SteamOS, that knowledge wouldn't be lost on the broader community.
PS: they briefly mention this during the Tested video (sorry YouTube only) on the new hardware.
Those contribute to Linux, but not Desktop Linux and not at all gaming on Linux.
I'm a bit too lazy to check for the entire stack I admit but I bet a lot of those actually do. Still to do a quick check Google for examples is on https://ev.kde.org/supporting-members/
They said there’s still a lot of work for them to do with SteamOS before it's usable on all PCs. I wouldn’t hold my breath especially if you’re on NVIDIA, especially if it’s older than RTX-es. Besides, when SteamOS is ready for general public, the desktop Linux experience is elsewhere regardless of the distribution.
It's most probably gonna be around $1k, I saw someone say they expect it to be $900, but nothing concrete yet
Valve engineers told GamersNexus that it should be priced no more than the index, but they did not specify which kit or package of the index. So yeah, anywhere from 700 to 900 dollars probably.
Im hyped for a new vr headset.
I’m really hoping that the price of the vr headset meets or beats the Facebook models.
FEX is the most exciting thing for me!
Ok but HL3 wen
Definitely will be grabbing the Steam Machine when it releases.
One question I have about the cube is will it be capable of doing full DRM streaming services like Netflix? Most living room systems have that, but doing it on an open linux system somehow would be novel.
I bet it'll run jellyfin really well!
You can install a browser with enabled DRM extensions on the Deck already, don’t see why this wouldn’t be possible on the cube.
As far as I know, browsers will only do Widevine L3. Meaning you won't get resolutions past 720p or maybe 1080p (depending on service). That's probably fine a small screen like the deck. Less fine for a 4k TV.
It doesnt advertise itself as a media device. Id love for it to somehow do it, but the high seas is the only way.
it advertises its self as a full PC though
A full linux pc yes, which usually isnt allowed in most DRM protection layers.
So do other Linux PCs on the market, but they can't help Netflix's shitty DRM.
Why pay? 🏴☠️
But they all get abandoned or suck at launch to begin with.
A streaming 4K dedicated device is about 20 to 40 dollars, which always seem to work better then whatever a console offers and for longer.
I see no advantage to have a steam cube with it.
That said, I did put Plex and jellyfin on my steamdeck so I could watch my own library while flying, so I suppose you could add either of those to the cube. They launch as just another game by the way.
The digital foundry video said no plans to support at launch.
16GB RAM, tho?
Most likely not, my guess is that it’s going to be super fast unified memory like in the Framework Deaktop
It's 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 for the GPU.
24GB total, non-unified.
Yep, and it seems the ram is upgradable
Gamers' Nexus video says it'll be laptop-type memory and upgradable.
LTT said the same
does being "super fast" matter here though? It's a gaming machine, not for AI, and for that normal ram is also super fast.
I’m curious about the “it’s a PC” aspect of the Steam Box. Because a device that plays all Steam games but isn’t a Windows computer is extremely appealing, but I admit if I can’t install a few non-Steam games on it, that’s a spoiler for me. But if the whole “it’s a PC” provides some avenue to that, I’m definitely ready to stop building a gaming PC every 5 years.
Any educated guesses, or layman guesses, about the price?
My layman guess is 600-800, the low price being same price as the top end steam deck on release
The Machine will apparently be about the price of "an entry level PC".
The Frame will "not cost more than the Index".
Not more than the index is a low bar considering it's about the most expensive of the mainstream headsets
Literally every VR headset released this year is over 1k usd. Only meta (and now valve) care about budget headsets
The only ones that released this year are enthusiast premium brands, unless I'm missing any. Last year had the quest and the HTC which I'll admit I was wrong about, I thought it was lower than exactly 1k
True, but that's all we got right now. We have to wait and see.
From what I understand the Steam Machine performance is somewhere between Series S and Series X. I don’t think it will cost more than a Series X.
Maybe 600.
For the cube I expect 1k USD minimum.
I don't see that being the case, it's relatively low end silicon, with meh levels of RAM and very poor levels of VRAM.
Seems to me like they're targeting a lower price point, which I think is a good idea if they want to take market share from Microsoft.
Yeah, I was very surprised to see the only upgrade is a generous storage from 512 GiB to 2 TiB... I would rather build my own PC, spend a little extra, cover other needs I have (zfs pool for videos), and get a good GPU that I can always replace for a newer one in a few years... But of course, that's just me. That new GPU could easily cost as much as the Steam Machine itself, hehe. Of course, it would be way more powerful..
I stopped building my own PCs over a decade ago because I was barely getting the parts at the same rate they would've come in a pre-built, ram was always hard to get, good deals "sold out" so quickly, and if a part goes bad it's easier to take it to a warranty repair than it is for me to fight with the vendors myself.
My main machines recently have been low power laptops, my steam deck, and my phone, using GeForce now has allowed me to play most of my games on shit hardware, and my 10 year old games run just fine (mostly) on my 5 year old laptop.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for lower end system, something I could by for my kids. But given the price of other consoles, I'm a bit nervous about the final price, hence I mentally prepare myself for 1k USD so I can be (hopefully) pleasantly surprised.
But what about the steam carrots and broccoli?
Or the Steam(ed) Dumpling.
Or the steamed hams
I was a pretty big enjoyer of the design of the first Steam controller, so adding a second stick and keeping the touchpads sounds great. Also mine broke, I can't remember exactly what gave out, but it was just destroyed, and using a touchpad for a second stick felt awkward af.
I didn't even mind the way it bent "backwards", the fact that the stick and buttons were tiny, or its weird shape. Actually thinking about it, it was the right trigger that broke and just caved in, Spring broke, plastic tab snapped off, just basically a hole left there. I wasn't about to attempt a repair, either. I don't have the skill for that.
Anyway, this looks nice. A lot of people seem to call it ugly, but I don't get it. Sturdy and functional are a good look, so this looks great. And if it functions just as well as the Steam Deck controls, (and of course it will, since it's basically the same parts except switching out magnetic sticks instead of regular ones)
Here's hoping the triggers are better on it. It's definitely on my radar for next year.
Time to sell my never used old steam controller
Glad Valve is making a console but that's an ugly fucking controller
I want the Steam controller to succeed but why do they make it look like it's from the 1980s
What controller from the 1980s looked anything like the Steam Controller?
I mean, the Sega Genesis controller was mostly black and had face buttons and a D-pad and was around in the late 1980s, but that's about as close as I can think of, and that'a not much by way of similarity.
Because form and function is not the same thing. I don't look at the controller while playing just like I dont give a damn how my keyboard look as long as it feels good and does what it is supposed to do.
The controllers have battery compartments! 🔔 🔔 🔔
So, I've been wanting to buy a controller to play classic games.
After doing some research I got an 8bit Do classic 2, which looked and felt great, but I guess couldn't work with my Bluetooth.
Should I just get an Xbox controller, or hold out for this new Nintendo tech (I only game on PC and Switch, currently).
I've bought three controllers for my PC over the years, and none of them have been universally usable.
I vastly prefer the PlayStation DualSense to the Xbox Series controller, so look into that. It's a little more expensive but the build quality is much higher and it includes an internal rechargeable battery. Oh, and the wireless connection actually works reliably, Xbox pad disconnects constantly and it's infuriating. Updated the firmware, etc, lots of other people online with the same issue. It's honestly embarrassing for Microsoft that this is their standard controller. Feels like they're trying to nudge people to spend more for the Elite controller.
The new Steam Controller looks like it's going to be amazing; I do miss the extra Steam Deck inputs when I use my DualSense. Those back grip buttons are so useful.
Playstation definitely have the most cross platform support (and accessories) out of all of these, and solid build quality. Nintendos pro controller could have been nice if they actually cared about it, but they dont so Googles Stadia is a great standin if you can get it for cheap. I wont even talk about microshits options ..
If you want to play just controller games, this one is probably overkill and maybe a bit bulky. I guess the HD haptics are neat.
Then again, it likely won't be any more expensive than the scam amount of money microsoft charges for their basic, non-HAL effect, non-gyro, basic haptics controllers.
Update the firmware on the 8Bitdo, it should support Steam Input natively on the newer versions
I gave that a shot a few months ago, no dice, the Wi-Fi chip on my motherboard is too new.
I'll flash it again with current FW and see if that helps.
Does that controller work with one of 8bitdo's wireless dongles? They're pretty cheap - I paid around £8 for mine a few years back - but it will need a USB-A port free. Might be a stopgap so you can decide if something else better suits your needs.
I'll give that a try, mine didn't come with a dongle.
A computer you can't swap the GPU?
What is up with Valve and their obsession with those stupid touchpads? I hated that on the old Steam D-Pad. Hypersensitive seemingly every moment except when you needed it to be.
The XBox and the PS figured out how to make traditional controllers very well. Nintendo loves to get freaky with it and does a better than average job of innovating in the space. But Valve just seems to want to cobble together spare parts into a janky whatever the hell this is. I don't get it.
Whomever is making these things, you don't have to keep doing this. Just be normal!
I used to think XBox controllers were the best controllers on the market. I still think they're very good. That changed when I held the Steam Deck for the first time. The feel is better overall, and in my opinion the track pads are such an obvious and great improvement on the traditional controller design.
Nowadays when I use other controllers, they just feel "bare bones" and like they're missing something.
Yeah, I feel like the steam controller was a little hard to get used to, the touchpads always felt a little off, but the steamdeck's touchpads (and presumably the steam controller 2's touchpads) are absolutely perfect.
Easiest way to play games made for the PC on a controller. I've been playing a lot of early 2000's RPG's and they've been perfect on the steamdeck: Baldur's gate 2, Dungeon Siege, Neverwinter Nights, Morrowind, Age of Empires, etc
Indeed. I very much liked the original steam controller in concept, but the execution left a lot to be desired. Like not using the most "plastic" feeling controller I've ever touched...
Yeah I love that I can play old PC games from my couch! I recently played through Fallout 1 (partly) on the Steam Deck. Amazing times.
What do you use the Trackpads for? I never felt the need so far and always wondered why they are there in the first place.
Not who you asked, but I use them for PC games that were built for keyboard and mouse. The track pads on the steamdeck are excellent for emulating a mouse. Baldur's Gate 2, Dungeon Siege, Neverwinter Nights, Morrowind, Age of Empires, etc.
Newer games were built with controllers in mind, so the joysticks probably feel better in those cases.
They were passable at best. Finicky and imprecise more often than not.
Yup. You've made it clear you hate them.
Mouse control that is more precise than a joystick.
IDK what the fuck the left one is really for tho; a stick or even buttons would be just fine for movement. I am of the camp that thinks they're uncomfortable and work less reliably than a joystick. Even a laptop trackpad is used with an index finger not normally a thumb and I never could get used to it. I hate my Steam controller and regret buying it.
It can be one button, or it can be 16 buttons or a radial menu or an axis or… I think it’s great especially for older PC games that weren’t designed with gamepads in mind.
I use laptop trackpads with my thumb all the time
They work really well in third-person games for camera control. I beat Elden Ring on a Steam controller; you have a lot more speed and precision than with a stick.
I use Dualsense for controller which has a trackpad, but I can't imagine using it for anything other than the occasional click or two. Do you find them good enough for games? If so, which ones?
My absolute favourite thing about them is that they allow me to play games designed for mouse and keyboard from my bed! Like any old PC games (fallout, wasteland, baldurs gate, etc).
I don't play enough "first person" games to have any valuable input, but when I've played things like Elder Scrolls I've honestly preferred using the track pads for controlling the camera.
Interesting, thanks for sharing!
Those pads exist for PC games designed for mouse and keyboard. Sony and MS can get away without them because the games are designed arround for the controllers, while the Steam controller was designed for the games.
In games like point and click adventures, city builders, older 1st person shooters and others made for KB&M, the pads are a god-send when playing on the steam deck or on a TV from the couch.
I love the trackpads thanks.
You've obviously never tried them and are just talking out of your ass
I mean he's being really extreme about it but he's not exactly wrong. The touchpads on my Deck are more of an annoyance than help because of my smaller hands. I can only remember using it in one game and disabled in others because of how my hands would accidentally brush against them so I would love it if they had a touchpad-less version.
I'd think that you could set them to whatever in Steam Input, if you're playing a Steam game.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/0/597397396010388899/
I believe that you can have per-game settings, so just enable them for that one game you want.
You could, like, not buy them, you know?
That is the plan.
I get that the touch pads are meant for mouse emulation. But, it's a PC! Why wouldn't I just pair my trackball to it?
For any gaming I'd prefer a mouse for, the gamepad is better. But for some games, the trackball is superior to both. Games like Diablo. I'm not into most of the games that would benefit. Someone named a bunch and yeah, I don't play those games. But for those games, I have a Logitech trackball I love, the MX570 or whatever. The trackball everyone uses. Not very original, I know, but hey, the thing's good! It's why I haven't bought the Apple Magic Trackpad for my Mac. If I had a mouse, I would have. But the trackball bridges the divide. So yeah, as a trackpad guy (you can't beat the one on the MacBook) I get it... but not for gaming. Like trying to play Cyberpunk on my MacBook is an exercise in futility. First, there's no traffic or pedestrians because it's a base M2 with no GPU (something like a 12th generation Core i5 on the Intel side?) but it runs! At like 720p. But when I look with the trackpad, I randomly shoot because the stupid game doesn't know how to use a trackpad right. And you shouldn't use a trackpad for a shooter. But for something that's 2D or 2.5D or isometric or whatever? Probably the best thing you can use.
I remember hear8ng during the development of the first steam controller, valve have put in a trackball emulator or behavior (whatever it's called. I'm playing my "English is my second language" card) for the track pads.
I assume they didn't abandon that and did put it as a configuration for the steam deck, and again still assuming, for the new controller.
If I'm wrong I'm happy to be politely corrected.
Also, hello fellow trackball companion 👋🏾