Valve reveals Steam Machine home console, new controller and VR headset

Following the success of the Steam Deck, Valve has announced a plethora of new hardware: the Steam Frame VR headset with new controllers, the Steam Machine home console, and a new Steam Controller.

The new Valve hardware is coming in early 2026 and is available to wishlist on Steam.

Starting with the Steam Frame, the VR headset is more akin to VR devices such as the Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3s, in that it features an onboard SoC (system on a chip) that is capable of running its own games. The SoC is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with 16GB of RAM, and runs an ARM version of SteamOS.

The headset features two 2160x2160 LCD screens that are capable of reaching 144Hz in an experimental mode, but typically runs between 72-120Hz, which is the same as Valve’s previous VR headset, the Index.

Unlike the Index, the Steam Frame has inside-out tracking by way of four wide-FOV, meaning you won’t have to set up base stations in order to track the headset and controllers.

SteamOS now has a new translation layer known as Fex, which enables the Steam Frame to natively run x86 applications (your typical PC applications) in an ARM environment (like the chip your phone uses), meaning low-requirement games could run off the headset.

For more premium VR experiences, the Steam Frame features a Wi-Fi 6 dongle that provides a low-latency connection, meaning you can run more demanding games on a different system, such as the Steam machine, and stream it to the Steam Frame.

Two eye-trackers enable the Steam Frame to know exactly where you are looking and utilise a technology Valve is calling "foveated streaming", which prioritises streaming quality to the exact area of the display you are looking at.

The Steam Frame also has new controllers, which will be familiar to anyone who has used Meta Quest or PSVR2 controllers.

The Steam Machine is Valve’s second attempt at a dedicated gaming console, but unlike the Steam Machines of 2015 that were made by third-party vendors such as Alienware, Valve is building and designing them in-house, much like the Steam Deck.

As for the experience that players can expect, Valve describes it as a console that is over six times more powerful than the Steam Deck.

Like the Steam Frame and Steam Deck, the console runs SteamOS, Valve’s custom Linux distribution. This means that you can swap between Gaming and Desktop mode, making the Steam Machine a PC-console hybrid, which many expect the next Xbox to be as well.

Valve describes the console as being capable of 4K 60FPS gameplay, with it using a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 CPU and semi-custom AMD RDNA3 GPU, but with the GPU only having 8GB of RAM and being equivalent in specification to the AMD Radeon RX7600, it will struggle with more modern titles.

One could stream the aforementioned demanding VR titles from the Steam Machine to the Steam Frame.

There is also a MicroSD card slot, and users can transfer them between the Steam Machine, Steam Frame and Steam Deck to

To go with the Steam Machine, there is the new Steam Controller, which can be thought of as a Steam Deck with the screen removed. It features all the same controls, including the trackpads and internal gyro, making games that are better suited to mouse controls, such as RTS’ and FPS’ more feasible.

There is a puck that acts as a dongle and magnetic charging station, and can connect via Bluetooth to a wide range of devices.

Overall, it’s a clear statement of intent from Valve that the company wants to make further inroads into the PC and console market.

With Steam recently reaching a concurrent peak of 41 million players, there will be many who are enticed by having a dedicated box that plays all their games.

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