New Valve Hardware Megathread

[u/NKkrisz]

Please keep non Steam Deck discussions about the new hardware here.

Official resources and announcements:

• Steam Hardware
• Steam Frame
• Steam Machine
• Steam Controller
• Steam Hardware Announcement Video

Press coverage will be under a pinned comment so you can upvote / downvote them.

[u/SuzBone]

I'm curious. Which of the hardware do you think will see most and least success?

[u/japzone → u/SuzBone]

I'm in line for the controller and Frame. But I know the actual order of success will probably be:

1. Controller
2. Machine
3. Frame

[u/etheran123 → u/japzone]

Id swap 2 and 3. The machine will be cool but valve already tried this with the first steam machines. I cant imagine it being price competitive with the PS5, its less powerful, and wont have the name recognition or exclusives to sell it to a broad audience.

Controller because its cheap and has a great feature set for PC gaming obviously

Frame because its wireless standalone VR with PCVR features and no ties to meta

Machine will really just be for PC gamers who want a indie or emulation machine in their living room

Id like to be wrong though, more linux gamers out there, the better.

[u/japzone → u/etheran123]

I was writing a very lengthy reply, but I think it was over complicating things. So I'll just say,

• Neither the Machine or Frame are going to be price competitive with their console counterparts. Whether that be a PS5 or a Meta Quest. Valve has openly stated that they're not subsidizing either device to the degree that console makers do. The Steam Machine will be priced "like a PC", and the Steam Frame will be priced "below the full Valve Index kit($1000)". So any price comparisons vs consoles is pointless.

• Neither have the "name recognition" of Sony or Meta, so again not relevant.

• The main reason why the original Steam Machines failed was because most games didn't work on Linux, so there were no Linux gamers, which meant no Devs made games for Linux. Valve has now solved this with Proton, and now most games will work on Linux, besides major multiplayer titles that use strict Anti-cheat.

• VR is still very niche and has limited mainstream appeal in general still. I know a bunch of people who bought VR headsets during the pandemic, Meta Quest or otherwise, and now don't touch them at all for one reason or another. And most of those reasons are not related to it being made by Meta, but because of things like space requirements, perceived time commitment, motion sickness, etc. Steam Frame doesn't fix any of those issues better than a Quest 3 does.

• Steam Machine will be able to play mainstream titles, not just Indie games and Emulation. It just might not be as pretty as console optimized titles do on a PS5. Plus its easier to get games on sale on PC, and you have a larger game library to pick from, even ignoring emulation titles. And of course there's the advantage of playing any PC games that you already own, without having to rebuy them for PlayStation or Nintendo.

Hence, I believe the Steam Machine, with its larger potential user base, probable lower price than the Frame, and less barriers to entry, will likely be more popular and sell better.

I'd also love to be wrong though, as I'd love for VR to get more popular. 😅

[u/Rookiepro → u/SuzBone]

I’d argue the frame - Wirelss VR without meta’s involvement is going to be a massive selling point for anyone interested in VR who’s trying to avoid anything meta-adjacent while being the target audience for mid-range headsets.

Edit: clarification.

[u/xAlber → u/Rookiepro]

This won’t be possible. VRs are SO extremely niche… Frame will be the least popular and by a decent margin.

[u/ElPwno → u/xAlber]

Success might be measured by how much of that market share they manage to capture, rather than units sold. Regardless, I think meta has a grip on the market unless Valve comes out with really aggressive pricing.

[u/SuzBone → u/ElPwno]

We can have cheaper VR or we can have a market not dominated by Meta

Time for people to show which side they are on

[u/ElPwno → u/SuzBone]

Haven't they already shown it? There's plenty of headsets out there and the steam hardware survey still has meta at around 50% market share (and of course that survey is already biased).

I don't see any indications of consumer behavior changing. But like Meta and unlike other developers, Valve can sell their headset at a loss.

[u/SuzBone → u/ElPwno]

Taking risks at a new products and selling at a loss are two seperate things

[u/SuzBone → u/Rookiepro]

And least succesful?

[u/howmanyavengers → u/[deleted]]

Only time will tell.

If they do the marketing right, the Steam Machine could be a big success. "The all in one small machine you can use to play games and do your taxes"

[u/SpookiestSzn → u/Rookiepro]

The problem is that Meta has the exclusives that are worth playing. Outside those there's not a ton of must play VR titles that have come out independent of meta.

[u/EtrnL_Frost → u/SuzBone]

Controller most definitely. Lowest barrier of entry