The Steam Machine rises again as Valve readies 2026 hardware trifecta

The holiday season is almost upon us, but the new gear on gamers' wish lists won't arrive until next year.

Valve Corporation has pre-announced a range of three new gadgets to entice gamers, which will all arrive at some point in 2026. There's a standalone gaming PC, the Steam Machine, a new generation of the Steam Controller, and an Arm-powered VR headset, the Steam Frame.

It's enough to induce a temporary bout of chronological uncertainty. The Steam Machine was first announced way back in 2012, as The Register reported at the time. In 2013, El Reg returned to the subject with pictures, and also covered the forthcoming Steam Controller – although one version of that did ship in 2015.

The 2010s version of Valve's machine never appeared, despite multiple partner companies' claims and CES demonstration models. The only third-party Steam hardware The Reg got its hands on ...