The Steam Machine challenges Xbox in the living room with the power of PC gaming. is a senior editor and author of Notepad, who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years.

The Steam Machine is a console designed to allow gamers to play PC games on their TV.

Now, after years of rumors, Valve is finally ready to officially rejoin the VR hardware race. The Steam Frame, set to launch in early 2026, will run both VR and traditional Steam games locally through SteamOS or stream them wirelessly from a local PC.

Now, Valve is once again announcing an alternative to PlayStation and Xbox. It’s once again calling it the Steam Machine. And the pitch, once again, is an open-source Linux PC for your living room instead of a proprietary box that only plays a specific library of games.

In a surprise Wednesday drop, Bellevue, Wash.-based Valve Software unveiled three new physical gaming devices intended to work with its digital storefront Steam. Planned for release in early 2026,

The headset will allow you to play VR and non-VR games through streaming, and games can even be installed directly onto the headset. Now, why is this release important? Well, The Verge managed to get the scoop on how Valve will approach Android developers in order to get games onto the Steam platform.

But Valve won’t say the first word about its next gaming handheld, the Steam Deck 2.