HN Reader

Steam Hardware: Launch timing and other FAQs

> When we announced these products in November, we planned on being able to share specific pricing and launch dates by now. But the memory and storage shortages you've likely heard about across the industry have rapidly increased since then. The limited availability and growing prices of these critical components mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing (especially around Steam Machine and Steam Frame).

Oof.... sounds like they are all going to be $$$. That sucks and really steals the thunder from the steam machine. Gaming HW is going to suck for many years.

2 days agoby dgrin91

> Can I play non steam games with the Steam Controller? > The controller can work with any game compatible with the Steam Overlay.

Ughhhhhh. Looks like they're doing the same nonsense as the last controller, and it won't work without Steam running. Such a disappointment; have to hope someone makes an open-source driver.

2 days agoby oxguy3

> Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed.

This goal was previously stated as "early 2026". I think they're retconning a bit here.

That said, they're in a very tough situation. Most other manufacturers are either: hedged, have long term supply contracts, past their peak sales, or haven't announced a product yet. Valve are in a particularly awkward spot having announced and (implicitly) extent set expectations about pricing, while likely not having all the contracts finalised to meet that pricing.

2 days agoby danpalmer

> Will Steam Frame support other streaming services? >SteamOS has a built-in browser, and we expect streaming services to work in a theatrical browser mode.

Does this mean they're actually bringing a touch/controller friendly browser tab to SteamOS finally? (Yes, i know about the decky browser plugin)

Since there's not enough info on the steam controller release date, does anyone know how well the PS5/PS4/Clone controllers with trackpad work with the steam os ui?

2 days agoby saidinesh5

> In the meantime, we are working on HDMI VRR

I wonder how they plan to work around HDMI cartel's refusal to provide documentation on terms that are compatible with open drivers. If they reverse engineer that garbage it would be very cool though.

2 days agoby shmerl

I don't understand how foveated tracking won't cause a sense that peripheral vision is fuzzy. Or how it will track saccades, and so avoid fringe effects.

But, the "I don't understand" is strong in this. it doesn't mean "it can't work" but I don't understand how it avoids the problems.

Maybe the size of the computed foveal coverage area is made big enough, to cover the movement? But if you move your eyes suddenly, there's got to be some lag while it computes the missing pixels. So you'd see the same as when Netflix ups the coding rate: crude render becomes clearer. Banded would become smooth transitions.

2 days agoby ggm

I was really happy about the Frame coming out but I don't think I will be able to afford it now :'(

Oh well, at least we can now generate meme videos of cats riding a skateboard while doing the lambada. That has never been done before. The tremendous intellectual progress of humanity is worth a few hundred percent hardware price increase.

1 day agoby wolvoleo

> Steam Machine's SSD (NVMe 2230 or 2280) and memory (DDR5 SODIMMs) are both accessible and upgradeable.

So, you're saying you can still ship on time without including these things and we just add them ourselves? Cool.

2 days agoby herewulf

this also aligment Stable Mesa RADV 26 (RT Improvement) and Proton 11 (NTSync) Possibly Default

2 days agoby systematizeD

I would take all the ai-related research and infrastructure destroyed forever in exchange for just the steam frame alone getting released at a price that it actually costs.

2 days agoby nice_byte

TL;DR no pricing. no launch date

2 days agoby canada_dry