Valve Announces Steam Machine, Steam Controller, Steam Frame Hardware

[Ojisama]

Blah, blah, blah, but I'm sure somebody will go crazy.

The 6-inch cube-shaped Steam Machine features a discrete semi-custom advanced micro device (AMD) desktop class central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU), which allows for 4K resolution, 60 FPS (frames per second), and FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR). The console will have two options for storage: 512 GB and 2 TB. Both feature expandable storage via microSD. The system also has 2x2 Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 with a dedicated antenna. Valve states that the Steam Machine is six times as powerful as its Steam Deck handheld device, while remaining quiet and cooled down. The Steam Machine can connect to a television or monitor, and it can stream games to a phone, tablet, laptop, Steam Deck, or Steam Frame. It is also considered a PC.

The Steam Controller can be used on the Steam Machine, Steam Frame, as well as any other device that uses Steam. The controller has magnetic thumbsticks, grip-enabled gyro that the company calls "Grip Sense," trackpads, buttons on the back, a Steam button, a quick access menu button, and HD rumble. The Steam Controller Puck is a wireless transmitter that connects to the controller. The Puck can also connect to the Steam Controller magnetically to charge it.

The lightweight, wireless Steam Frame headset can be used to stream all Steam games, whether VR or not. The system uses Foveated Streaming, which optimizes details by tracking where the eyes are looking. The headset comes with Steam Frame controllers, a split pair of controllers that include buttons and motion controls. Steam Frame uses a wireless adapter to stream games from PC to headset. There are also dual radios, with radio dedicated to streaming audio and visuals, and the other for connecting to Wi-Fi. As a PC, Steam Frame also supports stand-alone play without the need to stream from another computer.

[lolin]

if i'm getting a new PC, i don't want to be limited by just steam stuff

your article SAYS it's a PC as well... but i don't trust steam to drop windows 11 on it instead of just steamOS

[Rich-Allen1976]

Meh, a Steam Deck would probably be considerably cheaper than a full Desktop PC.

[belsammael]

I'm Dutch, I'll wait and see what the price tag is, or are, depending if there are variants.
Guessing somewhere around 1K, which seems to fit some of the rumors.

[Beerkeg]

I remember Steam machines sounded cool back in 2011 when Valve first talked about the concept, but I don't really see the appeal for them these days. If you want power, you're going to build a proper PC and if you just want something small to do lightweight couch games, then you might as well just get a SBC like the ZimaBlade and a GPU.
I guess dedicated hardware for SteamOS is nice because GPU drivers on linux kernel are still a headache sometimes.
Probably wont be buying one considering the amount of laptops, pcs, servers and sbcs I have kicking about my room.
The controller looks neat tho. Might get 2 of those and use one to make a bootleg steamdeck.

[Rich-Allen1976]

I remember Steam machines sounded cool back in 2011 when Valve first talked about the concept, but I don't really see the appeal for them these days. If you want power, you're going to build a proper PC and if you just want something small to do lightweight couch games, then you might as well just get a SBC like the ZimaBlade and a GPU.
I guess dedicated hardware for SteamOS is nice because GPU drivers on linux kernel are still a headache sometimes.
Probably wont be buying one considering the amount of laptops, pcs, servers and sbcs I have kicking about my room.
The controller looks neat tho. Might get 2 of those and use one to make a bootleg steamdeck.

There's also the issue that the majority of games on Steam don't work on Linux without intense technical faffery.

[LikkleMel]

From my understanding it is basically the best of both playstation and xbox so for example you can't actually play the original tomb raider games on PS even with the subscription as they just don't have it in their libary, but steam you can. It is essentially a Steam console and apparently Steam will be doing exclusives now?

[Rich-Allen1976]

From my understanding it is basically the best of both playstation and xbox so for example you can't actually play the original tomb raider games on PS even with the subscription as they just don't have it in their libary, but steam you can. It is essentially a Steam console and apparently Steam will be doing exclusives now?

And if it wasn't for the rumoured $700-1000 price tag (works out £560-800 at current exchange rate I think?) I'd consider getting one as a gaming PC.

[Beerkeg]

There's also the issue that the majority of games on Steam don't work on Linux without intense technical faffery.

Yeah there are a few that take a bit of extra messing about with, but all the games on Steams "SteamOS + Linux" list work fine. Support has gotten a lot better. Taking an extra 5 minutes to learn how WINE works or the 20 minutes to learn QEMU is a pretty good deal considering you won't have to use Windows anymore.

[Rich-Allen1976]

There's also the issue that the majority of games on Steam don't work on Linux without intense technical faffery.

Yeah there are a few that take a bit of extra messing about with, but all the games on Steams "SteamOS + Linux" list work fine. Support has gotten a lot better. Taking an extra 5 minutes to learn how WINE works or the 20 minutes to learn QEMU is a pretty good deal considering you won't have to use Windows anymore.

I've never been able to get WINE to work.

Even my IT Graduate Brother couldn't do it.