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PayPalThe day has arrived, Valve have announced a major hardware expansion with multiple devices including the new Steam Frame, Steam Controller and Steam Machine. And of course, they're powered by SteamOS (Linux), exactly the sort of thing we cover! Massive news for Linux gaming, and shows how committed Valve are to open source and having an open platform.
"We've been super happy with the success of Steam Deck," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve, "and PC gamers have continued asking for even more ways to play all the great titles in their Steam libraries. Our work over the years on other hardware and even more importantly on SteamOS has enabled Steam Controller, Steam Machine, and Steam Frame to do just that."
Here's what they've announced for 2026:
- Steam Controller:
- Steam Controller shares DNA with Steam Deck, with all the inputs to play all the games on Steam, wherever Steam is.
- High-performance, ergonomic controller with next-generation precision magnetic thumbsticks, full-sized controls, trackpads, gyro, and grip buttons.
- Steam Controller is great wherever Steam is: PC, laptop, Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame.
- Steam Machine:
- Made for powerful, versatile PC gaming on a big screen; quiet and small enough to fit under your TV, on your desk, or anywhere else you want to game. (It's a roughly 6-inch (160mm) cube!)
- Runs SteamOS for the same great experience as Steam Deck
- Made to work with Steam Controller, but can pair with your other favorite accessories too.
- Steam Frame:
- Stream ALL of your Steam games, VR and non-VR alike
- Comfortable, wireless, lightweight VR designed to give you a new way to experience your entire Steam library
- Full controller input for PC VR and non-VR games
- It's a PC! Steam Frame is powered by a Snapdragon® processor, and runs SteamOS for the same great experience as Steam Deck
- Supports standalone play for immersive gaming anywhere
All of them will ship to the same regions as the Steam Deck (US, CA, UK, EU, AU) as well as regions covered by KOMODO: Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. No specific launch timings or pricing has been announced yet.
Steam Machine Info:
Models
- 512GB model and 2TB model
- Steam Machine will ship in a bundle with Steam Controller and will also be available standalone
Main Specs
- 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
- Supports 4K gaming at 60 FPS with FSR
- Ray tracing supported
- Over 6x more powerful than Steam Deck
- 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
- 512 GB & 2 TB SSD models
- micro SD card slot for expanded storage/portable catalog
- Internal power supply, AC power 110-240V
I/O
- DisplayPort 1.4
- Up to 4K @ 240Hz or 8K@60Hz
- Supports HDR, FreeSync, and daisy-chaining
- HDMI 2.0
- Up to 4K @ 120Hz
- Supports HDR, FreeSync, and CEC
- Ethernet 1 Gbps
- USB-C 10 Gbps, 3.2 Gen 2
- 4x T ype USB-A ports
- 2x USB 3 in the front
- 2x USB 2 in the rear
- 2x2 Wi-Fi 6E, dedicated BT antenna
- Integrated Steam Controller 2.4GHz radio
Other features
- Works with other controllers, accessories, and PC peripherals
- Wake with Steam Controller
- Runs SteamOS
- Familiar, gaming first user experience
- Fast suspend / resume
- Steam cloud saves, and all the other Steam features you’d expect
- Customizable LED bar
- Personalize with colors and animation
- Reflect system status (e.g. downloads, booting, updating)
Steam Frame Info:
Lightweight, modular architecture
- 185g core
- 440g with included headstrap
- (facial interface, audio, rear battery)
Main Specs
- 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 ARM64 processor
- 16GB Unified LPDDR5X RAM
- Wi-Fi 7, 2x2
- Dual 5Ghz/6Ghz streaming for simultaneous VR and Wi-Fi
- 256GB / 1TB UFS storage options
- microSD card slot for extended storage
Optics
- Pancake optics
- 2160 x 2160 LCD (per eye)
- 72-144Hz refresh rate (144Hz experimental)
- Large FOV (up to 110 degrees)
Tracking
- 4x outward facing monochrome cameras for
- controller & headset tracking
- 2x interior cameras for eye tracking
- Outward IR illuminator (for dark environments)
Other features
- Wireless Adapter included
- Wi-Fi 6E (6Ghz)
- Fast, direct, low-latency link between headset & PC
- Foveated Streaming
- Eye-tracking drives video stream, sending highest resolution to where you’re looking.
- Audio
- Dual speaker drivers (per ear), integrated into headstrap
- Dual microphone array
- Monochrome camera passthrough
- User accessible front expansion port( 2x 2.5Gbps camera interface / Gen 4 PCIe )
- Rechargeable 21.6 Wh Li-On Battery
- SteamOS
- Sleep / wake, cloud saves, Proton
Steam Frame Controllers
- Full 6-DOF tracking and IMU support
- Capacitive finger sensing
- Magnetic thumbsticks (TMR) for improved
- precision, responsiveness and reliability
- Haptic feedback
- Input parity with traditional game pad
- Replaceable AA battery (40hr life)
- Optional straps
Steam Controller Info:
Works with any device that runs Steam
- Windows / Mac / Linux PCs
- PC handhelds
- iOS / Android (with Steam Link)
- Steam Deck
- Steam Machine
- Steam Frame
Three ways to connect
- Steam Controller Puck
- Pre-paired, plug and play
- Proprietary wireless connection
- Low-latency (~8ms full end-to-end)
- 4ms polling rate
- measured at 5m
- More stable than Bluetooth
- Up to 4 Steam Controllers per Puck
- Bluetooth
- USB tethered play
Li-ion rechargeable battery
- 35hr+ play time
- Charge with Steam Controller Puck or USB
Magnetic thumbsticks (TMR)
- Improved responsiveness and reliability
- Capacitive touch
Grip sense
- Quick way to activate/deactivate gyro
- Assignable input
HD haptics
- 4x haptic motors
- 2x LRA haptic motors in trackpads for HD tactile feedback
- 2x High output LRA haptic motors in grips for HD game haptics including rumble
Full input list
- ABXY, D-pad
- L/R triggers, L/R bumpers
- Magnetic thumbsticks (TMR)
- View / Menu / Steam / QAM buttons
- 4x assignable grip buttons
- 2x trackpads with haptic feedback
- Pressure sensitivity for configurable
- click strength
- 6-axis IMU
- Capacitive grip sense
Valve do note in the press details how some of the specs are subject to change, so these may not be exactly final.
As part of this, Valve will be expanding the Steam Deck Verified program. This will include new ratings for the Steam Frame and Steam Machine. They will be known as Steam Machine Verified and Steam Frame Verified.
This is what we have been waiting for and why GamingOnLinux exists. We've been covering Linux gaming for years before Valve even came along, and Valve have practically kept us in business with all their open source work (and especially Proton).
Unlike the original launch of the first attempt at the Steam Machine, Valve has come a seriously long way to make it viable. Proton, the tool to run Windows games on Linux, has made it click and play for tens of thousands of games. So now, it makes a lot more sense.
Direct Link
Absolutely amazing. Much like when Valve originally announced Proton, I feel a bit of the shakes over here from excitement. This is truly some world-changing stuff going on for Linux gaming. It's time for the stranglehold that Microsoft have had with Windows to end.
What this also should hopefully do, is put a bit more pressure on developers to get their anti-cheat enabled for Linux, otherwise that's still going to be quite a number of popular games that won't be playable on any of these devices. As we're tracking on our dedicated anti-cheat page. Especially so if the Steam Machine is priced reasonably, that could be a ridiculous amount of extra players using SteamOS Linux. Developers are going to need to pay a lot more attention to how their games run on Linux.
On top of that, it will be interesting to see if Epic Games will rethink their stance on the Epic Store and Fortnite.
We've opened up some new content tags for you to follow along: Steam Frame | Steam Machine. You can also join us on Discord with dedicated chat channels.
Sadly, Valve did not provide GamingOnLinux with any heads up on it, so we're playing catch-up on all the details. There's also currently no word on review samples like we had for the Steam Deck LCD and Steam Deck OLED, so if you want to ensure we can grab them please do support GamingOnLinux directly.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
See more from me
You can also find comments for this article on social media: They've already stated in the interview videos that there won't be tiers.Oh. Never mind, then.
TheRiddick 3 days ago
Also worried this will just be way too closely down under, thought Valve does now sell direct to AU customers so that helps.
BUT economy here is being held up entirely by massively overpriced housing, if the bubble bursts, Australia is finished.
Meanwhile nobody can find/afford a place to live...
It’ll be very easy to recommend the SteamMachine to all who look for a new console. SteamOS is just nice to use, in my view. None of the other consoles out there come close.
Owning a SteamDeck, it still hits the sweet spot for me. I can play wherever I want, be it on the train or docked on a big screen. It’s also powerful enough for most games I enjoy.
I’m a bit worried that Valve might be spreading themselves too thin, though. This is a lot of hardware they are committing to supporting for a long time. Here is hoping that the deck (or rather any of the individual devices) won’t suffer.
I am hoping they are also planning another vr release. HL Alyx has been fantastic but it is time for a new release to go with the new hardware.
Long live Valve's love for linux. :)
xinput_calibrator is an x.org frontend for xinput, but straightly assumes you want your mouse to point up and do nothing fancy.
xinput is a pretty intuitive cli tool for managing this.
Last edited by LoudTechie on 16 Nov 2025 at 8:34 pm UTC
When I asked why, the Machine has really resonated with them. They've seen my Deck and think it's good but wasn't for them as they just didn't want a handheld and it is now a bit underpowered for their tastes. Most are gamers and either already have much older machines they were planning to relace and so this is still a upgrade for them, or they have a decent PC already but wanted something small and quiet in an HTPC style for their lounge or bedroom. They really like the small form factor, the decent but not power/thermal hungry specs, the resulting low noise factor, and the console ease of use of the device, while still allowing them flexibility as a PC for game modding and custom changes if they decide to.
A number of them were not exactly anti-Linux but they were definitely Windows first and generally shied away from Linux in any form. Seeing SteamOS over the last few years, even on a handheld they didn't want, has changed their minds.
Last edited by Supay on 17 Nov 2025 at 12:25 am UTC
Right now my htpc is just a regular old gigantor pc case stuffed full of wd red spinning drives due to cost and a mid range gpu so my buddy and I can play couch games. That works fine with the current setup, but it really does require a humungo monstrous and loud case to house all the components.
What would a replacement look like that for this that could utilize the steam machine? I'd need some form of 100tb external enclosure? Locally connected via ... something? Or just networked as a nas? Would it suffer performance wise that way? I should research all this.
I'm running a Dell Poweredge T430 (got it cheap) and it's been solid. Updated the firmware to latest really easily, it has a remote management idrac tool, can take up to 1TB RAM, has two NICs, has two power supplies, and has two CPU sockets. Here in the UK you can pickup the 3.5GHz 14 core/28 thread Xeons for it at £30 each.
I'm using it in the 8x bay setup with a load of disks in a Snapraid array. But it has hardware RAID if you want that. And a bunch of spare internal mini-SAS connectors that you can convert to 4xSATA each and mount drives internally as well. I'm running the OS on a RAID1 mirror that way, with two SSDs mounted inside. It's surprisingly quiet, has been temporarily sitting in our lounge and not disturbing us. Lots of easy expandibility options.
Not sure what prices are where you are but you can get them in basic setups for only a couple of hundred £ in the UK, including RAM and some drives. There is also a 16x bay option for 2.5" format disks if preferred. And they do rack versions as well. I have been very happy with it. The ability to add a lot more RAM and CPU cores cheaply also means it works really well as a hypervisor, so can do more than just provide storage.
[eBay example](https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/236080350655?_trksid=p2332490.c101429.m2460&itmprp=cksum%3A23608035065563d55c32582d4bafa7b848932409f7f7%7Cenc%3AAQAKAAABQKxsCgy5i7ztWhjg%252FVuODCBGFXnymLLtCQPw0Pb%252BAnnUrEh3Uicx%252BzponjKRRstuhNepgyA9zsxxm9WkU4eJhJNc0FnE3sWn9QNPQ9BsfycWHf4xsNkj50TMSN%252FYu8xkfNTCiAJvbQs%252FzyiZpxwPqVBfGTgQ1CoIPPrI1fprhMJskU4tRCVy2cBVctAvaQ4hJyVCAGZspa725QMzVfRDu%252BsFRqC60M4OZIINxxyEDmFFWo7oTKpQ87x5AmViFjY7C0drPl8hEIEGYTXzCZPEUVQ6e31yJCbqyjpIPD1%252FFg9MStG82tr9GdHY0nb3QYqqIANRnqcTwqUQtkcqPwocDpInZJpjY4q1sAK6AfKaEQvxFdz1RFAe4MaAqb7hY9Qk%252FwRUFS8EL4EzfEfLaJm2PSluDLda3NeyBVKaqxmyaYx0%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A2332490)
Cyba.Cowboy 1 hour ago
@supay you think a storage server like that would be better/cheaper than an off the shelf NAS device? (pretty much the same thing at the end of the day I guess)
Don't do an off-the-shelf NAS... I learned the hard way what a silly idea that was, because they all use proprietary software on the NAS (I had a NETGEAR Stora in which one drive failed, now I have it sitting in the wardrobe until I can work out how to extract the data, because it's no longer supported).
Make sure you use something completely Open Source, from start-to-finish (whether you buy something like FreeNAS or make your own).
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