The Morning After: Valve revives the Steam Machine

Valve has announced a raft of new hardware, including a new VR headset, Steam Machine and Controller. The devices are all designed to usher in a new era of PC gaming, with Valve’s usual focus on the player. Steam Frame is a slender VR headset that connects wirelessly to your PC and has a built-in battery to rid you of those pesky cables. That focus on freedom extends to the Frame operating as a standalone device, like the Meta Quest.

At the same time, the company has revived its long-loved (but not massively successful) Steam Machine. This new model has semi-custom AMD silicon capable of running 4K games at 60 frames per second. Valve says it’s roughly six times as powerful as its portable unit, the Steam Deck. Rounding out the list is the controller, which looks like a Steam Deck with the screen cut out. But ...