Imagine, if you will, a Steam Deck and a VR headset combining into a new gaming life form -- part Meta Quest, part handheld game system. As I slid the Steam Frame over my eyes and my hands into the controller, that's exactly what I felt.
The Steam Frame is a new VR headset by gaming giant Valve, the company behind the Steam platform, but it wasn't the only new piece of hardware I tested during the course of a few hours at Valve's HQ. There's also the Steam Machine, a console-sized PC designed to connect to a television, and the Steam Controller. These three new devices are designed to work together as a complete ecosystem.
All three pieces of the new Steam gaming hardware will be available in early 2026, though pricing hasn't been announced. I was among a small group of journalists invited to experience them for the first time, and I came away with some answers, and a few questions.
Watch this: Valve's Coming For Your Face And Your Living Room 05:52
First off, none of these devices is a new Steam Deck, one of the best handheld game consoles. I don't expect Valve to announce the next Steam Deck in 2026, and company representatives I asked gave me no reason to think otherwise. And the Steam Machine doesn't seem to be a direct Xbox or PlayStation competitor, either. Seen as a whole, all three new Valve gadgets push the idea of PC gaming in novel directions. And based on Valve's history of hardware launches, their tech could eventually appear in third-party products, too.
Steam Frame, a standalone VR headset, captured my excitement the most. It's been six years since the Valve Index debuted in 2019, and rumors have been heating up recently. But Valve's return to VR in 2026, amid a landscape full of AI and AR-infused mixed reality headsets and glasses, is quite different. Valve isn't interested in AR right now, or AI for that matter. The Steam Frame is all about gaming.
I also spent time with the cube-shaped, nearly console-like PC Valve called Steam Machine, playing games while connected to a TV. And I played using the new Steam Controller, a separately sold wireless controller with a set of Steam Deck-like controls and a new wireless protocol for connecting lag-free.
Let's get even deeper into what impressed me, and what to expect from each product when they drop next year.
Sitting down and playing with Steam Frame really feels like a combo of standalone VR and Steam Deck, but in VR form. Jeff Carlson/CNET
Steam Frame: A Steam Deck for your face
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