Valve Announces New Steam Machine, Steam Controller & Steam Frame
Phoronix article: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Steam-Machines-Frame-2026
Also listed here: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/hardware
Valve has already sent support for the new Steam Controller upstream: https://www.phoronix.com/news/New-Steam-Controller-SDL
The announcement did not include Copilot? No mention of 300 useless AI features being shoved down our throats??!
It's wild how by virtue of the fact that Valve isn't a publicly traded company beholden to shareholders, the same Valve which has a history of putting out half-baked goods and which has an always-on DRM client called Steam, seems poised to surpass most of its competitors both in the user privacy and hardware hardware spaces with just straightforward products. They have a product to sell, and that's it. They don't need to micro-optimize for bullshit like seemingly every other large tech company does.
It feels like just yesterday that VR was the big hype tech.
That's because they make an insane amount of money by taking 30% of every sale on their platform, which nearly everyone uses because they're a near monopoly and the alternatives are terrible. Around $3.5 Million per employee, nearly 5x the next highest company, which is Facebook at around $780,000 per employee.
I should note that 30% is incredibly standard in the industry, and Valve offers a LOT more for that 30% than literally any other digital publisher. Physical publishers take substantially more, and the only digital store that offers less is EGS, which is simultaneously absolute dogshite and also has been trying very, very hard to astroturd the '30%' thing for ages.
Nintendo, Sony, and Apple all take 30%. I think MS does as well, but don't quote me on that one.
It's fucking wild. Like, I love Steam, don't get me wrong, but holy shit just suck less (edit: than other stores do) and charge less (edit: of devs) and you could gobble up a lot of that market share. But none of them do.
Around $3.5 Million per employee, nearly 5x the next highest company, which is Facebook at around $780,000 per employee.
that's a bullshit metric only useful to incite hatred. why the fuck do you want to say that valve is "this many times worse than facebook!"? it is obviously false.
only thing this proves is that they have relatively few employees. which also probably means that most of them do real work instead of being overloaded with managers
You‘re getting downvotes for no reason. Also anyone who ever had to contact Steam support felt how criminally understaffed they are so it makes sense they make tons of money per employee I guess.
As if normal for companies to say you know what we are getting enough profits lets not monetize things even more.
They need their products to be as clean as possible to hook people into microtransactions and their proprietary platform. Valve is a for profit company and the ceo owns a fleet of mega yachts
The VR headset is going to be standalone??
That's pretty nuts right?
Any ideas on Linux support?
They talked about streaming VR games from the SteamOS based steam machine to it.
So with that I'd assume we're finally getting some much needed progress to SteamVR on linux.
The headset itself is running linux and it is meant to be used with the steam machine, which also runs on linux.
pretty sure it’s SteamOS, an Arch Linux derivative, on a fairly popular Snapdragon platform. probably not too difficult to hack on it.
My understanding from the video is that the headset will run SteamOS itself.
Its a standalone headset that runs steamos.
There are a lot of specs missing from what the streets were hoping for from the holy grail of VR headsets, but I'm starting to believe that they are not going for that. It seems they want to win in the mid-range market competing directly with Meta. Honestly, "Quest 3 without Meta" is already very compelling. I guess it's not all down to how competitively they decide to price it. "Cheaper than Index" is already good news for my wallet at least.
I believe the cost of Meta devices is also subsidized by surveillance capitalism, so if this costs more, doesn’t spy on you, and lets you do whatever you want with your own hardware, then it’s worth voting with your wallet. If Valve somehow is able to price this similarly to a Quest 3 while having better specs and without exploiting their customers like Meta does, then all hail the great and mighty Gabe.
Personal privacy is always worth the cost. The ‘subsidies’ can go away anytime, so better to not be locked into an expensive spyware platform to begin with.
”Quest 3 without Meta” is what I’ve been dreaming about. I feel like Steam Frame could be my entry to the VR space, if the price is decent.
I just recently upgraded from my OG Vive because I didn't want an inside out tracking or wireless, but... let's see what the price is and if the thing is actually as good in real world conditions as Linus makes it look. I might just try those pancake lenses (because the Vive Pro 2 lenses are bad).
And yeah, I will never give Meta money. Not directly, and indirectly as little as I can.
I don't see it in the hardware design, but from a software perspective the groundwork is there for modularity. Offloading the core compute to the PC frees up onboard processing to run peripherals like full color front cameras (onboard are black and white / IR) and more advance proximity detection, hell hook up lidar and go nuts with full body tracking.
That said, all of that would depend on decent I/O. 2x USB4 ports would go a long way.
Welp, looky there, an expansion port right on the bridge of the headset with PCIE compatibility.
I used to work with a guy who worked at Valve prototyping stuff like the steam controller. He was a boomer so he complained about how people were always playing games in the break room and what not. Said he hated that job, his reasons might as well have been a wishlist for my future career. If he wasn’t so damn helpful I would probably hate him to this day.
Fuck you Microsoft!
Less concurrent is never a good thing. Steam already got too much power. https://www.xda-developers.com/valve-steam-monopoly-real-gamers-chose/
Luckily unlike monopolies in other sectors, Steam doesn't involve itself in evil oractices that more or less stops others from competing.
Someone just needs to make a better store, but they can't because no company big enough to compete is willing to be as user friendly.
Epic, probably the second biggest store people thing about, can't even make a good platform. They try underhanded practices like bribing developers and customers... maybe they should make their store work properly first.
this only applies to capitalists
As a Mac user with an Xbox, this thing looks like a breath of fresh air! My Xbox (Series X) is still running well, so I continue to use it, but I kinda want this Steam cube thing, if the price is right. I don't want to buy any more products from Microsoft, and while I tolerate Xbox, I do not like Windows. (I tolerate it at work because I have to, but I'd prefer not to have to mess with it.) I could hang with Linux if I wanted to go down that road, but it looks like this will be a suitable alternative for gaming... if the price is right.
Steve from Gamers Nexus has a solid video where he met with people about Valve and goes into a lot of details on the announced hardware. He reported that they told him that the Steam Machine is not aiming for a console price. This made sense to him as he pointed out it’s basically an ITX computer and you can do computer things with it. Anyway I don’t know what it will cost but I’m guessing north of $500 easily.
I’m in a similar boat. I have both PS5 and series X. Consoles are getting enshittified at an increasing pace. I welcome valve improving Linux compatibility as they invest more in their devices. I don’t think I’ll be getting Sony or Microsoft’s next consoles.
I've been an Xbox user for the longest time and have been dreading them losing the latest console war. I've never been a huge Nintendo fan, and fuck Sony. This sounds like it'll be my next big gaming platform.
There isn't really any point in comparing this to a games console. There would be no real point valve developing a console because pretty much all of the games on their platform expect to run on a PC so they'd end up having to emulate keyboard inputs as a lot of their library won't really work with a controller in any logical sense, so they might as well just make a PC.
Have you, uh, seen steam input and the new controller with the touch pads? It sounds like you haven't...
They missed the chance to call the machine the Steam Engine
I thought the GabeCube was even better.
Aaaaalmost shot coffee out my nose. Almost.
But they did name it after a daft punk song
banger
Huh, neat. Til.
That would be impossible to search online
Fuck, they did! 😫
2026 Year of the Linux desktop?
Surely this will bring over a lot of people to Linux
Year of the Linux living room
Not gonna lie the controller looks ass but maybe it feels fantastic so I‘ll wait with my final judgement. I‘m interested to see how they will try to push VR since most users are still incredibly uninterested in it.
I've wanted to get into VR for the longest time but they all seemed like extremely walled gardens. This sounds awesome to me.
The problem is to really make an informed decision you have to try it first-hand. The sensory experience unlike any other device, so descriptions aren't super helpful, video doesn't convey what it's actually like, so you really have to experience it to understand it.
Also given how common it seems to be anecdotally to get sick from it, no one wants to jump in just to have to jump back out.
And unless you know someone that already jumped in and can try theirs, a lot of people like me just don't want to commit sight unseen. (I mean I'm also broke, but this would be true anyway)
I don't have a way to try it out, so until I do it's not on my radar to care. I'm very curious about it. Even if I don't like it I do really want to see what it's like at least once. But I'm not gonna pay for that chance. It's gotta impress me without effort on my part (more than driving to it anyway).
For most of my life VR has been, 'VR is a great way to experience shitty games and you just have to pay a grand or more for this interactive tummy ache, and your unit may not be supported next year! Buy!'
I'm going to hold out until I can pick up one of these at the pawn shop for a bill.
I've got a Meta Quest 2 as a hand-me-down and yes, it's extremely locked down. It's possible to use a third-party app store, but to make it work you have to get a developer account with Meta and enable wireless debugging.
I really want to love VR, but it's just not for me. And i don't think i'm alone with that. To me, VR is something you try in a mall for 20min and think it's cool and not something you want to play around with home.
I mean, you can certainly pick up a used Quest 2 if you wanted to try it out. There's a handful of exclusive stuff in the Quest store you'd be able to use, but not much of value. Resident Evil 4 VR is about it for the Q2. I think there was a Batman game for the Q3. You'd have access to anything the Steam Frame has access to if you're streaming from a PC.
I think the PSVR2 works as well, but it's wired only.
Half Life Alyx is certainly worth a blast through.
Looks can be deceiving. Coming from someone who uses the steamdeck, that layout looks exactly how I hoped and imagined it would be. The steamdeck is incredibly comfortable to hold and this looks like it would be the same!
It definitely reminds me of that Steam controller someone on Youtube built by sawing a Steamdeck in two and gluing the ends together so to speak. They said it‘s their dream controller so I‘m sure this controller already has some fans. I just can‘t tell by looking at it.
The first controller looked the same, but was very good to use once you got used to it. The build quality, though, was...fucking terrible.
I had to fix my controllers so many times that in the end I was swapping them out almost weekly. Still, felt great in the hand.
I have the first controller, just dug it out the other day because I thought I was going to be able to use it on my new tablet, it still sucks. I never could get used to it, but it's a far sight better looking then this thing.
It might be you just got unlucky. Mine is still going strong all this years, and I use it often.
It's basically steam deck minus the screen. If you are used to the steam deck it'll be fine.
Hopefully the Frames can compete with the Meta Quest in both price/performance. It will be good to have relatively affordable VR headset not made by Facebook.
Considering that Quest is sold at a loss and tries to make money forcing you to buy games, I don't think it's likely
@MoonlitSanguine@lemmy.zip @jcs@lemmy.world it would certainly be good for it to be relatively affordable but they're really not promising it will at the moment since they only said aiming it to be cheaper than an Index.
Wish I didnt have to wear glasses, otherwise I'd use my Index alot more.
Inserts?
It will be priced as it isnt locking you into a ecosystem like meta, so it will be of course a bit more pricey. ( rumors say roughly 1200$ )
Valve really listened to Saejima's advice:
Steam Synapse when?
I don't like the look of this controller... I'm still gonna get one. Everything else I love.
Especially that SteamOS is apparently going to become available on ARM devices.
Arch linux ARM (the base of such steam os) has existed for a while now. Not to diminish Valve efforts, just putting in some context.
Fex works for most games now! This is amazing.
And now there are arm systems that are powerful enough to compete with consoles easily (consoles probably already using ARM?)
I'm running it on my raspi but it seems like the repos have been frozen for a while now?
Same, but at least it feels like the focus was on usability rather than looks. Keep it humble, Steam!
I do appreciate that the grips are flared out at least a little on this controller. The 90° ones on the Steam Deck can be quite uncomfortable, especially given that it's a pretty heavy and cumbersome device.
My biggest skepticism is the dpad though. It looks nearly identical to the Steam Deck's, which is easily one of the worst dpads I've ever used. Hopefully the underlying mechanisms and feel of it has been improved.
Finally, another worthwhile controller with symmetrical sticks. Now to find out how to get my hands on one...
I typically just have one hand on each side
That usb port being off center though....
I did notice that in this picture, but I don't think it actually is. Pretty sure this is from the "animation" where the puck with the USB cable is put under the controller to charge, and not with the USB cable connected to the controller. From what I see though it should all be centered, even the puck and charging pins, so not sure why they made it off-center here
This will invoke someone's OCD
There's plenty of videos of it on YouTube and the port is not off centre.
That controller looks ugly and bulky as fuck.
Well thank God I don't give a shit how my controller looks as long as it is well designed.
It looks ass on this picture. However, it kinda looks like a steamdeck without a screen which is no surprise. And I quite like the steamdeck controls..
I mean, sure it looks a bit odd, but if you remove the trackpads and reshape the controller based on not having those then it's a pretty standard controller, no? It's not like the added part for the trackpads does anything to change how you would hold the controller or anything, so I doubt it'd make much of a difference in use even if you never use the trackpads.
Do you remember the old Xbox controllers that had the attachable keyboard? It's essentially just that kind of shape. So you would use the controller and kind of ignore the touchpads on the bottom unless you actually need them, then you just move your hand down and use the touchpads for something like mouse control. I doubt the intention is for you to use all of the inputs at once like you would an Xbox or PlayStation controller.
I feel like if I use this controller those trackpads will go crazy because of my fat hands.
The Steam Deck uses the capacitive thumb stick sensors to completely disable the trackpads as soon as the stick above the respective pad is touched. This works very well, so I think they‘ll implement the same thing here.
That’s so fucking cool
On the opposite of the spectrum, my small hands doesn't play well with that feature. The capacitive sensors only works if your fingers touch the top of the sticks but I usually move the sticks by pushing on the round edges of it so I still occasionally brush against the touch pads which is annoying.
That brings up my following question.
If the thumb sticks are capacitive and they wear smooth over time how do you replace them? Are the capacitive sensors under stick caps? Do you just have to replace the rim only?
Steam did an amazing job on the controller management, you can already remap everything. Disabling track pads should be easy
Almost everything. I've got this weird issue where my controller gets misrecognised as the wrong type, and there's simply no way for me to force steam to recategorise it.
I'm just glad they have dual thumbsticks now. I bought their last model on sale but quickly shelved it. Couldn't get used to the touchpads and didn't want to spend the next 2 months sucking at every game I played.
"The hands you have used to game are too fat. To obtain a special gaming wand, please mash the controller with your palm now"
You would need REALLY massive hands to touch those when your thumbs are resting on the analog sticks or the face buttons.
I guess this would be the appropiate post to ask under, isnt the steam frame using a last gen flagship arm soc and running linux a huge thing? That seems like its pretty close to us being abke to run linux on a newer phone. Tho at the same time i know phones are unhinged so thats why im asking, whether this is actually a big thing.
Gabephone in 2027? /s
That seems like its pretty close to us being abke to run linux on a newer phone
You can run Linux on current gen flagship arm SoCs. The framebuffer, gpu and cpu stuff mostly just works (with some support from hardware vendors). It's the rest of the device that's the problem: the phone part, the camera, sound, power management, etc.
I'd consider it a significant advancement. Phones have much tighter regulations than many consumer devices and this may not necessarily align with Valve's long-term business objectives, however, so I have some skepticism but would be pleasantly surprised if they pursued such an endeavor.
I'd say a lot of the backend stuff has the stars aligning now for such potential. Front end user experience is increasingly the sore spot now.
Not just this but if the compatibility layer on the snapdragon works on over ARM chips for other Linux distros, we could have desktop Linux on arm (including on new macbooks if you want).
Someone far more knowledgeable is free to correct me but that might have been the single biggest announcement they made
Oh and maybe even install steam OS on a meta quest and use it with Linux but that's a bit of a cake dream
Doubtful, phone vendors already had access to binary blobs to run Linux (Android) on them.
It's no surprise Valve who is buying those SOCs is also provided with them.
Since the Steam Machine is more like an entry PC and not a console (and will be priced as that), does that mean that SteamOS for desktop will be officially supported?
I forgot where but some time in the last 3 hours I read that the goal for steamOS is to be supported on all PCs, though it's an ongoing effort.
That's a big challenge, but a worthwhile one. The reason that Microsoft exploded in the DOS era was because it ran on everything that was "IBM compatible" aka x86. Meanwhile Apple was over there with a competitive product, but you could only run the software on their OS that ran in their hardware. People were able to get cheap third party x86 compatible computers and run MS-DOS (and later Windows), and they were not locked into a specific vendor doing top to bottom hardware/software support.
If they do this right, they'll be the go to option for a lot of people who generally use their PC primarily for gaming.
You'd have to assume so!
No, it's supported on two specific pieces of custom hardware, the Steam Deck and Steam Machine. They'll get there with general support, but SteamOS isn't there yet.
Well, there's official support for some third party handhelds if I remember correctly? Asus and the like? And they just announced that the steam frame (vr headset) will also run steamos, and that's on a snapdragon ARM SoC. Pretty exciting stuff ahead
do people have issues running steamOs on different hardware? genunly wondering
Yeah, it's not released or supported outside of the Steam Deck or handheld partners. So you're probably not going to get Nvidia drivers or anything else that's not built in to the kernel.
You don't need it though, you can just run Steam in big picture mode on whatever distro you want.
I’d jump on a steam deck with updated hardware, too bad it looks like it will be staying the same
Edit:
Yeeaaaahhhh it’s going to be a while, they want a great performance jump without sacrificing battery life
I think they've been waiting for what I've been predicting for a while. They're going to make the next steam deck ARM based so they can make it potentially smaller or at least better battery life. Since the new frame is ARM, I think it's everything but confirmed now. Since they said they want the new steam deck to be a significant step up they're probably now waiting for certain components to go down in price so it can be more powerful than the OG but not be too expensive.
With a strong internet connection and more capable desktop device, you can already stream for hours with high fidelity graphics, 60+ FPS, and no fan noise.
With that in mind, buying a new Steam Deck is probably going to be multiple generations off for me.
Literally I just want a steamdeck with thunderbolt 5 so I can plug it into an egpu. That is my dream; a handheld gamestation that plays locally, which I can beef up when I want to.
Big same. I can only assume one is in the works and likely the most anticipated piece of steam hardware. If we're lucky they'll be saving the news for the near future after these products gets their hype cycle. Marketers love to tease ya.
I hope this somehow manages to convince fortnite / ea to support it or support linux. I want to get rid of my xbox so bad.
also i am excited for the headset, i am wondering how open source it is going to be and depending on that i definilty get one (Since it runs steam os, linux is possible atleast definitly)
It will be able to run android apps, any steam games, and because it's going to run Steam OS, you can run lutris or heroic launcher as well. So emulation and a whole variety of older games.
Also because it's a stand alone, but can pair to a pc, you will be able to work straight on it with KDE desktop and whatever applications you want to run.
Steam Machine is interesting. It feels like a solid time for someone to disrupt TV based gaming.
If it's priced at or around $500/$600, I'm getting one. Price will be very important to the success of these products.
Hopefully, this means an official release of SteamOS Desktop. I want to switch away from Windows 11 IoT, if I can get a flavor of Linux with official backing from an 800lb gaming gorilla. While I can try out Bazzite or Cachy, I would prefer to have only one Linux for the rest of my PC's life.
Would have stuck with Windows, if it weren't for the fact that Microsoft has been channeling the spirit of an overly controlling parent.
Not what you asked for but as someone else who used W11 IOT as a daily driver, CachyOS is fantastic. It's just Arch Linux with really strong gaming first additions.
Haven't had a hitch.
official backing from an 800lb gaming gorilla
Eh... aren't most of the largest corporations contributing to Linux already? I'm not sure what you need beside Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, Samsung, etc https://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/members
They said there’s still a lot of work for them to do with SteamOS before it's usable on all PCs. I wouldn’t hold my breath especially if you’re on NVIDIA, especially if it’s older than RTX-es. Besides, when SteamOS is ready for general public, the desktop Linux experience is elsewhere regardless of the distribution.
Steam Frame is interesting. Would love a non-Meta VR headset that doesn’t cost $1k and also doesn’t have a million wires and base stations.
It's most probably gonna be around $1k, I saw someone say they expect it to be $900, but nothing concrete yet
Valve engineers told GamersNexus that it should be priced no more than the index, but they did not specify which kit or package of the index. So yeah, anywhere from 700 to 900 dollars probably.
Why does the controller look very uncomfortable to use? I hope it's not.
Still looks better than the first Steam Controller. It was atrocious.
I was about to say the opposite. They somehow made it uglier.
Because it's so bottom-heavy. But if you look where your hands will be it's essentially a Dualshock with touchpads stuck to the bottom.
The touchpads look too low and likely awkward to use.
I'm sure they haven't tested this out, at all. 😅
In more seriousness, does it not just look like the same distance as on the steam deck (which I find comfortable to use), but mildly rotated?
I guess it depends on how long your thumb is
I’m really hoping that the price of the vr headset meets or beats the Facebook models.
I do too, but I'd highly doubt it will. It's well known that Meta sells every headset at a loss and funds the expenditure via revenue from their gargantuan advertising and spy network, specifically to squeeze out competitors and make it harder to enter the VR market as a newcomer. Zuck Zuck still thinks all the prime real estate in the metaverse is going to be his, because he only read the first half of Snow Crash.
Gabe is a rich man and I assume he and his company could take this approach as well if they wanted to, at least temporarily. But based on their pricing for their past hardware (particularly the Steam Deck), I predict they won't.
Im hyped for a new vr headset.
Me too. I bought the first quest before Facebook acquired it. Now that Facebook/Meta own quest and stuff ... I've been staying away from VR for now.
I'll definitely be doing my best to get one as soon as it's available. Everything about it sounds hype.
FYI, technically Meta/Facebook had already owned Oculus for something like five years before the original Quest came out. They just started getting really blatant about the branding shortly after that time, probably to acquiesce to Zuck Zuck and his huffing of his "metaverse" crack pipe increasingly frequently.
FEX is the most exciting thing for me!
Right? It's a huge bridge between x86 and ARM, it just opened up a potentially huge market for lower power consumption gaming devices. You could have like a Gameboy that runs silksong or something.
One question I have about the cube is will it be capable of doing full DRM streaming services like Netflix? Most living room systems have that, but doing it on an open linux system somehow would be novel.
I bet it'll run jellyfin really well!
You can install a browser with enabled DRM extensions on the Deck already, don’t see why this wouldn’t be possible on the cube.
Why pay? 🏴☠️
But they all get abandoned or suck at launch to begin with.
A streaming 4K dedicated device is about 20 to 40 dollars, which always seem to work better then whatever a console offers and for longer.
I see no advantage to have a steam cube with it.
That said, I did put Plex and jellyfin on my steamdeck so I could watch my own library while flying, so I suppose you could add either of those to the cube. They launch as just another game by the way.
I’ve been contemplating Steam Game Mode in Bazzite on a HTPC as a potential replacement for Android TV, and this might fit the bill nicely, in addition to supporting living room gaming of course. I bet this would run Jellyfin and VacuumTube quite nicely with a USB remote control. A Nvidia Shield from 2019 is still $200, so if Valve prices this similarly to a PS5, it’d certainly be a compelling option.
The digital foundry video said no plans to support at launch.
Definitely will be grabbing the Steam Machine when it releases.
8gb of vram seems… disappointing
They say it can run games at 4k60 "with FSR", so it seems like it's targeting 1080p native rendering, which is totally fine for me. I'll be connecting it to the living room TV and sitting 6-8 feet away so I'll probably keep it set to 1080p anyway just to keep the framerate high.
Eh, for the number of CUs, it looks fine. It looks like a slightly smaller RX 7600.
I’m curious about the “it’s a PC” aspect of the Steam Box. Because a device that plays all Steam games but isn’t a Windows computer is extremely appealing, but I admit if I can’t install a few non-Steam games on it, that’s a spoiler for me. But if the whole “it’s a PC” provides some avenue to that, I’m definitely ready to stop building a gaming PC every 5 years.
I'm sure it will be like the Steam Deck, meaning you can absolutely install non Steam games on it, but they still have to work under Proton (meaning the vast majority of games work, except ones requiring kernel anti cheat).
Yeah, you can. SteamOS is basically just a customized arch Linux. It's what runs on the steam deck, which you can install non-steam games on. They integrate really well into the console experience as well.
Steam Box
Ahem, it's a GabeCube.
It's going to be like the steam deck, I've yet to find a old Non-steam game that I couldn't run on the steam deck.
Allow me to be pedantic here. What you were referring to here, "PC", stands for "personal computer". It's a device on where you can perform computation. Sometimes that computation is to render video streams encoded in H.264 onto the screen, and sometimes it happens to take in your control signal to alter that video stream, like video games. You are free to perform any kind of computation on it.
"PC" has no implications of Microsoft or Windows.
Insufficient pedantry detected.
The PC platform is an extension of IBM's Personal Computer architecture, which was not a description of what it was so much as it was literally the brand name. It's long since been forgotten that this is now a shorthand, and the full name of the platform arguably ought to be PC Compatible. Unless you bought your machine from IBM, anyway, which these days would be quite the trick.
Being PC compatible was a big deal back when the original PC was also a big deal. Probably slightly less so now, since it's the assumed default.
It should go without saying that the original IBM PC, model 5150, did not run Windows... Because Windows did not yet exist. It didn't even necessarily run the then-nascent PC-DOS provided by Microsoft, because IBM also supported running CP/M and and UCSD Pascal on it.
The whole Windows-as-default thing didn't happen until well after the appeal of the PC specification had escaped containment at IBM and x86 had handily taken over the desktop computing world.
A personal computer is basically anything you can stick on your desk (or lap) and doesn't require hooking up to a mainframe to run. But a Personal Computer, capital P and C, implies an x86 compatible platform with architecture designed such that it is technically still capable of running all those decades old 8086 programs and operating systems. (Just, several orders of magnitude faster than their designers ever envisioned, and probably only by sticking your UEFI BIOS in legacy mode first.)
Allow me to match your pedantry.
A “denotation” is an exact, codified definition of a word, commonly thought of as a “dictionary definition.”
A “connotation” is a less official but culturally understood meaning of a word, often dependent on context or setting.
“PC” connotes Windows in the gaming world. But thanks for taking time out of your day to tell me what it stands for, etc 🙄
it's an arch linux machine. with proton and some tweaks to steamos you can run any game without a kernel level anticheat.
If you are looking to get it or try linux gaming in general then I would recommend looking at heroic games launcher which supports games from epic, gog, and Amazon. Past that there is always a huge list of other games (and applications) available for install from lutris' website. And bottles for specific things, but that is a bit more advanced/nuanced to setup.
Ok but HL3 wen
You just added 3 more years to its release
It's at least 6 years now.
Half Life 3? Do you mean Half Life: Barry?
Any educated guesses, or layman guesses, about the price?
My layman guess is 600-800, the low price being same price as the top end steam deck on release
From what I understand the Steam Machine performance is somewhere between Series S and Series X. I don’t think it will cost more than a Series X.
Maybe 600.
But what about the steam carrots and broccoli?
Or the Steam(ed) Dumpling.
Or the steamed hams
I was a pretty big enjoyer of the design of the first Steam controller, so adding a second stick and keeping the touchpads sounds great. Also mine broke, I can't remember exactly what gave out, but it was just destroyed, and using a touchpad for a second stick felt awkward af.
I didn't even mind the way it bent "backwards", the fact that the stick and buttons were tiny, or its weird shape. Actually thinking about it, it was the right trigger that broke and just caved in, Spring broke, plastic tab snapped off, just basically a hole left there. I wasn't about to attempt a repair, either. I don't have the skill for that.
Anyway, this looks nice. A lot of people seem to call it ugly, but I don't get it. Sturdy and functional are a good look, so this looks great. And if it functions just as well as the Steam Deck controls, (and of course it will, since it's basically the same parts except switching out magnetic sticks instead of regular ones)
Here's hoping the triggers are better on it. It's definitely on my radar for next year.
Time to sell my never used old steam controller
Never fear! I will happily spare you the trouble, and take that old thing off your hands - free of charge! ;D
I loved that controller. Best damn gamepad I ever had. It was a sad day when it finally gave in, and broke, last year.
I want the Steam controller to succeed but why do they make it look like it's from the 1980s
What controller from the 1980s looked anything like the Steam Controller?
I mean, the Sega Genesis controller was mostly black and had face buttons and a D-pad and was around in the late 1980s, but that's about as close as I can think of, and that'a not much by way of similarity.
Because form and function is not the same thing. I don't look at the controller while playing just like I dont give a damn how my keyboard look as long as it feels good and does what it is supposed to do.
The controllers have battery compartments! 🔔 🔔 🔔
Glad Valve is making a console but that's an ugly fucking controller
I give 0% of shit how it looks, all I care about it ease of use and performance. Track pads at your finger tips takes getting used to, but it’s a game changer for any game that isn’t classically easy to play with a controller.
Am I the only one who preferred the "skinnier" style of controller like the old GameCube or even N64 controllers? I loved that grip control, now it feels like we've been either trending towards bloated controllers like this one that suck for people with smaller hands or those tiny little joycons that hurt to use long term.
Wii classic controller was very nice.
It does look very chonky, and not very aesthetically pleasing.
However, as a heavy user of the steam deck over the past year, I am super excited. The track pads and the extra inputs on the steam deck give so much flexibility to play games that otherwise wouldn't work well with controller at all. I'm just hoping it feels better (or at least not worse) than the steam deck in terms of ergonomics. I plan on getting one for my desktop PC.
Try using Steam link with a regular controller, and put it in mouse mode. You’ll be wishing for those touch pads.
Why would I ever do that? Ever?
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This is an LLM bot.
So, I've been wanting to buy a controller to play classic games.
After doing some research I got an 8bit Do classic 2, which looked and felt great, but I guess couldn't work with my Bluetooth.
Should I just get an Xbox controller, or hold out for this new Nintendo tech (I only game on PC and Switch, currently).
I've bought three controllers for my PC over the years, and none of them have been universally usable.
I vastly prefer the PlayStation DualSense to the Xbox Series controller, so look into that. It's a little more expensive but the build quality is much higher and it includes an internal rechargeable battery. Oh, and the wireless connection actually works reliably, Xbox pad disconnects constantly and it's infuriating. Updated the firmware, etc, lots of other people online with the same issue. It's honestly embarrassing for Microsoft that this is their standard controller. Feels like they're trying to nudge people to spend more for the Elite controller.
The new Steam Controller looks like it's going to be amazing; I do miss the extra Steam Deck inputs when I use my DualSense. Those back grip buttons are so useful.
Playstation definitely have the most cross platform support (and accessories) out of all of these, and solid build quality. Nintendos pro controller could have been nice if they actually cared about it, but they dont so Googles Stadia is a great standin if you can get it for cheap. I wont even talk about microshits options ..
Update the firmware on the 8Bitdo, it should support Steam Input natively on the newer versions
I gave that a shot a few months ago, no dice, the Wi-Fi chip on my motherboard is too new.
I'll flash it again with current FW and see if that helps.
If you want to play just controller games, this one is probably overkill and maybe a bit bulky. I guess the HD haptics are neat.
Then again, it likely won't be any more expensive than the scam amount of money microsoft charges for their basic, non-HAL effect, non-gyro, basic haptics controllers.
Does that controller work with one of 8bitdo's wireless dongles? They're pretty cheap - I paid around £8 for mine a few years back - but it will need a USB-A port free. Might be a stopgap so you can decide if something else better suits your needs.
I'll give that a try, mine didn't come with a dongle.
A computer you can't swap the GPU?
It's built like an extra beefy gaming laptop. Many people have no interest in replacing PC parts, they just want something that works (like a console). If you want a tiny desktop with a graphics card you can build your own, and you probably already have one.
It's built like an extra beefy gaming laptop.
Much better cooling, which is a limiting factor for the laptop form factor.
Many people have no interest in replacing PC parts
Many people have no interest in replacing their car tires and they just want to drive but i'm sure they would be really pissed if once a tire bursts they would have to replace the car.
It is very hard to make a device that is affordable, compact, efficiently cooled, and modular. Offering complete support is also infinitely more difficult when hardware is not controlled for. GPU and CPU are both customized AMD chips and the power supply is designed for their anticipated power draw.
If you want to swap your GPU, build your own SFF. Hopefully they'll have SteamOS available for general use soon.
It is also very hard for them to do marketing selling third parties modular parts, it's much better for them to come up with a product.
If you want to swap your GPU, build your own SFF.
If you want to replace parts in your computer so that it doesn't became useless in 5 years or end up in a landfill when a piece break, build your own SFF
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What is up with Valve and their obsession with those stupid touchpads? I hated that on the old Steam D-Pad. Hypersensitive seemingly every moment except when you needed it to be.
The XBox and the PS figured out how to make traditional controllers very well. Nintendo loves to get freaky with it and does a better than average job of innovating in the space. But Valve just seems to want to cobble together spare parts into a janky whatever the hell this is. I don't get it.
Whomever is making these things, you don't have to keep doing this. Just be normal!
I used to think XBox controllers were the best controllers on the market. I still think they're very good. That changed when I held the Steam Deck for the first time. The feel is better overall, and in my opinion the track pads are such an obvious and great improvement on the traditional controller design.
Nowadays when I use other controllers, they just feel "bare bones" and like they're missing something.
Yeah, I feel like the steam controller was a little hard to get used to, the touchpads always felt a little off, but the steamdeck's touchpads (and presumably the steam controller 2's touchpads) are absolutely perfect.
Easiest way to play games made for the PC on a controller. I've been playing a lot of early 2000's RPG's and they've been perfect on the steamdeck: Baldur's gate 2, Dungeon Siege, Neverwinter Nights, Morrowind, Age of Empires, etc
What do you use the Trackpads for? I never felt the need so far and always wondered why they are there in the first place.
I use Dualsense for controller which has a trackpad, but I can't imagine using it for anything other than the occasional click or two. Do you find them good enough for games? If so, which ones?
Those pads exist for PC games designed for mouse and keyboard. Sony and MS can get away without them because the games are designed arround for the controllers, while the Steam controller was designed for the games.
In games like point and click adventures, city builders, older 1st person shooters and others made for KB&M, the pads are a god-send when playing on the steam deck or on a TV from the couch.
I love the trackpads thanks.
You've obviously never tried them and are just talking out of your ass
I mean he's being really extreme about it but he's not exactly wrong. The touchpads on my Deck are more of an annoyance than help because of my smaller hands. I can only remember using it in one game and disabled in others because of how my hands would accidentally brush against them so I would love it if they had a touchpad-less version.
You could, like, not buy them, you know?
That is the plan.
I get that the touch pads are meant for mouse emulation. But, it's a PC! Why wouldn't I just pair my trackball to it?
For any gaming I'd prefer a mouse for, the gamepad is better. But for some games, the trackball is superior to both. Games like Diablo. I'm not into most of the games that would benefit. Someone named a bunch and yeah, I don't play those games. But for those games, I have a Logitech trackball I love, the MX570 or whatever. The trackball everyone uses. Not very original, I know, but hey, the thing's good! It's why I haven't bought the Apple Magic Trackpad for my Mac. If I had a mouse, I would have. But the trackball bridges the divide. So yeah, as a trackpad guy (you can't beat the one on the MacBook) I get it... but not for gaming. Like trying to play Cyberpunk on my MacBook is an exercise in futility. First, there's no traffic or pedestrians because it's a base M2 with no GPU (something like a 12th generation Core i5 on the Intel side?) but it runs! At like 720p. But when I look with the trackpad, I randomly shoot because the stupid game doesn't know how to use a trackpad right. And you shouldn't use a trackpad for a shooter. But for something that's 2D or 2.5D or isometric or whatever? Probably the best thing you can use.
I remember hear8ng during the development of the first steam controller, valve have put in a trackball emulator or behavior (whatever it's called. I'm playing my "English is my second language" card) for the track pads.
I assume they didn't abandon that and did put it as a configuration for the steam deck, and again still assuming, for the new controller.
If I'm wrong I'm happy to be politely corrected.
Also, hello fellow trackball companion 👋🏾
Ah yes, the gabecube
Me in 2001 with a stuffed nose:
Stuffed because that cute person didn't like me back cause they were busy blowing all their inheritance from their estranged uncle that died when the towers fell.
Steam Deck was the Gabe Gear, this is the Gabecube, all we need now is a smaller Steam Deck - the Gabe Boy.
Well, you do have the Gabe Virtual Boy.
They really need to sell these in Walmart next to the Playstation. It'll be the year of the Linux desktop!
I am European but no. That would increase the price and i believe valve wants to sell as cheap as possible.
I thought it was the okama gabe sphere. It's spherical!