Valve, the developer of the Steam PC gaming platform, has unveiled a new console that is expected to be a competitor to Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation.
The Steam Machine is a gaming console designed to allow gamers to play PC games on a TV, but it can also be used as a regular computer.
It’s somewhat of a successor to the device of the same name released in 2014, which never quite made its way into a market dominated by the big three gaming giants.
Back then, these consoles started at $499, but Valve’s new version will probably cost a lot more because it’s so much more powerful.
Steam Machine will go on sale in early 2026, the company said, but no price has been announced yet.
Valve said that more details will be announced, including the exact release date of the pusi ” – with a lot of processing power housed in a six-inch cube.
Valve claims this device is ” optimised for gaming ” better than regular PCs, because the company can tell in advance which games from its huge digital shop will run on this console before you buy them.
The new Steam Machine runs on Linux-based SteamOS operating system with AMD GPUs and supports 4K resolution and 60 frames per second.
Photo by Valve
Valve also announced new hardware, the Steam Frame virtual reality headset, which was a rather unusual move.
The device is completely wireless, and the company described it primarily as a streaming device, but it’s also a standalone PC running SteamOS.
The headset suggests where the user is looking.
With these new announcements, Valve is challenging its better-known competitors.
In recent years, Microsoft’s Xbox has made Game Pass subscriptions the centrepiece of its offering for gamers – some believe this came at the cost of losing its “crown” among consoles.
Meanwhile, the PS5 has long been the most popular console, but fans are increasingly wondering when its successor will arrive.
Brandon Sutton, a gaming industry analyst at Midia Research, says Valve’s announcements demonstrate “a deep understanding of where the gaming market is going and what gamers want.”
“With Sony and Microsoft moving away from console exclusives and streaming services gaining popularity, now is the best time for a hybrid PC console,” he told the BBC.
Valve’s TIM m Deck, which has a “lucrative but niche” audience of “around four to five million players”.
“Most of them were already Steam users who just wanted to take their PC games on the road,” he said.
“I think the situation with Steam Machine will be similar – it will most attract a rich enthusiast audience among current Steam users who want to play their games in their living room,” the expert added.
Since Steam’s launch in 2003, the platform has grown into the world’s largest video game distributor.
At the time of writing, Steam had about 25 million simultaneous users, of which six million were playing games, according to the platform’s official statistics.