Valve Just Unveiled New Hardware: Meet The New Steam Frame, Steam Machine & Controller

Valve is launching three new Steam Hardware projects in 2026, and two of them are quite familiar. The Steam Frame is the newest of the bunch, intended as a lower cost alternative to the ultra-premium Valve Index, joining the likes of Meta Quest and other standalone VR headsets, powered by Snapdragon silicon, but now with SteamOS and a highly PC-centric focus. Frame is also joined by new versions of the Steam Controller and Steam Machine—two long-discontinued Valve hardware projects, rejuvenated and resurrected by the success of Steam Deck as a hybrid handheld gaming  device and PC. We've previously reported on rumors related to these, including the Steam Frame being trademarked and "Freemont" hardware being benchmarked, but seeing it properly launch is a whole other story.

While none of these may compare to the buzz surrounding the potential for a Half-Life 3 announcement, their reveal just ahead of a historical gap in Steam sales spanning from November 18th to December 7th hat tips to the idea that Valve is planning to launch or announce such a project in that span of time.

Steam Frame: Valve's New Standalone VR Headset, Powered By SteamOS And Snapdragon

Steam Frame is perhaps the most exciting piece of news in this batch of announcements, showcasing a cheaper alternative to Valve Index that goes fully wireless and leverages a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset with 16GB of unified LPDDR5X RAM to provide a standalone VR headset experience that doubles as a full SteamOS PC. Each eye gets a 2160 x 2160 LCD panel operating at 72Hz (or a 144Hz experimental option) for a total of 110 degrees FoV, while eye-tracking allows for foveated streaming/rendering to improve both local and network performance. Steam Frame will also include the Index's dual-speaker setup in place of headphones, allowing for highly-immersive audio.

With dual controllers, inside-out camera-based tracking, and support for both VR and non-VR games, the Steam Frame is set to be a truly outstanding step forward in standalone VR headsets. Especially with the help of SteamOS, remote game streaming, and even a new Steam Frame Verified Steam Store tag that will allow users to focus on local, Frame-compatible experiences.

Steam Controller (2): Steam Input Evolved For Steam Deck

The original Steam Controller had its fans, but users of Steam Deck know that Deck was a major improvement in virtually every way, combining the benefits of dual touchpads with high-quality traditional gamepad components. The new Steam Controller essentially takes all those Deck Steam Controller features, repackages them in a more traditional gamepad form factor, and spices them up with no-drift magnetic TMR analog sticks and extra touch detection on the rear for true gyro aficionados. Early impressions indicate that the controller feels similar to the OG Xbox "Duke" controller in the hands but is still quite comfortable, and Steam Input's dizzying array of custom control options are still present here for all your favorite console, PC, and PC-emulated games.

Steam Machine (2): Valve's Original PC Concept, Back And Better Than Ever

Last but certainly not least is the brand new Steam Machine. Unlike the original Steam Machine initiative, which saw Valve develop SteamOS to be used with other devices, the new Steam Machines will be fully in-house, leveraging a discrete, semi-custom AMD GPU and CPU. The new Steam Machine is stated to be "six times as powerful as the Steam Deck", is visibly much smaller than both PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro, and reportedly provides performance fairly similar, if not better, than the PS5. Specifically, the whole PC fits within a 6-inch cube, will ship with 512GB or 2TB of built-in NVMe storage with SD/USB expansion support. It also sports 2x2 Wi-Fi 6E connectivity and Bluetooth 5.3. There's also a nifty, built-in LED strip, and it will also have a "Steam Machine Verified" Store tag, just like Deck and Frame. 



The semi-custom CPU uses six AMD Zen 4 cores at up to 4.8 GHz and 30 Watts TDP, while the GPU uses an AMD RDNA 3 GPU with 28 Compute Units running at up to 110 Watts TDP. The CPU gets 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and the GPU is equipped with 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM, with full support for DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 allowing support for 4K 120Hz, 4K 240Hz, or even 8K 60Hz resolutions with full HDR support. I/O includes Gigabit Ethernet, dual Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 1 front ports, dual Type-A USB 2.0 rear ports, and one Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 rear port.

For those who want to read up on some other specifications or just wish list the devices on Steam, the official Steam Hardware store page now showcases Deck, Controller, Machine, and Frame, all in their respective glory. With these 2026 Steam Hardware launches and the eventual coming of Steam Deck 2 (as well as ever-circulating rumors of Half-Life 3 to leverage all this hardware), things are shaping up for a great refresh in the entire Steam ecosystem.