As expected, Valve showcased a slew of new hardware on Wednesday, including a Frame VR headset built to play both virtual reality titles and the rest of your Steam libra

Valve has confirmed that its upcoming Steam Machine will be priced “in line with the current PC market” rather than being subsidised like traditional consoles. The move signals a shift in hardware strategy and sets new expectations for buyers.

The new Steam Machine offers quiet, console-like PC gaming, but it's missing anti-cheat support and might be priced badly.

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

Steam, Valve's industry-leading video game platform, is taking a big swing with a device that could change the industry forever.

The recent announcement from Valve of a new slate of hardware products has excited players, but while a revamped Steam Controller and an updated virtual reality headset, the Steam Frame, have drawn plenty of attention, the biggest buzz is around the new generation of Steam Machines.

Ultimately, Valve's new PC-console hybrid could be the best of both worlds — or the worst. Until we know more about the Steam Machine's upgradability, its price point, and whether or not Half-Life 3 will debut as a launch title, it's hard to know for sure.

Griffais said the AMD Zen 4 CPU and RDNA3 GPU in the Steam Machine were designed to outperform the bottom 70 percent of machines that opt-in to Valve’s regular hardware survey. And Steam Machine owners should expect to pay roughly what they would for desktop hardware with similar specs, he added.