Valve bring back Steam Machine PC console with new controller and VR headset

The rumours about Half-Life 3 might not have come true but Valve has announced three new hardware devices, while hinting about Steam Deck 2.

If there’s one attribute that’s consistent across all the most influential and admired companies in the games industry, it’s being weird and uncommunicative (okay, that’s two attributes). Whether it’s Nintendo, Rockstar Games, or even Sony it’s never clear what they’re thinking and it’s always impossible to predict them, and that’s certainly true for Steam owners Valve.

Many younger gamers will probably not even realise they used to make their own video games, with classics such as Half-Life and Portal, but while they seem to have left that life behind them, they have continued to dabble with gaming hardware, most obviously Steam Deck and various VR headsets.

This week they announced another new VR device, called Steam Frame, as well as a new controller and, most interestingly, a new console-like Steam Machine mini-PC.

Steam Machines was a very short-lived concept from way back in 2013, the concept being that they were ordinary PCs, running SteamOS, but fine-tuned for ease of use and used solely for playing games. Rather than there just being one or two models though, the idea was that other hardware manufacturers would be able to make their own Steam Machines, as long as they stuck to Valve’s guidelines.

That’s rumoured to be the approach Microsoft is taking with its next gen Xbox, but the problem is the idea never caught on and after innumerable delays was quietly forgotten about, never to be mentioned again… until now.

There’s no immediately obvious reason why the idea would work now, but didn’t 10 years ago, especially as Valve has not announced a price, which was one of the key sticking points (one of the original models was the equivalent of £895 – although they were never actually released in the UK).

Valve have at least focused on just one model this time: a small, square device, meant to fit easily on your desk or under your TV. It’s apparently six times more powerful than the current Steam Deck and capable of running games at 4K and at 60fps with FSR.

That’s all well and good but it’s not even clear whether Valve care if it’s a big hit or not. Despite how popular the Steam Deck handheld is with hardcore gamers, it’s only sold a few million worldwide and while Valve hinted at a successor in the Steam Machine reveal they implied it was a while off yet.

The Steam Machine will launch in ‘early’ 2026, alongside the other two devices: a revamp of the Steam Controller and the Steam Frame. None of those have prices either and the latter is likely to be very expensive as, like the Meta Quest, it can play games natively as well as attaching to a PC to play games through that.

Given Valve’s eccentricity it’s very hard to tell whether these are pet projects or a major new direction for the company, but we’ll have a better idea once they announce some prices.

In the meantime, it goes without saying that Half-Life 3 was not announced. In fact, there was no mention of games or software at all, which the more optimistic fans may take as an indication that more revelations are to come…

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