Valve Reveals New Steam Hardware Built From PC Gaming, Not Console Influence

Valve has introduced a fresh wave of Steam hardware designed squarely around its PC gaming heritage rather than the strategies of PlayStation or Xbox. The new lineup includes the Steam Frame VR headset, a standalone Steam Machine console, and a new Steam Controller—each positioned as an extension of Valve’s existing ecosystem rather than a challenge to traditional consoles.

Kaci Aitchison Boyle from Valve’s PR team told Eurogamer that the company’s process begins and ends with PC gaming itself. “We typically just work back from our own experience playing PC games and what we wish was possible to do and what we hear our users say as well,” she said. Valve’s perspective reflects the flexibility of the platform that gave rise to countless genres through modding, experimentation, and open access.

Boyle emphasized that the company avoids chasing competitors. “We don’t really tend to work back from what’s happening in other spaces and we try and focus on our audience,” she said. The sentiment aligns with Valve’s long-standing refusal to mirror console cycles, instead favoring devices that extend the principles of open software and player autonomy.

The announcement arrives as Microsoft pushes further into the handheld market with the ROG Ally X, a device developed with Asus that appears positioned against Valve’s Steam Deck. Yet Valve sees this expansion as a validation rather than a threat.

“If anything, we're kind of excited that other people are looking at the handheld space, the PC handheld space,” Boyle noted.

“We see it as more options for people to play all of their games.”

Valve’s confidence in SteamOS underpins this new hardware generation. The company hopes its software foundation can replicate the Steam Deck’s success in the living-room setting through the new Steam Machine. “If SteamOS lets the same dynamic apply to the kind of set-top box or living room form-factor, we'll be really happy with that as well,” Boyle said.

The approach is consistent with Valve’s philosophy: innovation shaped by its own community and history, not external competition.