Steam Machines have returned: all the news about Valve’s new hardware universe – The Verge

The Steam Machine fits my TV, my desk, and my life

2026-07-07T20:09:57-04:00

For the last couple weeks, I've been in an extremely lucky position: I've been spending a lot of time playing games on Valve's Steam Machine.

We gave the Steam Machine a 6, and I don't disagree with my colleague Sean Hollister's review. But even though I already own a PS5 and an Xbox Series X, and even though I've experienced the Steam Machine's drawbacks for myself, I would spend the $1,049 to buy one right now.

My PS5 and Xbox Series X can't play the hundreds of games in my growing Steam library, don't support Steam's cloud saves that let me seamlessly carry progress between my Steam Deck and Steam Machine, don't support my beloved Ste …

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The cube was a lie: up close with our Dbrand Companion Cube before it gets destroyed

2026-07-01T03:39:32-04:00

Dbrand is the company that shipped a product that told Nintendo's legal team to "go fuck yourself," and the company that had a second set of lawyer-dodging PS5 plates ready when Sony threatened to sue over the originals. But on June 29th, the company finally ate some serious humble pie, canceling its Portal-themed Companion Cube external shell for the Steam Machine after Valve lawyered up.

I couldn't believe it. Surely Dbrand had to have seen this coming. There must be a plan B, right?

"There is no further plan. We fucked this one up," Dbrand CEO Adam Ijaz now tells me.

He says Dbrand will now have to destroy every single cube it manufact …

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Dbrand cancels Companion Cube because it didn’t actually ask Valve for permission

2026-06-29T13:02:25-04:00

Dbrand announced Monday that it's refunding everyone who bought its Steam Machine Companion Cube, which it said it made "without a license from Valve." Dbrand announced the Portal-themed Steam Machine accessory in November and took preorders for it last Monday. But a few days later, the product had disappeared from the company's website and the teaser video promoting it had been made private after Valve contacted the company.

Dbrand says that the Companion Cube became "the second-fastest selling product in our 15-year history, behind only the Switch 2 Killswitch" after it opened preorders on June 22nd. However, Valve's legal team reached ou …

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How much would the Steam Machine cost to build?

2026-06-23T11:30:14-04:00

The Steam Machine is here, with a base price of $1,049. Yes, that's nearly twice the price of a PS5, but what you're buying here isn't a console but a full-on PC - and a tiny one at that. Valve says it's selling the Steam Machine basically at cost. So we asked ourselves: What would it cost to build something like the Steam Machine yourself?

You can't literally build the same thing. The quiet 6-inch cube Valve has created isn't reproducible off the shelf. The base model Steam Machine includes 512GB of storage and goes up to $1,349 for 2TB of storage and two additional faceplates. Across both models, the Steam Machine sports 16GB of DDR5 RAM, …

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I’m not giving up my Steam Deck for MSI’s new Claw

2026-06-19T22:31:27-04:00

This is not a review of the MSI Claw 8 EX AI Plus, the first gaming handheld available with Intel's new Arc G3 Extreme handheld gaming chip. Now that my colleague Sean Hollister is done reviewing the Steam Machine, I'll let him go deep on the new Claw at some point in the future. This article, instead, is my first impressions of the new MSI Claw as someone who primarily plays games on a Steam Deck OLED. Sean called the Claw the "next-gen handheld," and I wanted to find out: Would it be a worthwhile upgrade for Deck fans like me? Could it possibly be worth the eye-watering $1,799 price?

For me, the Claw has a high bar to clear. The $789 Stea …

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Valve confirms it’s working with Intel and Nvidia on SteamOS for more GPUs

2026-06-19T12:32:31-04:00

A YouTuber got SteamOS running on an MSI Claw 8 AI Plus like this one. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

MSI's Intel-powered Claw gaming handhelds have so far mostly been Windows machines, meaning that anyone who picks one up has to deal with the crusty experience that is Windows on a handheld gaming PC. But now, both Valve and Intel tell The Verge that they're working with each other, and people like YouTuber ETA Prime are already having good experiences with SteamOS on Intel.

Valve's recently launched SteamOS 3.8 update spells out that Valve has added "initial firmware for upcoming Intel handhelds" and controller support for some MSI Claw devices, including last year's well-received 8 AI Plus. ETA Prime actually got a beta of SteamOS 3.8 ru …

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Valve describes just how brutal RAM negotiations are in 2026

2026-06-24T18:00:36-04:00

Valve's Steam Machine finally has a price: a whopping $1,049 for the 512GB configuration or $1,349 for the 2TB version. And those are without bundled controllers, which drive up the cost more.

The prices are so high in part because Valve isn't subsidizing the hardware, and the company has already indicated that the component crisis forced it to reconsider its initial pricing plans. In an interview with the YouTube channel Gamers Nexus, Valve engineers discussed the reality of sourcing RAM in 2026, with take-it-or-leave-it prices as memory and other components remain in short supply, from only a few vendors like Samsung, Micron, and SK Hyni …

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The Steam Machine is the start of an even more expensive future for game consoles

2026-06-22T13:40:16-04:00

It's no secret that just about every aspect of video games is getting more expensive. Game consoles are getting regular price hikes, PC components are spiking in cost, and the golden age of affordable handhelds is over, all largely due to the global RAM shortage, which has had a similarly costly impact on PC gaming, including portable devices like the Steam Deck. This all led to some trepidation around the Steam Machine, Valve's latest attempt to bring the breadth and openness of PC gaming into a form factor designed for your living room. The fact that the device was delayed in February due specifically to the memory crisis only exacerbated …

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Valve is working with AMD to bring FSR 4 to the Steam Machine

2026-06-22T13:08:31-04:00

The Steam Machine is a cool little console that's about as powerful as a PlayStation 5, according to my colleague Sean Hollister's in-depth review. But one area where it lags behind is with its earlier version of AMD FSR upscaler: It's just not as good as it should be. Yes, it can sharpen low-res graphics to make games look higher-res, but the PS5 (and especially the PS5 Pro) render a clearer image in motion with some games we compared.

That's not great news for the Steam Machine, especially since it's launching at $1,049 for the 512GB version - a higher price than anyone hoped for. But there is some hope that games on the console will look …

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Here’s how you can reserve a Steam Machine

2026-06-22T13:11:05-04:00

The Steam Machine is here, but getting one is a little complicated. Valve is taking preorders using a reservation system, which is intended to make the process more fair and harder for bots to exploit. However, it's a bit different than the $5 reservations Valve used for the Steam Deck.

Starting today, you can sign up for a chance to reserve the Steam Machine, choosing from four different options:

Steam Machine 512GB: $1,049 / $1,509 CAD / €1,039 / £879 / $1,609 AUD / 4,389 zlotys
Steam Machine 512GB with Steam Controller: $1,128 / $1,628 CAD / €1,108 / £938 / $1,728 AUD / 4,698 zlotys
Steam Machine 2TB: $1,349 / $1,919 CAD / €1,35 …

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