Valve put up their Steam Year In Review 2025 and initially, they made it seem like their hardware plans were a lot more uncertain but they've since clarified.
I just hope they fix their SteamVR software for Linux, it’s been years of it being unusable despite the Valve Index being advertised as Linux compatible
The optimistic approach is that they have a unified VR runtime that is straight up missing features on Linux, so hopefully they’ll fix that up and improve it to work better.
This is my hope, too, but realistically what is going to happen is that it will only work well, out of the box for their own gear. I like the idea of getting a frame and machine (even if it is a bit underpowered), wireless foveated streaming means longer battery life and if it just works, that would be amazing. Lots of people complaining the machine will be underpowered, but they aren’t counting that Valve has been using this as a target platform. Lots of shit will just work out of the box because that will give the best experience. Probably trying to get the wireless link on your own linux setup won’t work without lots of futzing. Valve is free to put in whatever hacks they need to make it go. I’m willing to pay money for that so I’m not wasting my Claude tokens and my time trying to make it go
The first one was alright, but honestly felt cheap. This new one has me very interested, and I’m mildly annoyed that it seems to be getting delayed along with the other new hardware, despite not needing expensive RAM to make!
There is a detent at 100% analog, and if you pull further, it generates a button event. This is especially amazing for boost or afterburner on throttle, or e-brake on brake.
IMO might be better to delay until new Xbox and PS6 launch for $1200 because most consumers don’t pay any attention and will think the Steam Machine is overpriced until they see next gen console asking prices.
That user growth translates to more revenue for game developers. Since the 2018 announcement of the 75% and 80% revenue share tiers, more and more games from developers big and small have reached new higher revenue share. The revenue share paid out across all non-Valve games on Steam in 2025 was 76%, and that does not include any revenue developers may earn selling free Steam keys outside of Steam. Back in 2024, we shipped a new notification feature for developers to make it more clear when their game has crossed a new revenue share tier, and developers can see a game’s progress towards those higher tiers in their sales reporting.
Not directly related to the new hardware, but that does put a bit of a dent in the ‘Valve takes a 30% cut’ line.
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The stream frame has my most interest. If steam can do for VR what they did for Linux gaming, that would be amazing
I just hope they fix their SteamVR software for Linux, it’s been years of it being unusable despite the Valve Index being advertised as Linux compatible
Given that the Frame runs Linux, I would sure expect so
I hope they’ll fix it for their own past headsets like the Index and HTC Vive they’ve co-designed
The optimistic approach is that they have a unified VR runtime that is straight up missing features on Linux, so hopefully they’ll fix that up and improve it to work better.
This is my hope, too, but realistically what is going to happen is that it will only work well, out of the box for their own gear. I like the idea of getting a frame and machine (even if it is a bit underpowered), wireless foveated streaming means longer battery life and if it just works, that would be amazing. Lots of people complaining the machine will be underpowered, but they aren’t counting that Valve has been using this as a target platform. Lots of shit will just work out of the box because that will give the best experience. Probably trying to get the wireless link on your own linux setup won’t work without lots of futzing. Valve is free to put in whatever hacks they need to make it go. I’m willing to pay money for that so I’m not wasting my Claude tokens and my time trying to make it go
I missed the first controller, now I‘ll get this generation.
The first one was alright, but honestly felt cheap. This new one has me very interested, and I’m mildly annoyed that it seems to be getting delayed along with the other new hardware, despite not needing expensive RAM to make!
They seem to have dropped the two-stage triggers and I am NOT THRILLED.
What?!
who?!!!
Are you talking about them having a lockout for hairtrigger modes, or something different?
There is a detent at 100% analog, and if you pull further, it generates a button event. This is especially amazing for boost or afterburner on throttle, or e-brake on brake.
Interesting, I don’t think I’ve used a trigger with that feature before (or if I did, I wasn’t aware). Thanks for explaining.
AFAIK it is unique to the original steam controller. I don’t think the handheld has it.
Gamecube style analog triggers with a digital gate at the end
IMO might be better to delay until new Xbox and PS6 launch for $1200 because most consumers don’t pay any attention and will think the Steam Machine is overpriced until they see next gen console asking prices.
Not directly related to the new hardware, but that does put a bit of a dent in the ‘Valve takes a 30% cut’ line.
Evidently, netted out, its 24%.
I’m interested in the Steam machine. Would I really need a full assembly windows PC just for gaming? I hope not.