Valve Announces New Steam Machine, Steam Controller & Steam Frame

Me in 2001 with a stuffed nose:

Steam Deck was the Gabe Gear, this is the Gabecube, all we need now is a smaller Steam Deck - the Gabe Boy.

They really need to sell these in Walmart next to the Playstation. It'll be the year of the Linux desktop!

I thought it was the okama gabe sphere. It's spherical!

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.

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/valves-reported-profit-per-head-from-steam-commissions-is-out-there-and-at-usd3-5-million-per-employee-it-makes-apple-and-facebook-look-like-a-lemonade-stand/

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

even more nuts is that it will support pc games via FEX, an emulation layer that runs x86 windows games on ARM in Linux

In addition to streaming from your battlestation

Any ideas on Linux support?

”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.

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.

I thought the GabeCube was even better.

That would be impossible to search online

Fuck, they did! 😫

Year of the Linux living room

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.

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$ )

I've wanted to get into VR for the longest time but they all seemed like extremely walled gardens. This sounds awesome to me.

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!

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.

It's basically steam deck minus the screen. If you are used to the steam deck it'll be fine.

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.

Same, but at least it feels like the focus was on usability rather than looks. Keep it humble, Steam!

I typically just have one hand on each side

That usb port being off center though....

That controller looks ugly and bulky as fuck.

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.

Steam did an amazing job on the controller management, you can already remap everything. Disabling track pads should be easy

"The hands you have used to game are too fat. To obtain a special gaming wand, please mash the controller with your palm now"

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.

You would need REALLY massive hands to touch those when your thumbs are resting on the analog sticks or the face buttons.

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

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.

In their announcement video, they specifically called out that you can install whatever software you want and showed somebody working on CAD. So, yeah, definitely.

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.

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.

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.

If it's priced at or around $500/$600, I'm getting one. Price will be very important to the success of these products.

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

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.

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.

It's most probably gonna be around $1k, I saw someone say they expect it to be $900, but nothing concrete yet

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.

The digital foundry video said no plans to support at launch.

The Machine will apparently be about the price of "an entry level PC".

The Frame will "not cost more than the Index".

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.

For the cube I expect 1k USD minimum.

Or the Steam(ed) Dumpling.

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.

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

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 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.

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

You could, like, not buy them, you know?

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.