No prices yet. I may never financially recover from this.
I had a horrible flashback to the Ouija, that thing traumatized me
Steam Hardware [new Steam Controller, Steam Machine, and VR headset Steam Frame, coming in 2026]
Submitted 17 hours ago by ampersandrew@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
https://store.steampowered.com/sale/hardware
Comments
But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
ilinamorato@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Oh man, the Ouya. That’s a blast from the past. Play mobile games on your TV using a controller made out of cardboard and balsa wood and sized for a Roswell alien. Good times.
Auth@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
Lets fucking go! This lineup looks sick.
LettyWhiterock@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
With the fact there’s apparently surprisingly reasonable evidence of a new half life game, I wonder if that’s likely to get announced when they give these a release date. I could see them bundling it with the steam machines at least. Assuming the rumors turn out to be true.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 10 hours ago
I’ve been under the impression that it is very likely to be a sequel to Alyx. Possibly launch title for the Frame.
G0ldenSp00n@lemmy.jacaranda.club 4 hours ago
Early leaks were pointing to a Alyx sequel, but I think the more recent leaks are pointing to it just being Half Life 3, which would presumably be playable on the Deck. Frame and the new Steam machine.
silverchase@sh.itjust.works 17 hours ago
Hell yeah! I have an upgrade path for my original Steam Controllers!
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
I just like that they have the complete compliment of normal controller buttons. It seems the world has agreed on twin sticks, a d-pad, ABXY (or triangle square cirlce et cetera, you know what I mean), and two shoulder buttons… Except for VR controllers. Every brand has their own dinky layout and they’re all sparse on buttons, I guess not to “intimidate” newbies, but it requires making weird compromises or binding actions to directions on one of the analog sticks or something, and that always feels lacking.
I hope they also stole the idea from the OG Oculus controllers where it can sense when your fingers are on the buttons but not pressing them, to so they can show your fingers in VR space and help people work the things by sight as well as feel.
silverchase@sh.itjust.works 16 hours ago
The Index controllers have touch-sensitive sticks and actual finger tracking so they measure how far your fingers are from the body of the controller. They put touch-sensitive sticks on the Deck as well.
Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
I loved it on the Wii with attached nun-chuck, having my arms both facing out feels more comfortable then in, when witting with a controller. Now you’ll have a full set of inputs to go with it, very cool!
arudesalad@piefed.ca 16 hours ago
The frame being a standalone linux headset is huge, hopefully this does to vr what the deck did to pancake.
(I know vr works on linux already but it's a pain)
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
I give exactly zero fucks about any of this until they show prices.
ameancow@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
The timing is great as I learn my healthcare premiums are likely to go up by over a thousand dollars a month.
PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
Glad to have sold my Index this past summer. Prices are gonna plummet once V.2 comes out
FreddyNO@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
So excited!
Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 hours ago
simple@piefed.social 16 hours ago
These sound absolutely amazing but it all depends on the price.
if the Steam controller is on par with a new 8bitdo then I would definitely pick it up.
The steam machine sounds intriguing but there is already a big market for mini PCs and I don’t know if consumers would go out of their way to buy a steam PC box. I’m most skeptical about this one
Steam Frame looks fantastic but I really hope it’s cheap enough to compete with the Meta Quest 3 and isn’t just another ~$1000 headset for enthusiasts
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
I don’t know if consumers would go out of their way to buy a steam PC box
There could never be a better test for the hypothesis than this critical moment where people are fucking pissed at Microsoft.
simple@piefed.social 16 hours ago
people can still just buy a $500 mini PC and install Linux on it
sparky@lemmy.federate.cc 11 hours ago
If the performance and price is comparable to rolling your own mini-ITX rig then why not?
magic_lobster_party@fedia.io 16 hours ago
Steam Machine feels more like a console that happens to also be a PC. If reasonably priced, the question is why anyone would want to buy Xbox or PlayStation when Steam Machine has a bigger library than both combined - on launch.
Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 15 hours ago
Because normies can’t get Fortnite running easily on linux (afaik anyway), or other popular competitive titles like battlefield 6 or call of duty 2025 to run at all.
Most of the normies probably already have a console with some licenses that will carry over. PC gamers have a desktop system (often in addition to a console.) It’s just not the same.
Consoles just work. You don’t need to understand much. The deck has definitely not been a painless process but obviously it’s pretty good, especially if you stick to green checkmark titles. Having to research what games will work, how well they work, and how to make them work if not by default is too much for a lot of people.
I’m glad it’s coming though. More people running linux means better support overall from hardware vendors and software developers. Gaming on linux is in a great place today but it feels more like how gaming was 20 years ago where you sometimes have to look something up to get something working, and installing an OS is simply too much for a lot of people.
VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
PlayStation is probably going to still have exclusives, or at least timed exclusives, driving some sales. But this announcement may be the final nail in Xbox’s coffin.
tal@lemmy.today 16 hours ago
The steam machine sounds intriguing but there is already a big market for mini PCs and I don’t know if consumers would go out of their way to buy a steam PC box. I’m most skeptical about this one
You might not be the target audience. I’m comfortable building an HTPC and putting an OS and all on it and configuring it, but the benefit of a console is that someone just gets an all-in-one setup. Well, and that game developers are specifically testing against.
Like, if it weren’t a barrier, you’d probably just have everyone using PCs instead of consoles in their living room.
CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Linux is a shit show for general purpose normies. You still have issues for days if you don’t buy the correct hardware. This will smooth the experience giving a known good start.
simple@piefed.social 15 hours ago
I think the mass market would still rather buy a console, so I assume most people interested in the steam machine specifically want a PC box. Now that I looked at the specs it doesn’t seem that powerful, and I doubt it will be cheaper than a PS5.
merdaverse@lemmy.zip 11 hours ago
Didn’t Steam already have some home console like hardware a few years ago? That flopped so badly I don’t even remember the name
UnPassive@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
Yeah, the Steam Machine was the name. It came out before Linux gaming was really a thing if I recall. Before Proton. So I think they just expected game makers to make Linux ports?
TheSporkBomber@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
It was mostly a steaming device and assumed you had the hardware and networking to support low latency streaming. This is much more standalone and could almost be targeting consoles or people who don’t pc game (or at least don’t call their main pc a rig)
Howlinghowler110th@kbin.earth 17 hours ago
gabe can have my firstborn
otacon239@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
The new controller and headset have stressed every issue I had with each directly.
It killed me that the original Controller didn’t have a second analog stick. A lot of people tried to claim that the trackpad was a viable replacement, but I just could never get used to it. Loved all the other features.
On top of that, no more light towers! I’ll finally be able to bring it friends’ places to demo! Plus the fact that the headset supports native gaming means no tower needed for some titles. I’d imagine the vast majority of VR-focused titles will run just fine since they almost all target low-spec anyway.
missingno@fedia.io 15 hours ago
My impression of the original Steam Controller was that it was designed for games I don't want to play on controller, at the expense of being terrible for games I do want to play on controller.
tal@lemmy.today 16 hours ago
stressed
I think maybe based on the rest of your comment, you intended to write “addressed”?
tehmics@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
See it was the lack of dpad for me. The touchpads+gyro finally made high fidelity controller aim possible and fun, but no dpad meant I still needed a regular controller for 2d games
ultranaut@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
I’m disappointed in the screens they used but it unfortunately makes sense that 4k microOLED isn’t feasible. I wish the new controllers supported Lighthouse tracking too. If the new controllers really are proprietary to just this single HMD that’s a big failure in my opinion.
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
The only other major PC oriented inside-out system, Windows Mixed Reality, allowed controllers and headsets from all brands participating in the program to freely intermix. I’d doubt Valve would be dumb enough not to also follow this path, if there are ever successive iterations of this hardware.
bdonvr@thelemmy.club 13 hours ago
Given their history with input devices and the fact that it runs an ARM version of SteamOS I would bet that controller support will be good
SolarPunker@slrpnk.net 10 hours ago
Indiegames cube!
MIDItheKID@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
GabeCube
WhatGodIsMadeOf@feddit.org 14 hours ago
Rip loud circle touchpads.
Sektor@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Heart emoji
nawa@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
So this is the “Extend” step of PC gaming control by Valve. We’ll see how open the Steam ecosystem will stay.
GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 12 hours ago
Im currently playing a game from Epic on my Steam Deck, I’ve recently played games from GOG, and of course Steam. The biggest drawbacks with non-Steam games are having to go to the desktop to install them, and not having my time in big picture mode tracked for those games. So, not seamless, but exceptionally playable. I’ve even customized button maps for non-Steam games, and also had to do nothing at all to have them work well.
If Steam keeps extending like this, people will stop buying Windows for gaming. I will acknowledge that my gaming requirements aren’t as extensive as some, and I’ve never installed Fortnite or Roblox for my own use.
nawa@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
If Steam keeps extending like this, people will stop buying Windows for gaming.
Good for those people. Unfortunately, Windows has other use cases outside of gaming, and I’m not planning to switch to Linux because it won’t be able to cover those for me.
I just don’t want to see something like “Half-Life 3, built first for Steam Hardware” in an announcement five years later, and ending up having some issues on Windows because that was not a priority. So far, Valve only keeps improving their platform to hook everyone on the Steam ecosystem, but we can’t be sure of their next steps. No one is immune to increasing profit margins, even Valve.
bdonvr@thelemmy.club 13 hours ago
They’ve released a version of every one of these before. Steam Controller, Valve Index VR set, a line of Steam Machines some time ago…
communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 15 hours ago
Somebody really needs to make a modern xr wayland compositor…
mesamunefire@piefed.social 16 hours ago
Love it!
- I personally don’t care for the controller, but I will say that if I didnt have a steam deck with the track pads already, I would probably get one.
- The Steam frame looks interesting. Ill keep an eye out. It might be cheaper than a huge big screen. But IDK. VR always feels like a gimmick.
- The Steam machine looks awesome. Ill probably get one. I like PCs that happen to be consoles cause I can rip them apart and upgrade/fix as I please.
I really hope Steam OS comes out for more than just 2 devices though. That would be AWESOME.
Big picture mode is great but certain games + controller + hardware combos still have issues with it. Whereas the steam deck has a fantastic time hooking into things.Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 16 hours ago
Why do you want SteamOS and not just linux?
I swapped over to pop a couple months back and things just work. Gaming stuff outside of steam works too.
There’s other immutable distros for people afraid of messing up their system but in the modern world of flatpaks, lutris prefixes and wine/proton I have found I really don’t need to mess with my system too much. I find it hard to justify the immutability because of that.
I doubt SteamOS will ever support most hardware versions. Nvidia by itself is still not where they need to be on the linux side, and that’s the majority of gamers’ hardware today (and why all steam hardware is AMD gpu based.) Then there’s all the weird audio and network gear that has very limited support because a system integrator chose some oddball model or brand that nobody else uses.
tal@lemmy.today 15 hours ago
I’ve seen other people request SteamOS-as-a-general-OS on here too, which also surprised me.
I’m thinking that it’s one of two things:
-
People just want something that they’re sure is easy to use.
-
People want an HTPC-oriented configuration.
-
Thatuserguy@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Bit disappointed to see only 4 tracking cameras. Willing to bet tracking is gonna be horrid when at waist level still. That’s an issue that has been plaguing VR headsets with inside out tracking since the beginning, and it’s frustrating it looks like they still didn’t bother fixing it on a headset that almost certainly isn’t gonna be cheap to start with
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Valve’s strategy here seems to be to build physical inertial tracking into the controllers as well. They both have an IMU built in which presumably gives them a pretty decent ability to guess where they’ve been moved in physical space even if they’re outside of the cameras’ field of view. I don’t know if anyone has accurately assessed how well that works in this case.
Thatuserguy@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
My old WMR controller had that too, but it only tracked for a few seconds before losing the controller location again because it eats battery. And that’s with 2 AA’s. Unless this one is newer and super efficient, on one battery, I imagine it’ll run into a similar problem to not have them die in only a couple of hours
sk1nnym1ke@piefed.social 15 hours ago
Any guesses how much the new steam machine will cost?
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Digital Foundry’s guess is somewhere between $400 and $500, and they think it will be a harder sell at $500 for the power it’s offering.
CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
4k60 is optimistic at best, as well, without some serious FSR deg in most newer games.
Deceptichum@quokk.au 16 hours ago
All I want is a new model Steam deck. They waited years before releasing them in my country to the point I can’t justify buying years old tech.
warm@kbin.earth 17 hours ago
This is so fucking good for linux gaming