2026 has been one of the most expensive years for gamers yet, so finding the best Steam Autumn Sale games is serious business. With hardware and game prices at record highs, Valve's discounts feel especially necessary right now, when it comes to grabbing both new games and stone-cold PC classics for your libraries.

However, let's be honest, Steam sales can get overwhelming as you try to navigate through a sea of green tags, trying to sway you with savings that may actually not be as big of bargains as they first appear to be. There are also only seven days to make the most of the Autumn sale, with the event ending on October 8. Basically, it's easy to get stressed out and overstimulated when it comes to filling your cart, but that is where this guide comes in handy.

Below, I've explored the Steam store for over seven hours and have rounded up the best deals that are currently on offer. I have found savings on some of the acclaimed icons, genre darlings, and a few indies as well, so hopefully you'll find one or two of the best Steam games highlighted that entice you. But if all else fails, this ranking will at least give you a starting point on where to start spending cash.

The best Steam Autumn Sale games, starting with…

Arc Raiders

At $20, Arc Raiders is the cheapest it's ever been. That's a generously low price for what Arc Raiders offers: a multiplayer shooter where players raid the Earth's post-apocalyptic surface for gear and supplies, facing each other and swarms of robots before scurrying to extract with their loot. As an extraction shooter, Arc Raiders is certainly the most accessible – a great deal of players are more than happy to team up top-side for better odds of survival. And with Arc Raiders' Frozen Trail update just around the corner, now is an excellent jumping-in point as new and lapsed players alike prepare for a wintry new map.

Get the Arc Raiders deal here

The Outlast Trials

October means spooky season, and there is no better way to celebrate that fact than by picking up (in my opinion) the best multiplayer horror game out there right now. The Outlast Trials is now discounted at a record-low 90%, which is a massive deal since it is thoroughly fantastic. Acting as a prequel to Outlast and Outlast 2, you and a group of friends are test subjects who have to survive terrifying trials in order to escape and achieve "Rebirth". The game is gnarly but still tongue and cheek with some great villains. Also, it regularly has events, and the community is very welcoming to newbies. Trust me, you are in for a great time with this one.

Get The Outlast Trials deal here

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade

As we get ready for Final Fantasy 7: Revelation releasing next year, you can now pick up the very first chapter of the trilogy for a record-breaking 75% discount. Not only do you need to play this game if you want to make sense of Cloud's story, but it is also a fantastic title that runs great on the Steam Deck too. If you are a bit weary of JRPGs, I will say that this is a great entry point into the genre as well. Not only is the combat system fast and fun, but the story around Cloud and the Shinra Electric Power Company is amazing and feels straight out of a high-budget sci-fi movie. This is one of the best action RPGs of all time for a reason, and it being now under $10 is just the cherry on top.

Get the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade deal here

Total War: Warhammer 3

Total War: Warhammer 3 is the best it's ever been right now – and the cheapest, too. The 85% discount arrives just weeks after the hybrid strategy game (turn-based campaign, real-time battles) received its biggest update to date, overhauling the empire-building Immortal Empires sandbox with apocalyptic End Times scenarios. That's alongside an excellent Lords of the End Times DLC, which adds four new Legendary Lords – including one arch-necromancer this humble editor has spent years begging for. There's a faction for everyone, whether you want to build battle-hardened empires as mankind, raise mountain fortresses as dwarves, or unleash undead hordes across the land. Frankly, this is one of the best strategy games on PC – grab it while it's cheap!

Get the Total War: Warhammer 3 deal here

Persona 3 Reload

Most Atlus games are an easy recommend and considering that Persona 3 Reload is also one of the best Persona games of all time, there was no way this deal was escaping our list. Now at the cheapest it has ever been, with a chunky 70% off, this remake really does break common JRPG misconceptions, taking the high school story to a pretty dark and somber place that you soon won't forget. This is also the game I'd recommend to Persona newcomers since a lot of its original mechanics built the way for the likes of Persona 5 later on. Also, considering how Persona 6 is on the way, and we have a release date for Persona 4 Revival as well, now is a great time to dive into everything that this iconic series has to offer.

Get the Persona 3 Reload deal here

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Ori and the Will of the Wisps, at this point, is a classic and really should be an addition to your Steam library. Set in a stunning 2D world, you control Ori and must platform your way and solve puzzles quickly as you explore the new region of Niwen. Now I will say that the final level in this one is a bit underwhelming, but everything else about this title is a masterpiece. In our 4.5-star Ori and the Will of the Wisps review, we called it a "gorgeous, tear-jerking platformer," and that still stands today. Now at a historic low price with a 90% discount, if you haven't experienced this beautiful game already, now is the time.

Get the Ori and the Will of the Wisps deal here

Control Ultimate Edition

The less you know about Control, the better. With Remedy Entertainment's signature surreality, we're pulled into the Oldest House – headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) – when the paranormal phenomena they're charged with containing breaks loose. I'm a sucker for Control's lore, which is the perfect chaser to this year's excellent Backrooms, but wielding supernatural powers and otherworldly guns as newbie Jesse Faden offers exceptional action thrills. That's to say nothing of the setting, with corporate bureaucracy and Lovecraftian horrors intersecting in twisted concrete and beige offices. At $6, this is a steal – and a perfect opportunity to jump into Remedy's universe before checking out the newly launched Control Resonant.

Get the Control Ultimate Edition here

Toem

Toem is a perfect game to welcome in Fall, because it really is suited for cozy nights and feels just like a warm hug in general. This charming title is all about the joy of photography, and now at a heft 90% discount, it is an easy recommend especially for all my fellow cozy game enthusiasts. Not only is this the cheapest deal on our list, but it is also one of the most polished. It may be a short game, but the hand-drawn art, the quirky characters, and all the attention to detail put into the landscapes you get to explore are expertly done. Solving puzzles, unlocking new picture-taking features, and just enjoying the vibes are always a relaxing and good time. And if you fall in love with this title just like I did, the good news is that Toem 2 is also out now and is just as fabulous (read our Toem 2 review for more details on that).

Get the Toem deal here.

Resident Evil 4 Remake

There are a bunch of Resident Evil outings currently on sale; however, Resident Evil 4 is the best Resident Evil game of all time (fight me), so if you are looking to pick up only one zombie-filled title this sale, let it be this remake. Playing as Leon Kennedy, you are tasked with rescuing the president's daughter in a very creepy European village filled with tentacle-infested cultists. It's perfectly paced, has some of the best action and set pieces in the whole series, and also looks great with its upgraded visuals as well. Now under $10, the game has gone back to it's cheapest price ever, which is great news if you are searching for a Halloween pick-up. However, keep in mind that this is more action-heavy than straight horror; for a truly scary Resi game, check out Resident Evil 7.

Get the Resident Evil 4 Remake deal here

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered

Now, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has had bigger discounts in the past, but that was before the Remaster was released, and if you want to walk The Path as Geralt of Rivia immediately, there is a big 50% off on this new version of the classic game. The Witcher 3 is one of the best RPGs of all time and is very worth your time and money. The remaster not only adds quality-of-life improvements (all praise the new Unlimited Item Durability option) and upgrades visuals, but it also includes all the previous expansions and DLC as well. I will say again that I've seen The Witcher 3 go for as low as $3.99 in the past. However, with the remaster now out, The Witcher 4 on the way, and a new expansion coming too, the price getting back to that record low may take a long time. So if you are interested, I say snag this deal now.

Get The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered deal here

Some honorable mentions…

Along with our top 10 Steam autumn sale games highlighted above, there are still a ton of other titles that have record-low prices, or newer games that are also discounted for the first time that are worth your attention. So, below I've made a quick list of honorable mentions in case you are looking for even more savings. Most of these just missed our main ranking due to various factors, such as still being a tad bit too pricey for our tastes. However, they are all still worth a shoutout, and are a great place to start if nothing above tickled your fancy as well.

• Ninja Gaiden 4 (50% off)
• Hi-Fi Rush (55% off)
• Hades (75% off)
• Resident Evil 2 Remake (80% off)
• Hell is Us (70% off)
• Assassin’s Creed Shadows (60% off)
• Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (50% off)
• My Time at Sandrock (70% off)
• Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun (70% off)

For more recommendations, check out our list of the best PC games to play right now. Or look ahead with our round-up of all the upcoming PC games on the way.

Last night, I was away from home. I had to come to Edinburgh, roughly an hour away from where I live because later today I've got an appointment in the city. That meant staying at my mum's, where I don't have access to a gaming PC. In fact, the closest thing she has to any gaming hardware is my old TV I gave to her six years ago, and a soundbar she got from my brother for her birthday.

Here's the issue: I was meant to be playing Big Walk with two of my best friends, and seeing as getting the three of us together can be an absolute nightmare because of conflicting work schedules, I really didn't want to cancel.

Thankfully, I'm currently testing the Steam Frame, Valve's new VR headset.

See, a while back, when we still knew it as its codename, "Valve Deckard", some of the rumours said it'd be more than just a VR headset; it was like a Steam Deck you could wear on your face. That means portability and the convenience of taking your Steam library on the go with you, so my overnight away from home seemed like the perfect opportunity to see if Valve had followed through on all those things.

Around 9pm, I sat down in the living room, a bottle of water on my right, some snacks on my left, and a controller I brought with me on my lap. I put the headset on, went through the ever-torturous process of connecting a VR headset to Wi-Fi, paired the controller via Bluetooth, and met my friends in Big Walk.

As has always been the case in this game, the hours zipped by without me really noticing. For what can be a surprisingly demanding game that even the PS5 stutters over at times, it ran flawlessly on low settings on the Frame. Admittedly, I had to plug in due to battery drainage only an hour into the session, but I'd say it was a perfect way to play the game while I was away from home. The controller I had paired via Bluetooth worked without any issues or latency; I only had to adjust the Steam Frame's tightness on my head a couple of times throughout the evening, and before I knew it, we were logging off at about 12.30am.

I can't lie, as much as I adore VR gaming, this is exactly what I was hoping the Steam Frame would be capable of.

Back when I reviewed PSVR 2, one of my favorite features to make use of was its Cinematic mode, where it acts as an OLED display for any and all PS5 games you wanted it to boot directly at your eyeballs. The Steam Frame might not have Micro-OLED panels in it; it might not have the most powerful processor or the best battery life, but it can give you the same "cinematic mode", playing-your-games-on-a-big-virtual-screen appeal as PSVR 2.

In that light, it has the same home-away-from-home convenience as the Steam Deck, and that handheld never made a market for itself by having top-drawer specs.

I've tested a few non-VR games on the Steam Frame now. Granted, they're the same types of non-demanding indies I'd expect to play on a handheld if I was on the go. The latest AAA, demanding games would probably struggle to run, but games like Towerfall Ascension and Hades run beautifully, and the controllers having a gamepad mode means you don't even need to take another peripheral with it.

It's here that I think the Steam Frame's price starts to feel a bit more justified. Sure, it's not as affordable as I wanted it to be, and it's flanked on the shelves by the $599 Meta Quest 3 and even more affordable 3S, two famously accessible alternatives that can use Virtual Desktop, Xbox Cloud Gaming, or Steam Link to do similar things.

But if I were buying the Steam Frame for some on-the-go gaming, I'd compare it to a gaming handheld, not necessarily a rival VR headset. The Steam Frame feels like both devices in one package because it's running Steam games natively, and when you compare those prices, things start to get a bit more reasonable.

The latest handheld PCs armed with Intel's new graphics chips, like the Acer Predator Atlas, cost the same as, if not more than, a Steam Frame. I'd be interested to see some benchmark comparisons between the Steam Frame and a $1,300 Predator Atlas, but that's a deep-dive for another time. My point is that next to the latest range of handheld PCs, the £899 / $1,059 Steam Frame isn't all that unreasonable, although both are undeniably expensive.

One caveat I'd give to all of this is that while Big Walk ran brilliantly, my gaming night with friends wouldn't have gone so smoothly if we were playing a game that didn't have proximity chat. I've tried and failed so far to get Discord running on the Steam Frame, and while I'm sure that will be a glaring absence fixed in no time, it's something to keep in mind for now because desktop mode isn't exactly the same as it is on a Steam Deck.

I'm still testing the Steam Frame in all of its various use-cases, so I don't want to completely spoil my review at the moment. But like with PSVR 2's cinematic mode or the Quest 3's ability to play Xbox Game Pass games with a controller, the Steam Frame has some excellent secondary uses. In fact, with the number of VR games launching these days being fewer than I'd like, it could end up being the main way some of us use Valve's new headset.

For more on VR, take a look at the best Meta Quest accessories.

It's no exaggeration to say Steam is a big money-spinner for Valve. Bigger probably than many give it credit for. The store has long generated billions in gross revenue annually, and according to data from one analyst, this year might see the platform cross the threshold of bringing in over $20 billion.

These figures come from Alinea Analytics, which reports that Steam just had an absolutely massive September. In fact, it was the best on record for the company, raking in $1.6 billion, up 13% on 2025. Not too shabby.

Combined with the rest of the quarter, that's $5.5 billion, bringing the grand total for 2026 thus far up to $16.5 billion – once again, up 13% from last year. "Given the insane release slate for the rest of the year, it's safe to say Steam's yearly revenue will blow past $20 billion for the first time," Rhys Elliott, head of market analysis at Alinea, says in a blog post.

Even without going any deeper, there are a lot of major games coming out this winter. Gears of War: E-Day, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, and Hellraiser: Revival are among the heavy-hitters for October, while November brings Gravhounds and Edge of Memories.

The schedule's a bit lighter on the latter because of a little release from Rockstar, and before you suggest GTA 6 will do business for Valve's marketplace, remember it's not launching on PC immediately. Still, plenty of potential in new releases, and that's without considering how the likes of Resident Evil Requiem, Crimson Desert, and Slay the Spire 2 will continue to bring in fans.

Alinea found that Steam's September was dominated by three games: Wardogs; Onimusha: Way of the Sword; and The Blood of Dawnwalker. A good mix, since two are fresh properties, and only one is multiplayer focused. Wardogs brought in around $86.9 million dollars during the month, not bad given it only started in early access on September 10.

Elliott mentions The Witcher 3 as a standout as well. The remaster is working as intended in drawing in players. "The Witcher 3 sold another 130K copies" across Steam, PS5 and Xbox Series X on Wednesday, he notes. "The most it's sold in a day since The Witcher 3‘s first $3.99 Steam discount price back in summer 2024."

Expect that to jump again when Songs of the Past arrives next year. In the meantime, we'll see how Steam fares for the whole year. Rayman Legends Retold could be what tips it over the line.

Deadlock smashes Steam record following new update that brings in over 228,000 concurrent players, but Valve isn't done: "There was still a good amount of work we wanted to do on the core game."

Even though it's still in closed beta, Deadlock, the newest shooter from Valve, is still setting records. The shooter just surpassed 228,000 concurrent players, on the back of a massive update focusing on various gameplay elements.

Right off the top, this round of additions, collectively known as City Never Sleeps, brings in no less than six new characters to play as. Among them are Rat King, who's described as "Scrappy, regal, tenacious"; explosives expert Deadman Danny; and my personal favorite, the tea-drinking Baba.

The half-dozen each bring different strategies to the table, which you can use on the rejigged map. There's one central location in Deadlock, a version of New York City, and it's been retooled here to be full of creepy crawlies and other terrors. Just in time for Halloween - I approve.

Meanwhile, there are more objectives now, voting is better, a greater selection of items, and a wealth of other options across various facets of the mysterious, multiplayer release. There's a lot going on here, and the devs addressed the community on their mindset going into this patch.

"After the Old Gods New Blood update, we felt that there was still a good amount of work we wanted to do on the core game itself before we moved onto more polish phases of the game development (like updating older hero artwork)," the team says. "Unlike previous updates where our efforts were more singularly focused on the key parts of that update, this year we've been working on several different things in parallel."

Many of those "several different things are addressed in City Never Sleeps. It's noted that Midboss, Guardians and Walkers are due for changes that just haven't happened yet. "On the other hand, things like hero remodels were in our heads as something we'd get to later, towards the end of early development, after other core aspects of the game were more fleshed out," Valve writes. "That doesn't mean we don't think they are important by any means, just that they are more of a known quantity to us that don't necessarily need to be done earlier than other things."

What the studio is doing is definitely working. Deadlock remains invite-only at present, but if you can get in, it seems worth a look.

Another Steam page is being turned into an algorithm as Valve aims to show "10x more games to customers"

Steam is making a big change to one of its promotional pages, opting for an algorithm-based showcase of games instead of the current "manual calendar-based approach."

Steam has been gradually moving toward personalized algorithms to recommend games for years now, and in early 2027, the Discounts & Events page, which as the name implies shows you themed sales and discounted games, is joining the club. In its announcement, Valve says the goal is to get more discounted games in front of Steam users.

"Currently, the Discounts & Events section on Steam is made up of curated placements that are either scheduled directly by partners via Steamworks, or by us here on the Steam team," Valve says. "By moving away from that approach, more discounted games or sale events will have the chance to be visible on the homepage and elsewhere on Steam, rather than be limited by a small, fixed number of slots."

Valve says it's been experimenting with Steam's discovery features for a few months now and, in testing the algorithmic model with the Discounts & Events page, was able to "show 10x more games to customers in a given day in that section.

"As a result, we saw meaningful increases in store page visits, wishlists, and cart additions."

This change potentially spells good news for discovery, but there are some concerns that it could have the opposite effect if Steam users are only being recommended sales based on what they typically interact with, which is what an algorithm does, generally. For instance, my Steam library is full of co-op horror games, RPGs, and cozy games, but there might be a first-person shooter or tactics game out there I would love if only it were recommended to me. But if Steam is recommending me sales based on an algorithm that goes off of my usual shopping and play habits, it wouldn't think to recommend me ones that sit outside my usual genres.

Regardless, "We have confidence this approach is better aligned with our goal, and results in a better experience for customers and developers," Valve says. "The constraint of a manually managed calendar doesn't make as much sense with such diverse customer tastes and so many relevant deals for customers available at any given time."

Valve says there's no "definitive date for implementing these changes" and that the fine details are still being hammered out, but going off what we know right now, it seems like the Discounts & Events page will look a little more like a social media platform next year. Of course, you can still shop around other tabs if you want a more curated list of games, and the main Featured & Recommended tab is still a mix of hand-curated picks and personalized spots, but the Discounts & Events page specifically is fully embracing the algorithm.

"We don't believe this will be perfect right away, but we are confident the new system will result in better outcomes for customers and developers and are eager to share all the details once we have them," says Valve.

"Steam is on an absolute historic run": Valve quietly made a huge change that's helping game devs, says Hooded Horse CEO

A recent under-the-hood change to Steam has led to major boosts for many game developers, says Tim Bender, CEO of strategy, sim, and RPG specialist publisher Hooded Horse.

In a lengthy LinkedIn post, Bender backs reports from indie game sleuth Simon Carless showing that visibility on Steam – that is, a game's ability to be found by players and shown in recommendation feeds – has improved considerably for indies in the past few weeks and months.

This seems to be tied to one of Steam's biggest feeds: Discounts & Events. Parked right on the homepage, this feed has evidently been updated to be more player-tailored, spending less space on best-selling hits and devoting more slots to curated recommendations based on your playtime, wishlists, and purchases.

"Suddenly I'm seeing indie gems with less than a hundred to a few thousand reviews included as well, of precisely the sort I love," says Bender. "In other page loads I'm getting pushed things like the Gold Box Dungeons and Dragons games from the late 80s/early 90s, with less than 300 reviews since their Steam rerelease 4 years ago – perfect for me."

Bender shares some data to demonstrate this point. In the past six months, one of Hooded Horse's games saw 7,355 Steam page visits via the Discounts & Events feed. A whopping 7,341 of those came in the last month.

This comparison is getting into funny numbers: assuming a previous average of 2.8 visits a month, this feed drove 2,621 times visibility per month after this change from Valve.

"This change took a source of traffic that was non-existent for niche indies, and suddenly made it the best source of traffic in the entire store," Bender observes. He says other developers have told him they've also seen "essentially zero visits" turn into "a few thousand." Another Hooded Horse game saw smaller but still substantial growth: from 6,000 in five months to 14,000 in one month.

"This is great for everyone – players are getting more relevant recommendations, and publishers/developers are having their games shown to the right players – but it's most transformative for smaller indies that previously weren't seeing placement in this section," he continues.

Bender praises the somewhat recent addition of the personal calendar (which has quickly become my favorite feature in the store) and reckons "Steam is on an absolute historic run of improving discoverability lately, especially for indies."

"Occasionally I see people getting attention by saying things like 'discovery is broken on Steam,'" he adds. "In reality, discovery is hard given the number of games, but Steam is the best-in-class store experience and only getting better as time goes on."

Earlier this year, Valve offered a rare look behind the curtain of Steam, revealing that nearly 6,000 games made over $100,000 in 2025.

However, there are still plenty of flops, and the ever-growing number of new games releasing on Steam, now inflated by gen AI assistance, shows no signs of slowing down (even if many devs say they don't want to use gen AI). Just in 2025, it was estimated over 5,000 games released on Steam didn't even make enough money to pay back the $100 fee to put a game on the storefront.

The Steam ripoff market is so bad that viral game Needle In A Haystack Simulator is facing 8 copycats before release and has slapped "original" on itself to clarify.

Needle In A Haystack Simulator, a co-op sim game on PC that's exactly what it sounds like, went viral on social media over the summer – which, of course, means clones galore.

In case you missed it, Needle In A Haystack Simulator made the rounds for its amusing premise: you and your friends work to dig a singular needle out of a massive haystack (we're talking like five million pieces of hay, y'all), much like the old saying.

Unsurprisingly, it spurred a plethora of clones shortly after it went viral, with some eight copycats popping up on Steam early last week… and, well, there are plenty more now.

So many, in fact, that folks are posting about it on Twitter, drawing the attention of the original Needle In A Haystack Simulator's creator.

In response to a screenshot of 10 or so copies of the silly sim, Nas of Studio Bitdot writes, "As the dev of the one that went viral, I would like to formally apologize to the Steam storefront."

It's funny, sure, but it's all a bit bleak, too. One commenter dubs it "the Robloxification of Steam" and, yeah, I get it.

Much like Roblox boasts clones of Meccha Chameleon and various other trendy hits, Steam is now seemingly playing host to many of its own copycats.

A quick search on my end brings up loads of Needle In A Haystack clones, and, yes, many of them do evidently rely on generative AI to some extent as well – the cherry on top of the cake here, so to speak. It's not a great look for Valve's platform, but I'm sure it's also not easy to control.

When something goes viral, it's just about anywhere and everywhere. The problem begins when it overtakes genuine, original versions of an idea, though, or simply steals it altogether (which I'm seeing is more than likely the case with many of the Needle In A Haystack Simulator clones, honestly).

As for whether or not the copycats will be taken down – that remains to be seen, I suppose. The original is coming sometime later this year.

Searching for some solid upcoming PC games to look forward to? Be sure to browse through our roundup of the best new games coming this year and beyond to wishlist.

A new Counter-Strike 2 update is here with a plethora of exciting features, from a 3v3 mode to, erm, chicken eggs – but the anti-cheat fix folks have long been hoping for isn't part of the patch, much to their dismay.

Valve unveiled its big update over on Steam earlier today, a patch aptly dubbed "Rush Hour" after the new game mode it boasts, unveiling various additions and tweaks.

First, of course, is Rush, "a new fast-paced 3v3 queued mode" for Counter-Strike 2. In it, players run a gauntlet "of randomly-selected battle arenas" and fight to capture the enemy castle to win. The arenas are different every time, ensuring that no two matches are the same.

Rush Hour has changed Premier up a bit, too, making it so that "instead of banning down to a single map, teams will vote to pick two maps each." After all four are up, one map will be randomly selected and then the match will begin.

On top of that, there are "several quality of life improvements," like blood and bullet impact visibility, and a new Music Kit: Starjunk 95. Plus, I kid you not, the update seemingly shadow-dropped chicken eggs.

Yes, a new pet system – and with it, a new gambling system – is apparently upon us, as fans share screenshots of differently-colored chicken eggs online. These weren't mentioned in Valve's official patch notes, interestingly enough, but it's amusing nonetheless (and worrying for players' wallets, sadly).

As silly as it is, however, there's another update the community would've preferred to see before chickens, Rush, and all: anti-cheat.

The top comment on Steam is literally "BETTER ANTICHEAT, PLEASE UPDATE VAC!" So, yeah. Another similar exclamation reads, "WE NEED BETTER ANTICHEAT FIRST!" The discussion isn't limited to the patch notes post, either.

Over on Twitter, one player sums up the sentiment I'm seeing all over the web perfectly: "Some really, really cool stuff in here, but the game is slowly dying without a working anti-cheat."

So, what'll Valve do next? Aside from expanding its strange new pet system, which I have a feeling it undoubtedly will, perhaps the developers will address the whole anti-cheat matter – it's evidently on fans' minds.

Gabe Newell once spent months loudly throat singing in the Valve office, Counter-Strike co-creator says, and "a lot of people" were "kind of annoyed."

In terms of industry-altering decisions, Valve's decision to open Steam is up there with Nintendo making Super Mario Bros. and Sony creating the PlayStation. It revolutionized PC game distribution practically overnight, and one of the creators of Counter-Strike believes it all stemmed from dissatisfaction with the publishing landscape.

Minh Le was a co-creator on Counter-Strike, and he worked at Valve under Gabe Newell for a number of years after selling the multiplayer shooter to the company. Chatting with Indie Game Joe on YouTube, he explains how poor dealings with Sierra led to the inception of Steam.

"I think Gabe was the guy who said, 'Fuck these publishers,'" he says. "Valve, they were working with a company called Sierra, which was their publisher. So Sierra was publishing Half-Life, and I think they published Half-Life 2, but working with Sierra was such a bad experience and it left a really sour taste in Gabe's mouth that he wanted to just say, 'Fuck it. I never want to deal with publishers anymore.'"

Sierra did indeed publish the first Half-Life, but not the second, because Valve's relationship with the company had soured dramatically, resulting in lawsuits going in both directions. The sequel was fundamental to Steam's launch – back in 2004, Valve made the extremely smart choice of making its shiny new marketplace mandatory for anyone who bought Half-Life 2.

The follow-up to the groundbreaking FPS had a lot of buzz surrounding it, and Newell and his cohorts understood those people could be converted into an install base for their fledgling digital distribution platform. Even though change was definitely necessary, Le remembers a certain amount of skepticism.

"A lot of people at Valve, a lot of my coworkers, we were like, 'Is this going to work?'" he says. "Because this was 2001, 2002. In 2002, peoples' internet was not very good, [it was] very slow. So we had these physical stores where you had to go and buy your games. Back then, I would say everybody was just buying the game. There was no such thing as downloading games. Everybody's internet was so slow. We were like, 'It's taking me a day just to download Half-Life, this is not gonna work.'"

But he admits, they "didn't have the forethought" for broadband and Wi-Fi and the internet becoming as fast and as ubiquitous as it is now. "We just didn't really anticipate the speed at which the internet would grow," he adds. "Seeing everything change, 25 years on, and watching Steam's evolution has been really eye-opening."

Valve devs "can't believe we get away" with such small updates for Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike, ex-writer says.

Valve lead Gabe Newell is nothing if not an eccentric billionaire, much to fans' amusement – so eccentric, in fact, that he apparently went through a… throat singing phase?

Yes, you read that correctly. Counter-Strike co-creator Minh "Gooseman" Le recalls as much in a new interview with Indie Game Joe over on YouTube (below), explaining how Newell would bring his interests to the office – whether or not his coworkers approved – starting with Mongolian throat singing.

"He watched this documentary on them and he really got really fascinated with this concept and he started to practice that."

Yes, at work.

"So he started to do this Mongolian throat singing stuff and he was doing it throughout the office," as Le says. "You would hear him try to sing with his throat as he's walking down the halls. And, I remember a lot of people in the office, they were kind of annoyed with this because it's kind of loud, right?"

Did that deter Newell? No. "He would just walk along the halls just doing this throat singing thing, and he would do it daily."

It got so bad, Le states that "people would just started closing the doors and it started to become quite a closed office," describing it as "an interesting time." How long did it all go on for, though?

A whopping "five months" or so, apparently… and Newell ended up picking up other wild hobbies afterward, too. Le discusses everything from knife collecting to whole rooms filled to the brim with medieval-style axes and swords.

So, there you have it – Newell has always been a bit quirky (in the best way possible, of course). This is the same man who invested his $9.5 billion fortune into yachts last year, after all, after making clear that he's a scuba diving enthusiast.

I wonder what else he'll pick up, honestly. There's plenty out there to collect and hobbies to adopt, much to the Valve boss's delight, I'm sure… even if not his poor coworkers'.

Former Valve writer says "giant teams just don't work" in video game development, unless you're making GTA 6.

Left 4 Dead writer and Valve veteran Chet Faliszek doubts the company would really benefit from going on a hiring spree. His 12 years at Valve taught him that great, timely games aren't made by giant teams.

"I just think games aren't made to be made by 10,000-person teams. These giant teams just don't work," Faliszek says in a new YouTube video responding to the question, "Why doesn't valve hire more people?" The developer acknowledges that certain two billion-dollar exercises like GTA 6 may require "a gajillion" different hands to hold it, but a monster-sized Rockstar sensation is the exception to a reasonable rule.

Faliszek recalls a Ubisoft artist telling him how the Assassin's Creed publisher only hires "top artists," which apparently tallied to about 3,500 people. Valve suffered from similar laughable bloat when it came to its focus on graphics and fidelity – something that isn't inherently wrong at all, but "requires these giant teams," says Faliszek. "I just don't think you get a lot of bang for your buck."

Even worse than their being expensive, overly huge development teams are time-wasters. "Really, the reason why games take so long is indecision, backtracking," Faliszek says. "Problems like that are the things that really eat up time more than just production."

It's rare that even the most egregious game delays come from nonstop production, after all; it took Dead Island 2 nearly a decade to launch after playing hot potato with three different studios, while Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 came out 21 years after the original game, and passing between two developers. It sounds like the worst game of telephone.

Faliszek apparently thinks equally poorly of remote work, describing it as, "You have this whisper network going." Eventually, he expects that, "Ego comes in, because then, all of a sudden, you're not being heard. You're not being listened to. You're having to be downwind of a bunch of decisions."

"We made Left 4 Dead 2 with 45 people. I don't think it would have been a better game if we would have made it with 450 people," Faliszek says. "I think some of what we chase now in the game industry as our goals make us create these bigger teams. [...] But I think you need to have some oomph there. You need to have some weight to what you're releasing. But when that works best is when it's made with people who are in the same room." Or at least the same Google Meet.

Valve devs "can't believe we get away" with such small updates for Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike, ex-writer says.

If you're among the legions of Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2 players who've ever wondered why those games have historically gotten much smaller updates than other games owned by Valve, you can at least take comfort in knowing that a veteran of the studio who left back in 2017 was equally perplexed.

Chet Faliszek, who was a Valve writer from 2004 to 2017 and worked on Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, and Left 4 Dead, for which he was co-project lead, says in a new video that the teams dedicated to working on Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2 were often pleasantly surprised by player response to meager updates when other Valve games were getting much more substantial expansions. In the video, Faliszek is responding to a question about "how small updates are" for Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2 specifically, and he shares this little insight:

"Even at Valve, we'd be like, 'I can't believe we get away with this'," says Faliszek. "Like, we're not getting away with it like we're trying to hoodwink you, but these other teams have a thousand people working on a gajillion different things and all these different features, and Valve's like, 'here's five skins," he adds, sarcastically giving two thumbs up for emphasis.

"And people are like, 'cool'," he says, laughing with an expression of incredulity. "So, even people at Valve have an understanding that they're just lucky."

Faliszek is known for his candid insights into life at Valve in the 13 years he was there, but obviously it's worth pointing out that 2017, the year he left, is now nine years in the rear view. For context, Counter-Strike 2 launched in 2023, which means he's probably referring to CS:GO in the above video. I say that just to emphasize that things can change a lot in that amount of time with internal teams and a the top levels of companies, although Valve's core leadership hasn't changed a whole lot since then. Still, it's fascinating to think Valve was dropping breadcrumbs on Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2 players and watching in disbelief as they gobbled them up.

Portal could've had "a bunch of gore and dead bodies" if one dev had his way, says Valve veteran, but Gabe Newell considered it "the stupidest question ever"

Portal writer and Valve veteran Chet Faliszek says that one of the developers behind the 2007 puzzle game gem wanted it to be a tad more gory – something that the rest of the team, and Gabe Newell himself, didn't want to consider.

Faliszek reveals as much in a new video on YouTube (below), recalling how "someone had suggested we add gore to Portal – the original Portal." They weren't a small dev, either, although the former Valve writer doesn't clarify who it was. He does, however, make it clear that neither he nor anyone else was a fan of the thought.

As Faliszek puts it, "Somebody with enough oomph wants to add a bunch of gore and dead bodies all through Portal, and it's a horrible idea."

He continues, "The entire team thinks it's a horrible idea, but this person is being very verbal about it and calls a meeting and calls Gabe [Newell].

That's when Eric Wolpaw asked Faliszek to "just come into this meeting" and "just say no" – and point out "how stupid this is," because let's face it… Portal is no Half-Life, and gore just wouldn't fit into Aperture Science the way it slots into Black Mesa's own facilities.

"Other people didn't want to get in this fight with this person," Faliszek remembers – so he joins the meeting and breaks the hard news to the hopeful dev. "I'm like, 'Hey, so we're not going to add gore.' Like, I just jump to it. 'We're not adding gore. Just cut this out.'"

It's a bit amusing to listen to, honestly, as a fan of Portal myself. Hearing what Newell thought from Faliszek is brilliant, too, as the company head didn't hold back.

"Gabe's like, 'Why are we even having this meeting? This is the stupidest question ever. We shouldn't add gore to the game,'" as Faliszek says.

So, what happened? "The guy who proposed it kind of just shuffled off and that was it. It was like a five-minute meeting." I suppose no more needed to be said… and judging by comments, the majority of Valve isn't alone in finding gore ill-fitting in Portal.

As one reads, "Cannot imagine Portal with gore… It just doesn't fit with the thematic or expression of the game itself. So odd." Another adds, "Gore in Portal? That's crazy" – and, yeah, I can certainly see why they (and a whole lot of Valve) think so.

Backrooms director posts from Valve's office again, and Portal movie speculation is intensifying.

If you're like me, you were silently hoping for a new homemade VR game from Valve to launch alongside the new Steam Frame. Unfortunately, that was wishful thinking, but bundled with the new headset is the company's hit from 2020, Half-Life: Alyx. That's hardly a bad thing, since the game has been long-touted as one of the best VR games ever made, but when the best VR headsets don't launch often, it'd be easy to hope for a successor.

"We decided to focus on just making sure the Steam catalogue as a whole would be a good experience, and trying to put most of our efforts into that compatibility," said Pierre-Loup Griffais, a SteamOS developer in an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun.

"Because there's a tonne of existing experiences I think that can intro you to whatever side of the devices you're more interested in, right?" Essentially, Valve was concentrating more on the challenges of getting Steam games to run natively in the headset's standalone mode, particularly when the aims of the new hardware were to give people a Steam Deck-like experience of being able to take their non-VR games on the go with them as well as fully immersive ones.

"I can't speak for everyone here," continued Griffais, "but if I'm showing the headset to someone, something like SuperHot VR or Beat Saber or one of those OG titles is gonna get on there, because they're still so good, right?"

Of course, the main challenge Valve would have faced was getting a demanding game like Half-Life: Alyx to run natively on its headset, particularly when it was designed for high-end, wired VR headsets to make the most of it, not standalone devices with smaller processors, or, god forbid, ARM processors.

The development of games to run on ARM processors could be a common theme we hear more about in the coming years since more smaller form-factor devices will house them. Nvidia is currently working on gaming performance for its RTX Spark processor, and there's a whole swathe of compatibility issues the company is working through when it comes to support that goes past emulation, not to mention anti-cheat, DirectX, and Vulkan, which I've been told first-hand at demos have been complicating things. It seems from this interview with RPS that Valve experienced similar speed bumps.

For context, ARM processors use a different architecture and run very differently from the typical ones we see in gaming desktops, laptops, and traditional PCs. With that in mind, it takes a lot more know-how to convert existing games and apps to work on them since they're often built to work on more traditional chips. The reason we're seeing more ARM processors these days is that they prioritize efficiency and less heat generation, making them perfect for today's modern, sleek, and often lighter hardware that still wants to be as powerful as we expect it to be.

Half-Life: Alyx would obviously be playable with the Steam Frame at launch anyway if you were streaming it directly from your gaming PC or laptop, but along with the launch of its new headset, Valve has updated the game to run in the Frame's standalone mode.

"All the fixes we got in for Alyx," said Robin Walker, a programmer at Valve and one of the co-creators of Team Fortress 2, in the same interview with RPS, "the vast majority of them are applicable to basically anything that's running on the Frame."

Does this point to a new VR game from Valve coming in the future when there's more compatibility secured for existing games? Or will new games in development need to make compromises to secure verification for the headset? It all remains to be seen. As more and more VR headsets focus on wireless convenience over lossless GPU connections, we may see less demanding VR titles launching, but thanks to streaming from PCs being more efficient these days, it's unlikely that they all have to compromise on performance as a result.

Even as the "verified for Steam Frame" catalog continues to grow, I would be surprised if we see a new VR game from Valve anytime soon, but just like with an eventual Half-Life 3, we can all hope, right?

For more on VR, take a look at the best Meta Quest accessories.

Having made it out of the Backrooms to booming success (and a seal of approval from Hideo Kojima), Kane Parsons continues to play with fans' emotions in the best way possible after paying the Valve offices yet another visit, pushing speculation about a Portal movie to new heights.

The director posted an Instagram story showing him watching a beautiful sunset from Valve HQ and probably taking a moment to appreciate how cool it was that he was even doing so. This would mark his most recent visit (that we know about), which he shared with fans after snapping a photo back in June.

If there's one thing he's made more public than this, it's his adoration for the game franchise, citing Portal 2 as the biggest inspiration that led him to venture into the Backrooms. "It's like the strongest influence over, like, everything I've done in my entire life. It's a two-game series," he explained to Letterboxd. "So, if anything, I would say Portal 2 is the bigger inspiration for me... It's inherently comedic and absurd, and that’s what I like about it. So many bleak creative choices come from an inherent humor."

It really seems like a no-brainer to put Parsons to work on a project like this, not simply because of his success with Backrooms, but because of Hollywood's growing hunger for adapting video game titles that are actually paying off. That couldn't be more evident following the immense critical praise for Resident Evil, which is out this week. Perhaps the next time Parsons posts on Instagram, it'll be declaring that a Portal movie is finally happening, maybe even with a nice slice of cake to celebrate.

Look ahead with our list of the most exciting upcoming movies, or scare yourself silly with our ranking of the best horror movies ever.

At long last, after years of rumors, speculation, and delays, Valve has launched the Steam Frame headset. The final third of the company's hardware launch plans for 2026 has seen the lengthiest delay since its initial "early 2026" billing, but the VR headset is now available to reserve.

That means we now also have a confirmed price for the device. Its 256GB model will set you back $1,049 / £889, coming with the headset, controllers, and fan-favourite game Half-Life: Alyx bundled in. Or, its 1TB version will set you back $1,299 / £1,089.

You can reserve a Steam Frame now, as we suspected, using a very similar system to the Steam Controller and Steam Machine, which actually leaked last week through SteamDB. Essentially, you can sign up anytime between now and Thursday, September 17^th at 10am Pacific. Then, on that date, Valve will do a one-time randomization of the signed-up names before sending out emails with the results of the randomization, letting you know if you're in the reservation queue or on the waitlist.

Valve has now also properly published the previously leaked/data mined overview and starter guide videos, which show how to get the best fit and use out of the headset. They also confirm that you can buy some separate accessory bundles for the Frame.

You can grab an Ergonomic Accessories Kit, which includes 2 controller hand straps, a headset top strap for increased fit and comfort, and an extended light blocker for if you have a differently sized nose. That will cost you $59 / £59. Alternatively, you can grab the Accessory Replacement Kit, which includes a face gasket, head cushion, and a standard light blocker. That'll set you back $49 / £49. Interestingly, the headset doesn't come with a PSU, so if you want one, you'll need to buy it separately for $29 / £29.

As we already knew, the Steam Frame features a 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 ARM64 APU, 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and runs on SteamOS the same as a the Steam Deck and Steam Machine. It's got a resolution of 2160 x 2160 per eye with LCD displays that have a refresh rate of 72Hz spanning up to an experimental 144Hz. Valve says the headset has a horizontal FOV of "up to 110 degrees".

Tracking of the headset and its controllers happens inside-out using built-in cameras, so owners of Valve's previous Valve Index headset won't need to play around with tracking stations. The same can be said of wires, since the Steam Frame will work wirelessly and run games natively (there's a growing list of 100 games that are already "Frame verified") but you can also use a dongle that will stream gameplay from a laptop or gaming PC straight to the headset using a dedicated Wi-Fi 6E bandwidth (even though the headset itself has Wi-Fi 7 compatibility).

On battery life, the Frame has a rechargeable 21.6 Wh Li-ion battery.

Very much like the Steam Deck, the device running on SteamOS means you'll be able to play your entire Steam library on the go with it. The Steam Frame might have been designed as a VR headset, but you can enjoy non-VR games with it by connecting a controller of your own, the Steam Controller, or using the bundled VR controllers.

Earlier in the summer, when we were speculating the price of the Steam Frame, a majority of GamesRadar+ readers voted that it should cost between $899-$1,099, which is actually bang-on as a prediction. That was the result of 42% of the votes, with 25% of readers saying it should cost between $799-899, and 33% of folks arguing it should cost $699-$799. This price lands it higher than the 512GB Meta Quest 3, which is currently set at $599, but it's on par with other high-fidelity PCVR headsets like the HTC Vive Focus Vision and Samsung Galaxy XR. It's a lot more affordable than the Pimax Dream Air and Apple Vision Pro.

It's long been suspected that the Steam Frame (once codenamed Valve Deckard) would wear an estimated $1,000 price tag, or at least be more expensive than the Meta Quest visors, since those have been reportedly sold at a loss since Meta bought Oculus. I'll be interested to see how this price impacts the headset's popularity, however. VR gaming has always been a niche, and for the most part, a prohibitively expensive one, but since its reveal I've thought that the appeal and convenience of the Steam Frame could lead to it being the VR market's Steam Deck moment. Will that be the case when it costs a lot more than Valve's accessible handheld? Who's to say?

Pricing around a grand means fewer enthusiastic fans will be able to secure one of their own if their incomes don't allow, which is a high possibility in a consumer PC gaming market that's very pricey to exist in right now. When the Frame is already appealing to a niche segment of that market, it narrows the pool of early adopters further.

It could be that Valve has plans to support the headset long into the future, but bundling a homemade VR game that's six years old into the price of the headset doesn't exactly inspire much confidence that there's more software on the way for it - although I hope I'm wrong on that front.

I'd also have been interested to know what Valve's original pricing plans for the headset would be, considering delays and price changes almost certainly happened as a direct result of the ongoing RAM crisis.

Upgrading your rig to help with your Steam Frame gameplay streaming? Check out the best gaming PCs and the best gaming laptops.

Some may argue the Steam Deck 2 is an inevitability, and Valve has suggested the future handheld is safe from RAMageddon. At the very least, the portable powerhouse isn't outright delayed or cancelled due to component shortages and prices, but I'm not so sure it will release any time soon.

In an interview with Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais, IGN asks whether the Steam Deck 2, the company's "way of thinking" has changed thanks to the shortages. Griffais immediately shrugs off the idea with a "not really" before reiterating some of the gaming handheld maker's product philosophies and general design approach.

"We want to make sure there's a very delineated performance improvement for something like a future Steam Deck, I think we're still looking at it in the same way." responds Griffais before suggesting, "It's just a matter of looking at the current conditions and seeing how and when we can deliver something like that. But from what we're working on as far as the user experience goes and what the product that we're trying to build goes, it's very similar goals."

That could be a sign that the Steam Deck 2 is still firmly on track, but I wouldn't get your hopes up for an imminent reveal. The Valve engineer's wording suggests that while the handheld sequel isn't immediately at risk thanks to AI data centre demand, RAM prices, or fabrication backlogs, it might be a while before those aforementioned "conditions" for a release are just right.

Simply put, while it's tempting to think there's a predetermined release timeframe for the Steam Deck 2, I reckon Valve is playing it by ear. At least, it's sticking with that equation of the market conditions being right and next-generation performance being possible at a price that suits its player base.

Yes, it released the Steam Machine and is now launching the Steam Frame at a pretty bad time, but you could argue the shortage situation caught Valve off guard. Walking back the big reveal would have undoubtedly killed off the Machine's second wind, and it's safe to say that with Steam Deck OLED prices now starting at just under $800, the portable pioneers know better than to think about a sequel launch.

• Gaming handhelds at Best Buy
• Steam Deck accessories at Amazon

Check out the best retro handhelds if you'd dive back into old consoles and classic capers.

If things keep going the way they're going, finding the real Needle In A HayStack Simulator on Steam will be just like the title. Several pretenders have emerged since the original was announced, prompting the devs to make sure the game stands out amid the fakery.

You can probably surmise what Needle In A Haystack Simulator wants you to do, but I'll describe it anyway. There's a needle lost in a haystack of around 5 million pieces of hay. You have to find it.

That's pretty much it. You can find treasure in your search that you can sell for tools that'll make the process easier, but really it's just about bounding through piles and piles of hay. The release, from Studio Bitdot, managed to get a bit of online attention due to being so on-the-nose and perfunctory, in the way meme games tend to in the era of friendslop and streamer bait.

I mean, I want to play it to see how infuriating it'll be, and if I can bring some friends along for the ride, all the better. The game itself is due out during the last quarter of this year, and since the Steam page went up, a bunch of others have appeared like a bad rash.

At time of writing, there are eight other games, similar in concept and title, available on Valve's marketplace. Some have slightly different aesthetics, but they're all based around the exact same thing - finding a needle that's somehow become lost in an absurd amount of hay. When I say similar, I'm referring to games like:

• Needle In A Haystack
• Needle In A Haystack (yes, again, verbatim)
• Needle in a Haytask (behold, a lowercase "a")
• Needle in a Haystack (two lowercase words in the title, dare we dream)
• A Needle In a Haystack (in case you were unsure of how many needles there are)
• Needle in a Million Haystacks (now we're just getting silly, the world's not ready for this much hay)

Bitdot has responded the only way possible, really: by slapping an "Original" bumper sticker on its Steam listing art. I mean, what else can you do? It's not exactly an original conceit, though it's certainly more original than the above, and these are indie devs with limited resources. You're got to use what you've got. I know which one of these I'll be playing, and it's not one of the bandwagon jumpers.

After 4 years of work, solo dev breaks down in tears after opening Steam and learning his game made $250,000 in a week: "I feel like I really don't deserve this."

An old clip of Gabe Newell has gone viral online as today's viewers, suffering through an era of enshittification and widespread tech layoffs, nod along with the Valve chief's sermon on private ownership and prioritizing employees. Meanwhile, Valve itself enjoys per-employee profits that embarrass the likes of Microsoft and Meta, companies responsible for heaps of the layoffs in recent years.

This clip comes from YouTube channel WebKnower, which, for months, has existed primarily to post short videos of Linux godfather Linus Torvalds but has seemingly pivoted to Newell content with a push from the YouTube algorithm. The channel's latest Newell chat, "Gabe Newell Explains Why Valve Never Went Public," is already its most-viewed video with 1.3 million views after four days.

Newell's comments were pulled from a January 2013 lecture at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas. That talk, a full 62 minutes long, saw Newell discuss "Productivity, Economics, Political Institutions & The Future of Corporations," as the video description put it at the time.

As is often the case with these new-again Newell snippets – like the story of him telling Portal writer Erik Wolpaw to "get better" instead of resigning amidst a health crisis – the full story lies outside the viral segment.

This discussion focuses on Valve's priorities as a company and how these made it a natural fit for private ownership rather than public trading. Much of this flies in the face of some conventional cost-cutting wisdom which is still followed today, especially at large tech and game companies.

For example, Newell mentions "there was a big thing a couple of years ago where everybody was trying to hire low-cost content producers in India and China." He says Valve was "trying to do the opposite."

"If somebody working on a feature film production in New Zealand is making $200,000 a year, if they come to Valve they should be making $500,000 or $5 million, creating that much value," Newell continues.

This approach was foundational at Valve, Newell explains in his full lecture. Back in the early days of the company in 1996, Newell says he and other Valve heads had spoken to "insurance companies, and airline companies, and startups in Silicon Valley." Along with co-founder Mike Harrington, he "became convinced ... that everybody was going in the wrong direction."

"There's sort of a movement towards outsourcing, and outsourcing is essentially, where can we find the lowest-cost English language speaker somewhere in the world and we'll give them a job and they'll do it just as well for a lot less money," Newell says. "To us, that seemed exactly the opposite of what you should be doing. What we decided was that we were going to buy the most expensive talent that was out there in the world. That the opportunity was, those were the people who were least correctly valued."

Newell singles out one of those golden talents: Half-Life programmer Yahn Bernier was "shipping 4,000 lines of code per day" in a pre-AI agent era.

This brings Newell back to how to "attract and retain the most highly productive people in the world," and here we really get into Valve's private ownership. "If our thesis is correct, that's where we're going to create our greatest incremental value," Newell says of this high-value staff. If you invest in those people, they will grow and improve the company they work for.

"Valve is not a publicly traded company," he says. "Being a publicly traded company adds a bunch of headaches and it didn't really solve any problems for us. It meant that control around decision-making now involves third parties."

If Valve went public, Newell suggests, everything from its hiring approach to its internal approval process would slow down and could be forced to change to suit the whims of those third parties, namely investors and a board of directors.

"The whole point of being a privately held company is to eliminate another source of noise in the signal between the consumers and the producers of a good," he adds. This consumer-first rhetoric comes up in a similarly exhumed clip of Newell describing piracy as a service issue.

This elimination of "noise" also contributed to Valve's title-lax structure, which regularly sees employees dip their toes into multiple disciplines. Newell goes back to Half-Life for another example: "The guy who designed the skeletal animation system also had a bachelor of fine arts and could also build environmental art."

The original Half-Life shows the tangible effects of these high-level business policies, Newell argues: "There are a set of experiences that you get in Half-Life 1 that are entirely a consequence of the person working on it being able to change the environment, change the code, or change the animations depending upon what was the most tractable way of solving the problem. Titles in organizations keep people from properly encapsulating a problem at a point which allows them to be most productive."

It would be interesting to hear Newell explain his stance today. With Steam and Valve looking more successful than ever at a time of games industry-wide upheaval largely driven by publicly traded companies, it's certainly hard to argue with its approach.

Of course, Valve isn't immune to the pressures of the times, with engineer Yazan Aldehayyat warning that the AI-fueled memory crunch will only get worse after hurting the Steam Machine launch.

More recently, Newell has weighed in on how AI will affect productivity, predicting it could cause a "funny situation" where programmers more familiar with AI tools could be "more effective" than people with more actual programming experience.

Steam earned Valve $15 billion in revenue so far this year, with Crimson Desert alone topping $203 million according to analyst.

Australian Steam users are now unable to access any age-restricted content on their account without having a credit card thanks to the introduction of the government's Online Safety Act.

This is in line with the Australian government's Online Safety Act 2021, which noted that any "app distribution services" must have age assurance requirements in place by yesterday. This means the user will not be able to access the storefronts of any games rated MA15+ or R18+ by the Australian Classification Board, which includes games like Cyberpunk 2077, Resident Evil Requiem, and The Last of Us Part 2 without proper verification.

The Online Safety Act has been a major topic with both the UK and Australian governments, with many places requiring access to users' photo IDs to allow them to browse certain apps and websites unrestricted. This has caused privacy concerns among many as to how their data is being used and potentially sold, as well as prompting worries about security breaches. Valve, seemingly wanting to avoid this, has opted to make the verification based on having a credit card.

However, the real kicker is that it doesn't matter how long you have had your Steam account – users who opened their account in 2004, or any other year that would give you an account over the age of 18 are also not immune. Over on the Australia subreddit, one user notes "I'm 43, and have had my steam account since it first started," while another adds, "So basically, I can't see any remotely mature game on my 20-odd year old account because I'm financially sound enough to not have a credit card?"

Users note that credit card use is not as widespread in the country, with one saying, "This is so USA centric of Steam, they just assume everyone has a credit card." On top of that, users with disabilities are reporting that since they are on Australia's Disability Support Pension they are unable to get a credit card, and thus are locked out of accessing these games on Steam unless another option reveals itself.

Thankfully, users are reporting some workarounds, including that that some debit cards and games purchased on other storefronts still work.

Various new games – and I mean various – have reportedly suffered countless spoilers thanks to a Steam leak that's seen their achievements go entirely public.

From Kingdom Hearts 4 to Persona 6 to Silent Hill: Townfall to… well, you name it, there's a downright plethora of titles seemingly affected by the massive leak on Valve's platform.

You can find lists of every game (and their achievements, be warned) on online forums and websites like Twitter – and it's all so big it's nearly mind-blowing. They're all live on achievement tracker site Exophase, too, but I'd once again caution checking anything out in too much detail.

Not only does the leak apparently expose a load of upcoming games' achievements, but it also lifts the veil on many "unannounced" titles, as users point out in a social media thread on the whole debacle.

There's an "unannounced Dune game" in there, an "unannounced Twin Peaks game," and even a dang "unannounced Shrek 2 Remaster" mentioned, y'all… and, erm… Penis Bird? Put simply, it's one heck of a leak – and not just of games we knew about.

So, how did this all happen in the first place? Well, it seems to boil down to an API error that isn't exactly new to Steam. For anyone who might not know what that means (because I certainly didn't), API stands for application programming interface, and it's essentially a set of rules that allows software programs to communicate.

Exophase owner "x3sphere" has described it a bit over on ResetEra, confirming what happened.

"I am the owner of the site and this is what appears to have happened," he writes. "Seems like a possible screw up on Valve's end, a bunch of games with achievements that should be private are accessible through the API right now and that's why they got scanned into the site. I usually never see games without an actual name pop up with achievements, yet over the past hour or so a bunch have."

Oof.

Valve has yet to respond itself, but I'm not sure it will aside from remedying the apparent private information from each game. As for studios like Sega and Square Enix which have seemingly seen their unreleased games go a bit more public, I doubt we'll hear anything, either.

So, there you have it – you can go explore the findings yourself if you're interested it, but after taking a peek at the alleged Persona 6 achievements myself, I can say I sort of wish I hadn't.

Spoilers, spoilers everywhere… and I shan't be sharing them here.

Kingdom Hearts 4 script "almost twice as big" as KH3's, Tetsuya Nomura says: "There were more parts that I wanted to include, but I was already pushing it."

The other day, some backend updates were issued to SteamDB's Steam Frame package pages, marking the first time in months that the hidden retail listings received edits. These are the placeholder, non-published listings, purportedly for the upcoming Valve VR headsets. Now, in the days after these were found, VR leaker SadlyItsBradley has found a reservation system that looks all too familiar.

It looks almost exactly the same as the reservation application that's been used by Valve for its Steam Machine and Steam Controller launches earlier in 2026. Before you ask, you can't access or con the system into ordering your own VR headset yet, as it still isn't live. In fact, as a precautionary measure, the leaked image of the page shows a live date of December, 1969.

Other than that, it asks for a Steam account name, the items to be reserved, and says "You have joined the list for - " and then there's a blank - I did tell you these pages were placeholders. The line below says "On 31 December, 1969, the list will be randomized and you will receive an email with your results shortly after."

There's every possibility that this is actually a placeholder, but it's so vague at this point it's hard to put a lot of stock in it.

Truth be told, these new datamines don't tell us an awful lot we don't know already. We knew from its initial reveal that the Steam Frame would have two different SKUs based on storage options. We're sadly no closer to finding out the release date and price of the Steam Frame based on those package page updates on SteamDB.

At this point, I wouldn't put it past Valve to jokingly list 1969 as a release window to taunt us for holding out this long for its second VR headset. On the other hand, this date is frequently cited on Steam and other computer apps as the start of Unix Epoch time. In other words, it's yet more placeholder, probably as a template or a way to ensure there's no live date that could trigger an email being sent to people asking to reserve a VR headset.

What the use of a reservation does tell us is that Valve is fully expecting there to be a high demand and a limited supply of stock when Steam Frame launches. If the leak from SadlyItsBradley is to be believed (I'd take it with a couple pinches of salt, at this point), then Steam Frame could be looking at similar supply issues to the Steam Machine. Personally, I'd hope it wasn't the same case as the controller, in that Valve will still be fulfilling backlogged orders into 2027.

Still, if package updates and reservation systems are appearing in Steam's backend, it could be a definite sign that the VR headset is finally, actually, properly about to launch.

If that sounds uncertain, it's because I've been wrong before - it looked like the stage was set for Valve's new visor to launch earlier in the Summer, and we've been hearing rumours about the headset for longer than the controller or new Steam Machine, so it feels at this point like it could very well be a Half Life 3 situation.

For more, take a look at the best Meta Quest accessories. To upgrade your PC before Steam Frame arrives, dive into the best CPU for gaming, and the best RAM for gaming.

Steam has made a top-heavy $15 billion in gross revenue so far this year according to Alinea Analytics market analysis lead Rhys Elliott – and Crimson Desert was its most lucrative new IP by far.

Elliott describes Steam as "Valve's functional monopoly on the PC market" in a new Substack post breaking down its 2026 earnings, which are up around 15% from 2025. Actually, Steam appears to be on track for a historic payday; Elliott explains, "The first eight months of this year have already leapfrogged 2023's total. This year will almost certainly end well above $20 billion for the first time."

Our mortal world is pre-GTA 6, a game some hysterical experts predict to sell up to 30 million copies at launch, at $80 a piece, so there was no one game that multiplied Steam's ludicrous amount of cash this year. However, Alinea does identify a couple of major influences, including Forza Horizon 6 (estimated to have made $210.5 million on Steam), Crimson Desert ($203.3 million), and Resident Evil Requiem ($200.9 million). The only other brand new IP to crack Steam's list of top six earners was Meccha Chameleon, which held its own with approximately $89.8 million, but hardly came close to toppling Crimson Desert's unprecedented success.

"But yeah, in total, these six games make up a little under $1B of 2026's Steam gross revenues so far, accounting for about 6.6%," Elliott says. Though, "It's worth noting Crimson Desert, with its $203M, accounts for about 18% of all new-IP revenue in the top 100."

Otherwise, the bulk of Steam's money bags come from what analyst Joost van Dreunen calls mid-market games, which Elliott says mostly includes aging AAA titles like GTA 5, Fallout 4, and Lost Ark, as well as purely "mid-tier" games which are selling well – like Mortal Shell 2 – but can't compare to a mainstream beast like Forza Horizon 6.

"The top 100 of new 2026 games by gross revenues this year is about $2.4B, or about 15.9% of 2026's Steam overall revenues so far," says Elliott. "Of the new-game top 100, 63% were actually new IP, but 52.5% of the revenue ($1.25B) came from established IP." Long live the video game middle class.

Crimson Desert soars past 150,000 Steam reviews with Very Positive rating despite story criticism.

From hosting the best Skyrim mods to some of the wildest fan overhauls for The Witcher 3, Nexus Mods is well known as the go-to spot for modding any and every PC game – and, now, it's also the parent company of SteamDB.

In case you're not familiar with the latter, SteamDB came to life back in 2013 as a fan project led by Pavel "xPaw" Djundik and Marlamin. The two were interested in Valve's ever-growing catalogue of computer games, hoping to track them and their updates.

Since then, it's grown into the largest free database containing just about everything on Steam's listings, from their price histories to their expansions to… well, you name it, honestly.

Understandably, it's not an easy database to manage – and that's why, as xPaw writes in a new announcement, Nexus Mods has officially acquired SteamDB.

"When Marlamin and I decided to start this project back in 2013, we were driven by pure curiosity and a desire to make helpful public services for the community," he recalls. "We were young and passionate" – and, of course, fans "of Valve's games."

That's why "creating a project like SteamDB has been a natural progression of that drive," but it got big… huge, even.

"Years went on," as xPaw states, "and the site kept growing and the amount of relentless work kept increasing. Marlamin decided to step back from the project for personal reasons. That was around the time Steam Direct launched, and the number of games and new users has exploded since then."

With its increased size came increased difficulty in management. "With its helpfulness came growth, but that doesn't come for free," as xPaw says. "I have always considered SteamDB to be my hobby, but the amount of hours I have worked on it could be considered a full-time job. It was pure passion, and the ever increasing self inflicted workload has taken its toll."

According to the SteamDB mastermind, he began "experiencing burnout."

He tried to search for a new team to take over, but he couldn't find anybody reliable, so he stuck it through. Nothing ever got easier, though.

"Steam keeps growing, in terms of games, players, and the number of new features being added. It's hard to keep on top of this alone, and the mental load has only kept increasing, and in good conscience I cannot continue like this. Running a service like SteamDB is not easy."

One thing that xPaw isn't willing to do, however, is let the database go down. So, he once again embarked on a journey to find help in January – and, "This is where Nexus Mods comes in."

Much like SteamDB, as its creator points out, Nexus Mods "grew from a passion project into a service relied upon by tens of millions of people." This means a lot to xPaw, as he wanted a team that understands his own position.

Despite fans' fears regarding the acquisition – which I've already seen making the rounds on X and Reddit – he assures that "SteamDB will continue to be SteamDB. The goal is not to change what makes the project special, but to give it the resources, development capacity and long-term stability that I could no longer provide alone."

As for the folks over at Nexus Mods itself, CEO Victor Folmann and founder of Chosen, its parent company, issued a statement.

"SteamDB is exactly the kind of project we want to be a home for," it reads. "Pavel has spent 13 years building something remarkable that millions of gamers, developers and publishers have come to rely on. We don't take the responsibility of becoming its next steward lightly. Our job isn't to change what makes SteamDB special."

Instead, it's to provide resources and the long-term stability it deserves," Folmann explains.

"There will be things we want to improve and new things we want to build, but we'll do that thoughtfully. SteamDB has earned the trust of its community over more than a decade, and our job is to earn the right to carry that trust forward."

What are those things, though? Well, there's no real way to tell until either xPaw or Nexus Mods announce them. Here's hoping it all works out regardless… I know I personally frequent both sites, anyway.

Searching for some new games to play? Check our roundup of the best PC games available to experience right now.

Molleindustria, the developer behind an open-world indie game that Valve has flagged as adult-only despite its teen rating, is still trying to figure out what's going on.

"We are currently at Gamescom in Cologne," Molleindustria wrote on Bluesky, "everyone is asking us why they can't see the PAGE of a Teen rated game."

The game, Future? No Thanks!, is far from an adult game, but currently can't be seen by a majority of users and is completely unavailable in Germany due to a law requiring age verification for games of that type.

Molleindustria has been tracking the game's extended approval process for about a month on Bluesky. In July, Valve determined that it contains "sexual content that is explicit or graphic and is intended for adults only" and "frequent nudity or sexual content," which the developer said was not true. Valve also determined an achievement called "Have Sex One Last Time" had an inappropriate title or icon.

After removing a mild sex scene and resubmitting the game, Valve has still not removed the pornography label, grouping the game up with all the other adult games on Steam.

"This has been the most humiliating and surreal experience in 20+ years of gaming making," the developer wrote. "I'm desperately looking for anybody who knows anybody at Valve that can at least tell me what's going on."

Valve's stance on sexual content in games has been historically vague and inconsistent, forcing developers to go back and forth with it or be forced to publish games elsewhere. It's not a good look for the biggest digital platform on PC to make it a gamble on whether or not it'll bury your game in a category most people won't see.

Future? No Thanks! is indeed a game with darker themes, focusing on the final days of a conservative man in a leftist utopia. It does not, however, contain anything close to what actual adult games do on Steam. The Steam page specifically calls out that it has things like drug and tobacco references and sexual innuendo, but nothing explicit.

Like a lot of these situations where Valve puts its stamp on a game without much explanation, Molleindustria will just have to wait and see if the company decides to change its mind.

GTA 6 shown mercy by indie dev who previously planned to "humiliate Rockstar" by releasing their open-world game on the same day

Emmanuel Rosier, director of market intelligence at analyst firm Newzoo, says he personally doesn't see the Epic Games Store being able to recover against Steam.

Speaking to PC Gamer, he says, "I don't really see how they can turn that around," adding that "Steam has become so inevitable."

He further explains, "the Epic Games Store, they get players by giving free games, but people just go, they log in, they get the free games, they don't even play them. You know, it's almost like collecting games rather than actually playing them."

Rosier reckons part of the issue with Epic is the company's larger attempts to win on all fronts, saying, "They try to win against Steam, they try to win against Apple, against Google Play, and probably they run out of steam on where they cannot fight all these battles at the same time."

Obviously, Epic is doing well overall thanks to Fortnite, with Rosier saying, "They probably need to focus on what really matters. You can see they put a lot of thought in Fortnite right now. They are doing everything they can, and I think it's working better when you look at the state of Fortnite today compared to six months or one year ago."

He notes that one element of Fortnite that works is that "they are not afraid of other games" overtaking it.

"It's funny because it's a gaming platform that's not even competing any more with other games. Because if you are launching a game, it makes sense to do some marketing within Fortnite," while saying he's "almost surprised" that GTA 6 isn't doing a trailer event within Fortnite.

Epic Games Store vice president and GM Martin Keely issued a statement to PC Gamer in response to Rosier's comments, though, claiming that "the data tells a very different story."

Keely states, "In 2025, players spent a record 2.78 billion hours playing third-party games on the Epic Games Store and player spending on third-party PC games grew 57% to an all-time record $400 million. With the improved launcher that's coming this year, that momentum is only going to accelerate."

Newzoo itself said that "these remarks should not be treated as a Newzoo market assessment," however. And, while the numbers may be getting better on the Epic Games Store, Rosier is correct about one thing: Steam is inevitable.

Valve turned 30 years old today, and for the majority of its life, Steam has been the place to play PC games. And, while the Epic launcher will continue to do well off of the back of it being the only place you can get Fortnite, Steam is almost too big to fall behind. It would take some massive shifts for things to change.

Epic Games boss calls Steam AI disclosures "really irresponsible of Valve" as they make it "much, much, much harder for a game developer to have a chance of success"

The Elder Scrolls 6, rumored to be called Sentinel, will be out… Uh, at some point, despite being teased back in 2019. Uncertain title aside, one of the very few things we do know about The Elder Scrolls 6 is that it will be running on yet another incarnation of Bethesda's proprietary Creation Engine, as will Fallout 5 after that.

Ah, the Creation Engine! The foundational code for every game Bethesda has made since Skyrim – and arguably earlier, having been built off elements of the code used for Fallout 3 in 2008. I'm not here to litigate whether that's overall a good thing for Bethesda's work. Creation Engine has its advantages and disadvantages, like any engine, some of which impact players and others that benefit those on the development side.

I admit I've found Bethesda's games in recent years to have a clunky, archaic quality that's getting less charming every time. I can't say how much of that is down to Creation Engine itself and how much is just Bethesda's notorious jank, but it's high time that Creation Engine gets pushed to its limit in the next Elder Scrolls game to deliver a more refined action experience.

Very gouda

One defense of Creation Engine that I've seen often is regarding its memory and the way it handles object placement.

Yes, loading screens on every door might be a bit tiresome to some, but that compartmentalization of data (as I understand it), means you can do the whole "place 1000 cheeses and/or sweetrolls on the king's head" shtick, and Skyrim will remember the exact location of every single one for the rest of your playthrough. It'll even make a fair attempt at mimicking the physics involved in large cheese piles!

While this elasticity is definitely good for modders, I don't think Bethesda has fully taken advantage of this quality when it comes to the vanilla gameplay experience yet. Yes, it's noticeably there when a grenade blast flings loose objects around in Starfield. But it's often tertiary, if involved at all.

Meanwhile, look at Half-Life 2 as a counter-example. When Valve debuted its revolutionary physics engine, the system was completely built around players understanding and exploiting it, whether in combat, exploration and puzzles.

On an interactive gameplay level, the physicality of Creation Engine is largely used for interior decorating, letting players hang dragon bones and digital clocks on shelves in their bases, knowing they'll still be there when they get back. And yes, that's a good thing for a very specific type of role-player, but for the rest of us who are here to stab dragons, Creation Engine doesn't feel like it's extrapolating the full potential of what's there.

To be clear, I'm not arguing for or against it. But if we are still using Creation Engine, it's time to really use it. To design puzzles that involve laying out items, to emphasize the telekinetic magic that throws things around, to work out the physics to such a degree that players can tangibly benefit from understanding and exploiting it. If nothing else, it'll make Bethesda's work feel richer than ever, without losing the qualities that the fans love.

For inspiration, check out our list of the best RPGs!

A three-year-old clip of Valve boss Gabe Newell dissecting the place of realism in games has resurfaced online amidst discussions of GTA 6 gameplay leaks suggesting cars in Rockstar's universe now use a realistic gasoline system which requires players to refuel them.

The response to this fuel system, even as part of a game build that may be outdated and which we've only seen a brief slice of, has been mixed. Some players embrace this added friction and detail, but others seem to worry that this gasoline system, assuming it's born out by the shipped game, will quickly become annoying upkeep.

In multiple debates on this feature, gamers and GTA fans have pointed to Newell's examination of realism in 2023's Half-Life 25th anniversary documentary. Around 15:40, at the start of one of the clips mentioned in GTA 6 leak debates, Newell dismisses the idea that games should pursue realism as a default.

"You'd have these conversations where you'd be sitting in a design review and somebody'd say, 'That's not realistic,'" Newell begins. "And you're like, 'OK. What does that have to – explain to me why that's interesting.' Because in the real world, I have to write up lists of stuff I have to go to the grocery store to buy. And I have never thought to myself that realism is fun. I go play games to have fun."

This has to be one of the most-cited Newell quotes around, and it holds up today. We frequently talk about how much more realistic some video games have become, often in discussions of lighting or NPC behavior, but games are still deliberately removed from reality for many reasons. Reality can be tedious and limiting, for one, and it turns out it's also very difficult to recreate.

The more realistic a game becomes, the more questions it has to answer. And the more questions a game has to answer, the more exceptions it has to make, sometimes to the detriment of gameplay or, ironically, immersion. We're getting to the core of why games generally aim to construct, and get players to believe, a reality that services their gameplay goals instead of trying to make absolutely everything true-to-life.

But for my money, the most interesting part is what Newell says next: how realism can be fun in games, and what it actually means.

"So we had to come up with some notion of what fun was," Newell continues. "We knew it was an ad hoc definition, and it was: the degrees to which the game recognizes and responded to the player's choices and actions. In behavioral science, you would say we're explicitly talking about what were reinforcers and what the reinforcement schedules were. At that point in time, that was a useful way of making design decisions."

Positive reinforcers encourage or reward behavior in a way that makes that behavior more likely to be repeated. The Skinner box, an experiment that saw animals trained to receive a reward like food by pressing a button, is one example that often comes up in game design discussions.

Here, a reinforcer would mean that a game acknowledging something you did and giving it observable consequences, big or small, makes it feel meaningful and makes you more likely to do something again. If you shoot a demon in Doom: The Dark Ages, it gets ripped apart in chunks. If you shoot a barrel in Borderlands 4, it explodes. If you shoot a random character in Fallout 4, the whole story may change. But you wouldn't shoot a random character to change the story of Doom, nor do Borderlands 4's barrels realistically buckle and leak fuel before exploding. Because now we've got realism working for games, rather than games working for realism.

This reward space is where you'll find immersive sims with seemingly impossible interaction chains that enable alternative solutions. This is where The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom lets you drop 50 metal weapons on the ground to connect an electric circuit instead of engaging with intended puzzle pieces. It's where crunchy, reactive RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 blow players away by accounting for the fringe corner cases they got themselves into. And it's partly why Half-Life's convincing and systemic physics were so popular and, even outside the walls of FPS, formative.

The intent behind these and other design decisions isn't limited to reinforcement, but behavioral psychology is part of a lot of things in games – spaces that provide the agency we crave with the safety of play.

But where does pumping gas in GTA 6 fall – in Newell's grocery store rant, or in the magic of games carefully deploying realism? Personally, I don't think some shoddy leak videos are going to tell us.

"The point I would make is: if I go up to a wall and shoot it, to me it feels like the wall is ignoring me," Newell concludes. "I'm getting a narcissistic injury when the world is ignoring me. So to me, I was trying to convey to the user a sense of, yes, you were making choices, yes, you were progressing. Which meant the game had to acknowledge that back to you. If you shoot at a wall, there have to be [damage] decals. If you kill a bunch of marines, the marines have to run away from you. You have to have this sense of the game acknowledging and responding to the choices and actions and progressions that you've made. Otherwise, it loses any sort of impact."

To "obtain the identity" of GTA 6 leaker, Rockstar parent Take-Two subpoenas Microsoft and Discord as yet more gameplay footage is posted.

I am once again reporting to you that the Steam Frame might be launching soon™. It's been years (actual years) since we first heard about Valve's next VR headset through rumors, Gabe Newell referring to its existence, its days labelled as Valve Deckard, and it's even been the better part of a year since Valve officially revealed it.

Following delays and a launch window of "sometime this summer", we've now had close to 10 minutes' worth of user guide videos leak online as Steam store assets, and it doesn't seem like Valve is that fussed about them staying in the public eye because they're still available to watch on Reddit and multiple sources on YouTube. At this point, does Valve even care about trying to keep this thing under wraps ahead of launch?

Among the leaked clips we have are unboxing, fit, login, IPD, wireless adapter, controller straps and accessories, and headstrap setup videos. All are a few minutes or so in length, detailing handy tutorial processes for the new setup.

You can see all of the videos by clicking through the linked Reddit post above, or you can watch them all strung together on YouTube thanks to Tyriel Wood - VR Tech's channel.

We've seen plenty about this headset already, so I wouldn't necessarily say we've learned all that many "new" bits of information about it from the videos, but it's certainly interesting to know more about how the headset will function on a practical level.

For example, there's an IPD lock to make sure your lenses stay in place between sessions so that your perfect optical setup doesn't get lost each time you use it. Similarly, glasses wearers are satiated by a clever, magnetic spacer you can put under the facial interface, which will mean you're less likely to damage the lenses by smushing your glasses into them.

Signing in to the headset can be done through the mobile app or manually on the headset's virtual keyboard. Valve even makes comment on these being less than ideal and "clunky" methods of logging in, but "historically accurate".

Also present is an ergonomic accessories kit which includes a larger light guard for users with smaller noses, some wrist straps for the controllers, and a top headstrap to make your fit more secure.

Weeks ago now, I falsely predicted that we'd see the headset launch imminently, since we were seeing similar signposting and leaked details to when the Steam Controller and Steam Machine were just weeks away from hitting the shelves. That included shipping manifests that showed VR headsets from Valve arriving in warehouses, as well as an influx of Steam Frame assets and tags hitting the Steam store.

To my shame, I was wrong about that, which also tracks since it was suggested Valve was still working on the headset's gamepad mode feature that allows you to use the Steam Frame's controllers as a split gamepad to play flat-screen games.

I thought for sure that we'd get the Steam Frame by this point in the summer. If I get really granular about it, we're now looking at a similar gap between the Steam Machine and Steam Frame's launches (7.5 weeks) as we had between the Steam Controller and Steam Machine (8 weeks). Does that point to the headset arriving soon? I'd say yes, but I've been wrong before, and I've now been reporting on this headset through rumours and predictions for so long I'm losing faith Valve will ever actually launch it.

Will it be retired into gaming's fever dream history like Half Life 3? While we're on hypotheticals and predictions, I also asked all of you how much the Steam Frame should cost, and I was a little shocked at the result. Even so, I'm still convinced that this device could be the VR market's Steam Deck moment.

You can stream games from one of the best gaming PCs or one of the best gaming laptops straight into the Steam Frame headset.

The creator of open-world game Future? No Thanks! says Valve has repeatedly flagged his game as deserving an adult-only rating on par with outright porn games, yet refused to explain its reasoning, reflecting what he calls a "monopoly" on PC gaming that forces devs to comply with opaque rules.

Aftermath spoke to several game developers about the difficult and awkward process of getting games with sexual content rated and approved on Steam. Pedercini's Future? No Thanks! is a comparatively tame open-world game about exploring an "ecosocialist eutopia" as an old man "scheduled for euthanasia."

It's definitely a mature game, but from what I've seen and what Pedercini is saying, it's very far from pornographic. It feels closer to comedy of a Futurama variety. Yet the disclaimer for its Steam demo insists the game contains "implied off-screen sexual activity. Conversations about mature themes such as sex, gender, and death. Depiction of legalized prostitution. Depiction of euthanasia. Drug and tobacco reference sexual innuendos mild swearing [sic]."

Pedercini maintains that the game "has some brief nudity and mature content… but there's no intercourse on screen," and while he's open to adjusting content to meet Steam's standards for a rating which won't kill the game's visibility, he's unsure what needs changing.

"Steam is a monopoly with very few precedents," he says. "As a developer, I’m completely at their whim."

This is something I've heard from many game developers publishing on Steam: the store can be great when it's in your corner, but working against it in any way can feel impossible.

Even after "all the nudity" was removed, by which Pedercini means "putting clothes on the sex worker and the sexbot," the game was rejected again on the grounds that it "contains sexual content that is explicit or graphic and is intended for adults only." However, Pedercini says Valve claims it "can't specify the reasons or point at the content" in question.

Valve is notorious for arbitrarily blocking games with sexual or mature content despite allowing a torrent of actual pornographic games on Steam. There was also a huge stink last year after Valve cracked under pressure from payment processor-pushed censorship and took a sledgehammer to swathes of adult games. Itch.io faced similar issues, which collectively forced countless NSFW games off stores.

The other half of this equation is its alleged monopoly, which is widely argued given its dominance on PC, but is still more contentious.

Games analyst Mat Piscatella commented on this last year, arguing that Steam is not a monopoly simply because of its market share.

"A monopoly is where there's a single seller for a particular service or good with no substitutes and the ability to charge excessively high rates because of this," he said at the time.

One question is whether Steam's dominance is due to Valve actively boxing out competitors, or due to Steam simply being that much better than other PC storefronts and thus eating their lunch passively. Ask Amazon and Epic Games how difficult it is to make a Steam competitor. '

"It's almost as if it isn't providing a shit service," as Baldur's Gate 3 publishing lead Michael Doluse put it.

Valve has repeatedly been accused of, and taken to court over, monopolistic practices on Steam. Earlier this year, deposition from Gabe Newell, attached to a US class action lawsuit mirroring a UK case likewise accusing Valve of abusing its position, emerged. Newell argued that gamers "have enormous choice" and claimed "Valve does not have a policy or practice of dictating prices to third-party software developers on other platforms."

I actually met and spoke to Pedercini earlier this year to discuss another heated topic: why indie devs don't want to use generative AI.

Pedercini showed mercy to GTA 6 by shifting his own open-world game's release date away from Rockstar's.

Gabe Newell's appearance at Dota 2's The International 2026 opening ceremony is both rare and expected – an infrequent video message from the soft-retired Valve chief, but a staple of the annual Dota 2 tournament.

"15 years ago, I had the pleasure of welcoming players and fans to the very first International," Newell says at the end of a video posted by Valve's Dota 2 YouTube channel. "A lot has changed since then. Dota itself has changed. It's always evolving, and the best players and teams evolve with it. The Aegis of Champions itself has changed. 58 players have etched their name on that epic trophy. Those players have left their mark on the Aegis, and on the game we all love.

"But there's one thing that never changes. Whether you're at the arena in Shanghai or watching from home, the skill, the passion, the talent of these players is always worth celebrating. And that's what we're here to do. So thank you to the fans for joining us. Thank you to the city of Shanghai for hosting us once again. And thank you to the players for giving us something to celebrate. Today, the finest Dota players in the world will strive to claim the Aegis of Champions. To all of those in the arena, to all of those who are joining us from around the world, I am honored to say: welcome to The International."

The International 2026 is well underway, with over 114,000 people watching the English YouTube version of the tournament stream at the time of writing (currently, Nigma Galaxy vs. Team Falcons). Online, Valve followers seem more enamored with Newell's video message, and his slimmed appearance.

"New Chad Gabe Look Just Dropped," reads a hot post on the Valve subreddit.

"I’m so happy he lost all that weight. Probably bought another 10 to 15 years of life with us," a top reply adds.

"I'm just happy he looks healthy! More time among us," says a third.

A similar post to the LivestreamFail subreddit has attracted similar comments. "I lowkey miss THICC Gabe, but he looks so much healthier now. Really happy for him," says one user.

Valve's video is likewise unable to escape Gaben chanting. "Lord Gaben is getting healthier, love to see it. He looks slimmer than last year's announcement video," reads one top YouTube comment.

For many years, Newell has sat in the center of a nearly unheard-of venn diagram: billionaire CEO and beloved public figure. Enthusiastically pushing AI and dropping hundreds of millions of dollars on yachting and oceanic exploration from a position orbiting, but no longer at the heart, of Valve's operations hasn't dimmed the appreciation or outright affection for the patron saint of Steam sales, praised by fans for pro-consumer policies and level-headed takes on piracy and pricing.

Valve's Gabe Newell still plays at least one game of Dota 2 "every day" in his 60s, so hopefully he's past the noob phase he was stuck in even "after 800 hours."

The Steam Controller has dominated the spotlight of the gamepad market this year, but that might be about to change. Gaming accessory brand Genki is launching what it calls its "most ambitious project yet" on Kickstarter, a mammoth of a controller that combines some of the most standout features of some of the best PC controllers on the shelves today.

The Genki Manta is available to support on Kickstarter now, and to name but a few of its standout features, it's got six extra mappable buttons, a color display with its own MantaOS, TMR thumbsticks with adjustable tension, full gyro, trigger stops, pulse buttons that sense full travel, and a unique shape.

The reason I'm deeming this a big threat to the Steam Controller's appeal, however, is that it has "on-the-fly KBM" functionality that turns the Manta into a keyboard and mouse for you to navigate a PC with. That's undoubtedly the signature feature of Valve's TMR controller, since its trackpads allow you to navigate a PC from the comfort of a couch, bed, or wherever, really.

The Genki Manta also utilizes TMR technology, but it could end up outperforming Valve's gamepad thanks to easily adjustable stick tension, the likes of which we've only seen from the FlyDigi Vader 5S and its predecessors. This can make a massive difference in making a controller feel like your own, and tailoring it to different genres of games.

Like most controllers with a display, the Manta's main appeal for many may just be that 27-inch full-color screen, but it looks like the addition of a dedicated operating system, MantaOS, is going to take this particular gamepad to the next level of gamepad screen technology, perhaps even past the Manba One. MantaOS will allow you to customize profiles, connections, and fine-tune settings, but you can also run custom apps, with one clip in the Kickstarter trailer even showing it playing a Space Invaders-like game.

Alongside all of these features, Manta will also utilize Maglev Haptics, which the product designers say are aimed directly into your palms to communicate detailed feedback more clearly. Obviously, the PS5's DualSense is the gold standard for this, but it relies on its firmware and dedicated support from game devs for you to get the most out of it - I'll be interested to see how the Manta compares.

Of course, the elephant in the room is the Manta's very unique shape, which Genki admits is unlike any other pad on the market. Personally, I'd argue it takes a few design directions from Valve. I'm yet to try any of Genki's controller grips, but given the brand has a history of making these sorts of gaming accessories, I have faith its unique design will translate to ergonomic gamepad design.

Another unique feature is that the Manta's face buttons will be able to sense the full travel of their actuation; in other words, they'll have less latency (in theory) since they don't need electrical contact at the bottom of their press to register an input. They'll be more like Hall effect key switches or triggers that can register inputs on varying levels. Whether that points to double inputs for versatile types of presses like the DualSense's adaptive triggers further down the line remains to be seen.

The Genki Manta's Super Early Bird offer at Kickstarter will set you back $189, which is already pushing up to the sorts of prices we see for fully licensed Xbox Series X controllers and PS5 controllers, so I hope that doesn't translate to a final price tag, given how the Steam Controller's $100 price went down with consumers.

To make matters worse, that offer says it's 32% off, pointing to a price of $279 without any discount. Let's hope it's not that, because even with a display and a bespoke OS, that's going to make it prohibitively expensive.

The Manta has quoted support for PC, Steam, Switch 1 and 2, macOS, Android, iPhone, iPad, and Vision Pro.

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Steam analysts have found after measuring 98,555 priced games that sandbox titles are some of Steam's highest earners, with something like genre benchmark Palworld earning around $500 million on the platform since its early access launch in 2024. But sandbox games shouldn't get too comfortable – or maybe the genre should consider its stance on gun violence and action-RPG magic, as it's closely followed by first-person shooters and role-playing games.

These details come from a new report by We Love It, a Steam browsing platform that "leverages generative AI" to build "a feed of compelling, original content" that guides you to discovering new games. I think generative AI is the closest thing we have to proof that demonic entities exist, but We Love It is also a project of Totally Human Media's CEO Ichiro Lambe, who co-created Steam Labs, and, therefore, its study is the work of a Steam expert. Lambe, along with Totally Human's marketing lead Matt Martindale, and VaporLens engineer Dr. Tim Ermilov, compiled the report that shows 27.6% of all sandbox games will make at least $100,000.

In comparison, 21.8% of paid FPS make at least $100,000 in revenue, while 19.5% of RPGs hit that number, and just 19% of ARPGs reach the same milestone. These are impressive figures – but only for an exceedingly tiny scoop of games. Across the nearly 100,000 total games with at least one review that the We Love It team analyzed, the median lifetime earnings for a game was a meager $3,631 – "half of all paid games earned less," write the report's authors.

But the most popular sandbox games earned much, much more. Palworld, with its approximate $500 million revenue, sits at the "top 0.00% of all paid games on Steam," according to the report. Terraria and survival sandbox game Ark rank similarly, with lifetime earnings estimated at $540 million and $400 million, respectively.

Intriguingly, while the less flashy, more flesh-oriented visual novel genre failed to break the top five kinds of games that earn a minimum of $100,000, its median earnings came the closest to the average sandbox game; visual novels earn a median of $7,012 compared to sandbox games' $7,973 on Steam. So, if there's a lesson here, let it be that more sandbox games should include anime girls with knives.

Behold, "the whole story of Steam's economy in one picture": the top 1% of games earn 84.5% of estimated revenue, and most games barely make anything.

New analysis of 99,206 Steam games illustrates just how extreme the economics can be on Valve's PC gaming emporium, with a full half of paid games earning well under an estimated $4,000 while the upper crust gross anywhere from $15 million to several billion.

This research comes from game discovery hub We Love It. Totally Human Media's Ichiro Lambe and Matt Martindale worked with VaporLens' Dr. Tim Ermilov to analyze 99,206 paid games, estimate their earnings, and plot genre data. Lambe notably worked at Valve from 2018 to 2020, and he "co-created Steam Labs at Valve to improve game discovery and recommendation," per his LinkedIn profile.

Their analysis comes with the usual Steam research caveat: Valve doesn't publish revenue figures, so they're instead reverse-engineered using user reviews as a base that's then multiplied to estimate sales.

This report also only looks at premium games, meaning free-to-play giants like Valve's Counter-Strike are left out, as are "non-game software, adult-only titles and unreleased entries." The list of 99,206 was selected from a base of 136,281.

The standard multiplier here is 35, so this research assumes one Steam review is worth 35 sales at a game's current listed price, though you can also use a more "conservative" 20 or "generous" 50 in the report's impressive graphs. This ratio is not constant across games in real life, and Steam games always sell more when discounted (unless you're exactly Factorio), so do not take this as gospel.

Despite extremely soft estimates, especially for massive games where one percentage point is worth more money than I'll ever see, the aggregated trends here are still useful and interesting. Many estimates also align with publicly available financial reports as well as other analyst research.

"Half of all paid games on Steam have earned less than an estimated $3,622 in their entire lifetime," the report reads. "A game at the 90th percentile has earned about $236,184, and the 99th percentile starts at $15,872,031."

A scatter plot of game revenue puts this into perspective: a storm of green at the bottom, and a sparse constellation of hits at the top. Around or above the $100 million revenue mark, Half-Life 2, Vampire Survivors, Terraria, Among Us, Stardew Valley, Valheim, Schedule 1, Palworld, and Baldur's Gate 3 shine like stars. At the very top rests our sun: GTA 5. (What's GTA 6, then? A black hole? A supernova?)

"On a linear scale the same chart is a flat line and about two hundred visible dots, which is the whole story of Steam's economy in one picture," the report adds.

A full 8,024 paid games analyzed don't have any reviews at all. Last year, Steam data sleuth Gamalytic estimated that over 5,000 games released in 2025 alone didn't even earn enough to cover the $100 Steam listing fee.

Arguably more striking is the rate of Steam's growth. "Steam's catalogue grew faster than its revenue," the report says, and this has seen those earning extremes widen. A massive 19,714 games were released on Steam in 2024, and 2025 passed even that at 23,107.

Go back just five years and Steam looks very different with 7,427 games released in 2018 – more than even 2019, and the highest on record at the time. 2026 has already doubled that at 15,814 games released, and the year still has several busy months ahead of it.

Steam's revenue, and Valve's earnings, have exploded in the same way. Last month, Alinea Analytics reported that Steam has made Valve more money in the first half of 2026 than in the entirety of 2020. PC gaming is notably the platform showing the most growth in many regions, here in this mature gaming market and cost-of-living crisis.

The extrapolated genre math is also fascinating. Sandbox games have exploded on Steam in recent years, this report finds, and are now the most reliably bankable genre on the whole platform, with both the highest median and top decile revenue. In 2026, sandbox also ranks highest in "crowding vs. payoff," beating out much larger genres in estimated revenue per game.

Other top genres, ranked by estimated revenue, include:

• Visual novel
• Simulation
• RPG
• Horror
• Psychological horror
• Point & Click
• Sports (notably, heavily affected by microtransaction revenue)
• FPS (similar to sports, and also skewed by absent F2P giants like Counter-Strike)

The worst-performing genres on Steam are 3D and 2D platformers, according to this report, and data showing "when each genre peaked" suggests they've only struggled more in recent years. The action and adventure genres are so broad and popular that they've been giants for years, but simulation and strategy games are seemingly gaining on them in terms of new games released.

Obviously, this genre math is also a little opaque. Would a hit like Hollow Knight: Silksong go in 2D platformers, or, with no Metroidvania tag, the broad "Exploration" or "Action" tags? "A game counts towards a genre only when the tag is one of its six most popular tags," the report explains.

This may be the most comprehensive, best-presented report I've seen for this side of Steam, and it really underscores an old adage of the internet age: for every breakout success story, there's surely hundreds or thousands failures.

After earning $1 million on Steam from a game that took 4 months to make, stunned devs end up in Valve's coveted "chocolate tier."

Customers who bought a Steam Controller or Steam Machine in Europe may have had their data stolen, as Valve has issued a warning to its customers in the region telling them to "expect fake messages". Thankfully, no one who ordered the best PC controller or best gaming PC contender has had their payment details breached, but more basic information could still lead to trouble.

"Between July 29 2026 and August 1, 2026, a cyberattack hit CEVA Logistics, the company that ships Steam hardware to customers in Europe", says an email sent from Valve.

"CEVA is still investigating this attack, but as Valve learned on August 7, certain information about Steam customers, including you, was likely compromised," read the email.

Valve's statement goes on to explain that CEVA is one of the brand's partners for shipping its hardware to customers within the Europe region, and that because CEVA maintains its customer info for 90 days in the event of returns and problems, Steam customers are impacted.

While no payment info seems to be on the chopping block, Valve has helpfully provided the details that have most likely been stolen:

• Your name
• Your street address, postal code and city
• Your country
• Your phone number
• Your email address — the same one your Steam account uses
• The type and price of the ordered product

Thankfully, Valve also assures in their email that "Additional information related to your Steam account or other purchases was not impacted".

In an attempt to counter any harmful misuse of this customer information, the Steam Controller maker has said that people should expect to see fake messages that pose as being from Valve or Steam, or its delivery company.

"They may quote your address back to you to prove they're genuine. They may ask you to confirm a delivery, pay a small customs or redelivery fee, or sign somewhere to 'verify' your order. Treat all of them as fake".

Valve has said that it's pressing its European partner for more details on the full scale of the data breach, and it's notifying the data protection authorities in affected territories. However, neither CEVA nor Valve can point to a confirmed "how" this data breach happened.

Thankfully, this does seem to be isolated to European territories, so US readers need not worry just now. Either way, this is a good excuse to caution anyone who might have ordered or pre-ordered a Steam Machine, Controller, or is thinking about the upcoming Steam Frame VR headset, so check all your emails from Steam thrice to ensure they're legit and you aren't accidentally playing into scammers' hands.

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Many of the best gaming handhelds have seen their prices shoot North in 2026 so far, and the Steam Deck is among the more egregious MSRP increases. Now sitting at $789 in its basic 512GB configuration, the Steam Deck OLED - like the rest of the market - has seen a considerable markup in recent months. That's why the few discounts we do see are so important.

One of Valve's biggest competitors has just delivered. The Lenovo Legion Go S has dropped to $635.54 at the brand's own store this week (was $1,137.41). I'm normally checking back in on discounts of just a couple hundred bucks here, but we're down a full 44% right now - a hair over $500 in your pocket.

This is where I get the bad news out of the way. We didn't review the Lenovo Legion Go S particularly favorably - but I'll caveat that with the fact that Phil checked out the Windows version. A lot of their concerns stem from that finnicky handheld operating system - taking Microsoft out of the picture the handheld received "almost full marks for design" while its adjustable triggers and improved controls garnered praise as well.

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At launch, with last year's pricing landscape, the Legion Go S felt a little short with its AMD Ryzen Z2 GO processor. Today? Things look a little more favorable in light of that new $635 price tag.

After all, this thing comfortably beat out the much older Steam Deck OLED in our benchmarks - all with a larger, faster display running at a higher resolution. No, you're not getting that OLED panel up top, but you are getting a more impressive screen overall.

Here's how we benched the Windows version last year:

Ultimately, if you're looking for a mid-range handheld in the three-figure price range right now you've got three options; pay over the odds for a Steam Deck OLED, pay slightly over for the Lenovo Legion Go S, or opt for the $600 Xbox ROG Ally.

If you're after a Windows experience, there's no problem. Ditch the deal, head to Amazon, and grab the $599 ROG Ally. You'll be dropping speed from the Z2 Go's additional GPU cores, but you'll have an easier time loading games from other storefronts. Otherwise, today's discount alleviates some of the pricing pressure we've been feeling in the mid-range handheld market for some time now.

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We're also hunting down all the best retro handhelds to store your collection, or take a look at the best gaming laptops and best gaming tablets for more portable play.

People are really out here porting Half-Life to the PlayStation 1.

Manny, of Bonnie Studios, is a self-described "software engineer, guitarist, and game developer from Sicily." His debut YouTube video promises "Half-Life on a Real PlayStation 1," and 14 minutes of glorious 1998 technology revisited with 2026 technology bears that promise out.

"Not an emulator and not a demake: a renderer and game runtime written from scratch in Rust," Manny stresses.

Manny is more broadly known for PSoXide, a PS1 development tech stack that, per his Itch.io page, covers an "emulator + Rust SDK + game engine + editor + asset pipeline." In this case, Half-Life was written fully for the Rust coding language without reliance on a traditional emulator, and is running on a proper PS1 console – in this case, "direct capture" off an SCPH-9002 model PS1.

"This is the full Hazard Course, all seven maps, start to finish in one sitting with no cuts," Manny explains in the video description. The Hazard Course is basically the tutorial prologue for Half-Life – a good sandbox for a demonstration like this.

"The deaths, the retries, the moment I get stuck inside a wall and die, and the audio glitches are all still in it," Manny asserts. "It averages around 17fps, holding 20 most of the time and dropping to 10-16 in the widest areas. The capture chain adds about 100ms between the pad and the picture, so it plays tighter on the console than it looks here."

As a quick refresher, the PS1 was released in North America by Sony in 1995, Valve dropped Half-Life in 1998, and the significantly more powerful PS2 arrived in 2000. Lauded for its advanced tech and physics, Half-Life launched on PC and only came to the PS2 in 2001.

Getting the game running at all on a system that predates it by several years is pretty impressive work, even if artifact-like graphical distortions do make it look like protagonist Gordon Freeman pounded back a few benadryl cocktails garnished with melatonin gummies before work.

I can't help but wonder if the AI-generated code that evidently went into the project played a part in that oddness, too, for all Manny's assurances that his "pre-AI coding background" and "core decision" shaped the programming. AI use in ports like this has become a battleground, with some teams targeting specific games just to outdo what they call vibe-coded slop. And GamesRadar+ has extensively covered why game developers in general don't want to use generative AI in any capacity.

Manny lays out just "some" of the workarounds necessary to fit 10 pounds of game into a 5-pound console: "BSP traversal doubling as painter's order for the ordering table, PVS culling, 16 colour CLUTs at 4 bits per pixel, LZ4 map chunks streamed into a static buffer, animation frames pre-posed at cook time because there is no FPU and no heap, SPU ADPCM audio and 27 Red Book CD tracks on the disc."

Which is all to say: squeezing blood from stone.

This being a fan effort, Manny says he's reached out to Valve "asking them to greenlight the project" before releasing the source code. "For legal reasons there will never be a downloadable disc image or a ready-to-play build," he adds. But if Valve miraculously gives him the thumbs up, or if he has "not heard back in a month or so," he says "I will take that as no objection and make it public."

Manny is doing much better than the company that promised and sold a Portal-inspired Steam Machine Companion Cube case "without ever asking Valve" for permission.

"Once released you will need your own lawfully obtained Steam copy of Half-Life: the converter reads it on your own machine and builds the disc from there," Manny adds. That, and you'll need a PS1.

On Twitter, Manny reveals that his next project hopes to get "Minecraft-style worlds running natively on PlayStation 1 hardware." That's full "chunk streaming, day/night, mobs and caves on a 33MHz CPU."

Earlier this month, a designer at Valve recreated Half-Life 2's Ravenholm in the company's new Source 2 engine, saying he was "blown away at powerful these tools are."

The "final game" from Half-Life 2 and Dishonored's late art director has been revealed: "The world's first Soulslike FPS," an apocalyptic Western at "the end of America."

Despite the high demand for its hardware, the lengthy delays for its launch, and a shortage of computing parts to manufacture them with, Valve is reassuring us that it's staying on pace with Steam Machine orders. In fact, the brand says anyone currently on the reserve list for the best gaming PC alternative will have the option to buy before the year is out.

Conversely, Valve previously said that the Steam Controller is in such high demand that it will be running late until 2027. The brand issued an update via blog post to report its progress on Steam Machine supply and demand.

"We’re fulfilling orders on a daily basis, sending out emails to reservation holders with the option to purchase in the order in which they landed on the list post-randomization", it reads.

"We expect everyone in the reservation queue will have the option to purchase by the end of this year."

Of course, the caveat here is that this changes per region, and per SKU/bundle of the Steam Machine you've reserved. Numbers of all of these configurations will vary from region to region, and so comparing to the pace of orders in different territories probably isn't an accurate marker of how long you'll need to wait.

There's also the waitlist to think about, as not everyone was able to reserve the mini-PC/console right away. "Importantly, no one on the waitlist is leapfrogging over anyone currently holding a reservation;" Valve said on the matter. "We're only dipping into waitlists if and when we reach the end of the reservation queue for that product and region."

Valve says folks on the reservation list should expect an email to offer a chance to purchase, and if they still plan to buy the Machine, they need to act on it within 72 hours or risk being left to the side:

"If you have a reservation, you can expect an email offering you the chance to purchase by the end of the year. If you have a spot on one of the waitlists, there is a chance you could be moved into reservations depending on which product you're on the list for; in those instances we will email you about your new reservation status first, with a purchase email to follow once your spot in that queue comes up."

Elsewhere in the blog post, Valve also said there had been updates to the performance of the Steam Machine, specifically that FSR4.1 is now available on Proton Experimental for titles supporting the FSR upgrade. Moreover, the CAD file for Steam Machine external geometry is available for download.

Valve making optimistic statements about its progress with Steam Machine orders could be a sign of hope for those eagerly awaiting an announcement about the Steam Frame. Although we haven't heard about the new VR headset's price and launch date, we've been seeing similar signposting to that of before the Steam Machine and Steam Controller's launch. If Valve is making progress with the demand of the Machine, maybe its new VR headset isn't too far off.

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Last week, I added a poll to a report I wrote up about the upcoming Steam Frame. Since we're still waiting on a price and release date for the new visor, I asked what price you think it should be. Honestly, I'm a little surprised by the results, and maybe even a little worried that the results might enable Valve to charge a lot for its new VR headset.

In a total pool of 738 votes, a safe lead of 33% of folks said that the Steam Frame should cost between $699-$799. This bracket would land it above the full-fat Meta Quest 3, but underneath the most recent generation of elite gaming handheld PCs. Personally, this is the price I'd like to see it launch at, but with the current economy of the tech world being as it is (thanks a lot, AI companies), I wouldn't be at all surprised if this range is a pipe dream.

25% of readers who responded to the poll said that the Steam Frame should be priced between $799 - $899 as a happy medium. Combined with the 244 votes for the answer above, the 184 votes here cast a majority of 58% of people who think the Steam Frame should cost under $899.

That part is reassuring; I certainly wouldn't like to see a Steam VR headset costing more than that since it's too near to the Valve Index, which was known as a prohibitively pricey bit of technology. What worries me, and what I hope Valve doesn't see, is the 42% of voters who said the new goggles should cost between $899-$1,099.

The state of the gaming hardware market is in disrepair right now, with rising costs, stock shortages, and a potential (scary) future where no one can afford to truly own anything. I fully expect the Steam Frame to be priced somewhere in these higher ranges, but I sure hope it isn't.

VR as a whole feels like it's on the ropes right now, or at least, that's my perception as someone who covers the industry from week to week.

I love VR gaming and think it has a really strong future ahead of it, but getting people to see that is only going to get more difficult if we continue to see the biggest, mainstream headsets cost that much. The Apple Vision Pro definitely seemed like an alluring concept until Apple decided to pour a bottle of hot sauce in its eyes by charging over $3,000 for it.

Let's not forget also that VR is a more niche side of gaming tech to begin with when compared to a Steam Machine, other PC, or games console. That means the potential number of people interested in buying it will be smaller, so you're narrowing down the potential consumer base for the Steam Frame if you price it prohibitively.

152 people voted for $899-$999 in the poll, and 158 voters said the Frame should cost $999-$1,099, so both answers had 41% to their names.

Maybe it's time to address the wording of the question, because I do think that could have come into play with the results. I'm sure there were plenty of people voting as though the question asked what price the headset will be. In that case, those votes for the more expensive options could be more pessimistic than they are an expression of desire.

But the question was how much should it cost, so that does lean the results into what people could want it to cost, either for the benefit of consumers or Valve.

To make it more accurate to what funds people have at their disposal to see what prices might impact Valve's sales, maybe I should have asked: "How much would you be willing to pay for the Steam Frame?"

I know I expected a much clearer-cut lean toward the cheaper options because who on earth wants to pay more than they have to for technology these days.

Regardless of the question wording and the nitty-gritty of what you folks thought when answering, the results do perhaps point to a Steam Frame that's more expensive than the majority of gamers would like it to. Yes, the sample size here is fairly small and hardly anything official, but with this long a wait for an official price announcement, I think any indication of what people are expecting is worth paying attention to.

I just hope Valve doesn't see this and think it'll be okay to charge even more than it was planning to because of those 42% of folks who voted for the more expensive options. Yes, that's unlikely, but you've all had your chance. If that were to happen, we'd probably never know, but I'll be blaming you lot.

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Qualcomm, the manufacturer behind the processing chips inside devices sold by Samsung, Meta, Pico, Xiaomi, OnePlus and a slew of Windows Laptops and Android wearables, has reportedly announced to its partners that it can no longer absorb the rising cost of manufacturing computing parts in 2026. As such, it'll be issuing higher prices, and it could throw a spanner in the works of the imminent Steam Frame VR headset.

The Steam Frame is confirmed to use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, which is built on ARM architecture. This is a step up from the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip used inside the Meta Quest 3 headsets and the Pico 4 Ultra, which could also come under fire as a result of these price hikes.

The rising costs are to be implemented as soon as September 1st, and are said to be going up by "double digits". We still don't have a confirmed release date for the Steam Frame, but Valve did say it'd arrive at some point this Summer. Judging by shipping manifests and intensifying signposting for the new headset on the Steam storefront, it could hit the shelves any week now.

Let us not forget that the Steam Frame's initial launch was meant to be "early 2026", but Valve has already cited rising manufacturing costs and the ongoing RAM shortages as a reason for its delay until now.

Those very same RAM issues are the reason Qualcomm's also feeling the squeeze. With industry-wide semiconductor and memory supply chain issues, many of Qualcomm's partners have steadily upped their prices, to the point where the Snapdragon maker now needs to do the same.

This could impact end-costs for consumers, which it already has in some instances. Meta upped the prices of its Meta Quest 3 headsets in 2026, but there are so many mobile consumer electronics brands in Qualcomm's partnership that this could now trickle down to. It would be a real blow to Meta to have to raise the prices of the Quest 3 devices again, but it could have bigger, unreported consequences for the launch price of the Steam Frame.

If Valve had previously settled on an unannounced price tag for its new VR hardware, and its first batch is already manufactured and ready to ship from warehouses, it's going to become a PR game. Does Valve shoot with the cost it was already hypothetically decided on, or does it readjust now that one of its most expensive manufacturing components is about to steal more of its profits? Likely, it'll be the latter.

Let's be honest, it was already likely that the Steam Frame's price tag was going to spark outrage amongst gamers. The Steam Controller's $100 actually isn't that bad relative to some of the official PS5 and Xbox Series X pro controllers, but it was touted as too pricey by the public when it was properly revealed. The Steam Machine was met with a similar reaction too based on the equivalent cost of a desktop gaming PC. So, in Valve's eyes, it'll probably be a case of raising the cost of the Steam Frame a little further than it had planned - it's not as though we'll ever know.

That said, it's worth noting that at least for the first few batches of Steam Frames, Valve will have already cut a deal and secured pricing for the parts used, so it could well be that we see a price rise at some point in the future depending on how much Valve has prepped for the future.

It doesn't seem like the high costs of the Controller or Machine have impacted sales, as both are still in and out of stock due to demand.

Qualcomm announced its plans on Friday last week, as was reported by Bloomberg. According to the outlet, a letter was sent to customers explaining that Qualcomm had sought alternative components from new suppliers, but to no avail. The letter doesn't seem to be designed as a publicly facing message, but the company is due to report third-quarter financial results on July 29, so we may hear more official word soon.

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Indie adventure game Future? No Thanks! Has been delayed at the last minute thanks to Steam needing to look at some boobs and butts.

Molleindustria, the developer of satirical games like Democratic Socialism Simulator and New York Times Simulator has announced on Bluesky (spotted by PC Gamer) that its latest game Future? No Thanks! – which was supposed to be released today – has been pushed back.

The post says, "We were foolish to disregard the only authority on the matter: Steam, which has kept our game under review for more than three weeks in order to properly assess the scale and scope of the nudity contained within it."

As for the nudity involved, the post explains that "Future? No Thanks! deploys dozens of untextured polygons depicting ass and boobs. They appear statically on screen for several seconds. We understand that such sexually charged content warrants a very careful examination."

Molleindustria adds, "We are thankful to Valve's review team for its thorough work in keeping Steam free from obscene and horny content," which is very valid to say about the platform that features multiple NSFW games that very much breach what can be considered 'good taste' (thanks, Vice).

Of course, yes, Steam does platform adult games, something the replies to the post were quick to point out. However, Molleindustria does clarify: "Less jokingly: I believe the delay is due to the mild nudity not warranting an age verification plus Steam not accepting video documentation to examine the content, which is not immediately accessible in the game. Fingers crossed."

The dev also notes, "I literally had to submit a special build with a 'watch the sex scene' button," and that the demo – which is available right now – "is identical and passed the review months ago." However, Molleindustria promises "the game will be released whenever their assessment is complete."

Avatar: The Last Airbender fighting game delayed on Xbox just hours before release, but not on PS5 or Steam.

Valve dropped a one-two punch of Steam updates today, adding new details and functions to the store's wishlist while also simplifying the process of gifting games.

Let's start with Steam wishlists. In today's update, Valve added custom wishlist categories, letting users assign tags for "games you saw featured in a cool event, games best played with a controller, or even games you have in mind for someone else."

By searching for or selecting for a specific category, you can narrow your wishlist down to games of that type. If you're hankering for a JRPG but can't be asked to comb the 500 wishlisted games that you'll definitely get to one day, just search for JRPGs. Or if I filter by the Metroidvania tag, for instance, I am now forced to reckon with the fact that I have 112 Metroidvanias wishlisted. Thanks, Valve.

If I want to, I can even fill an obvious gap in the Steam tag system myself: grappling hook.

When you add a game to your wishlist through a store page, you can immediately assign tags to it via a new dropdown. Three default recommended tags were shown to me when I ducked my head into roguelike deckbuilder Forsaken Lands: "Birthday List," "Recommended by Friends," and "Waiting For a Sale."

Additionally, notifications for wishlisted games can now be tailored to different platforms and categories. So if you want to wishlist a game but don't want to be emailed about it, you can tune it out of your list.

Another nice touch is the big, green "Demo Available" button that now appears beside wishlisted games. "You can also be notified when a demo is released for a game in your wishlist," Valve explains. In an added boost to visibility, wishlisted games now display the "microtrailers" seen in some other parts of Steam when you hover over them.

The biggest news may be that your Steam wishlist can now be shared by category or through a multi-filtered view. "You can already share a link to your wishlist, now you can share a link to a specific category on your wishlist, or even a filtered view of your wishlist," Valve says.

"For example: you might want to share 'My Birthday List' with your family," Valve reckons. "From that shared link, your family can gift games directly to you, even if they don't have a Steam account..."

This leads us to the Steam gifting changes, which have seen Valve erode a few barriers. Here's the big one: "Now guest checkout can be used to buy any game on Steam," not just digital gift cards and Steam hardware.

And lo, the skies did part at these heavenly words: "You no longer need to be friends on Steam to send gifts."

Similar streamlining has come to cross-region gifting, which no longer requires digital gift cards perfectly calculated to regional pricing. Instead, "now you can gift games directly to your friend. Steam will calculate the cost in your friend's region at checkout. Your friend needs to be on your Steam friends list to send this type of gift."

"You can send a wishlist share link to a friend or family member and they can purchase gifts directly from that list without needing a Steam account themselves," Valve adds. "If a guest wants to send a gift as a surprise they can send it to any email address instead."

Gifting to email will send recipients a link that they can use to log in and claim a game (within 30 days) to their Steam account, and Valve says that if someone gifts directly from your shared wishlist, "the gift recipient in the cart will be pre-populated with your information."

Amusingly, Valve demonstrates these changes with two screenshots showing someone buying Hollow Knight: Silksong, developer Team Cherry's hit Metroidvania sequel, for a non-Steam friend and signing the gift, "Happy Birthday! This game rules." It's true, that game rules.

Valve admits it's "time to make some bigger improvements" to Steam's mod system, drops massive Steam Workshop update with "completely rewritten" pages.

We seem to be on the verge of Valve finally launching the final piece of its 2026 hardware puzzle, the Steam Frame. We're still awaiting word on the launch date and price, but judging by the patterns followed by the Steam Controller and Steam Machine, it seems like Valve is maybe a week or two away from launching its new VR headset.

In the last two weeks, we've had an update to SteamVR, the arrival of a new "great on Frame" tag on the Steam Store, and familiar rumors of shipping manifests hitting the US that detail crates full of VR headsets.

We reported almost the exact same sequence of events in the lead-up to the Steam Controller and the Steam Machine hitting the virtual shelves. A week or two later was then when initial reviews came out, and the products were available to buy.

The latest rumor from data miner and VR leaker Brad Lynch says that a final delay may be due to Valve putting finishing touches on the headset's gamepad mode, which will let you use one of the best PC controllers with the headset to play non-VR games. As per the details we have about the Steam Frame's controllers, you should also be able to play non-VR games with these as well - a bit like a traditional gamepad that's been sawed in half.

The whispers about Valve shipments hitting the ground have been trickling in throughout July, with "Virtual Reality Devices" being the name on the manifests. I don't know about you, but I don't know of any VR devices being made by Valve at the moment, or indeed by any other brand that's ready to launch them under Valve's name.

Arguably, the Steam Frame is the most niche of the three new bits of gaming hardware Valve has launched this year, and it may be the one in the most volatile market. We've seen Sony, Meta, Pico, HTC, and Valve all previously entering the VR space, all of whom saw mixed results. Especially this year, with Meta laying off a massive portion of its VR workforce despite claims it's still investing in the VR gaming market, things seem unpredictable.

While the Steam Controller and Steam Machine faced backlash for high pricing, I think a misstep in VR headset pricing could actually determine the success of the headset. It doesn't take much for the gaming community at large to scream "VR ded" these days, and if Valve wants to avoid that becoming the Frame's narrative, pricing is going to be paramount.

Then again, cost and manufacturing issues due to the global RAM shortages are what's caused the headset's release to be delayed from "early 2026" to now. Again, we've had no confirmation from Valve on this, but it seems as though there will be two SKUs of the Steam Frame, one with a more affordable price and less storage, and a higher-capacity variant. Mixed reports land the headset anywhere between $700 and $1,000.

Prepping for the Steam Frame launch? Take a look at the best gaming PCs, the best graphics cards, and the best RAM for gaming.

Left 4 Dead writer Chet Faliszek hears you crying about PlayStation's decision to end physical game discs in 2028, and he's shoving your own fist in your mouth to make you stop. You caused your own suffering, he wants players to know.

"You, the consumer, have made a choice, and your choice is for digital," Faliszek says plainly in a new YouTube video on the subject. "I keep seeing this, like, 'Oh, they should do memory cards. They should do…' Right now, today – the games we are talking about are available at retail today. The used games are available at retail today, and you aren't going into retail and buying them."

Unfortunately for the thousands of commenters spamming Sony's last trailer for Marvel's Wolverine with emoji pitchfork and torches, he's right. Circana industry analyst Mat Piscatella just revealed only seven PlayStation games managed to crack 100,000 physical sales in the US this year.

Even worse, "Anybody who's reporting software sales right now, and they're doing digital and retail, they're all under reporting," Faliszek says, "because they're not reporting Steam. Let's not even get into mobile. And what was Game Pass? Game Pass was digital only. You as the consumer have forced the large corporations hand, and you've told them 'Stop with retail.'"

Once you, apparently, regretted your decision to invest almost entirely in digital, you didn't start buying Crimson Desert discs while you could, nor did you abstain from making digital purchases altogether. Now it's too late, says Faliszek.

"You should have started protesting Game Pass, and stop buying Xbox games, and stop buying digital," says the frustrated writer. "But you didn't, because it's easier."

The Steam Machine isn't doing exclusives because Valve thinks "restricting where people can play" doesn't work.

Valve's $1,049 starting price means trying to build a Steam Machine is all the rage. Many of you will end up with a standard budget gaming PC instead, since you can't achieve the same compact build and thermals using off-the-shelf parts, but one of my favorite modders is turning old laptops into something close for less than a 32GB kit of RAM.

Over at DIYPerks, Matthew Perks has you covered on how to turn an old laptop into either a snazzy all-in-one gaming PC or an ultra-thin alternative to the Steam Machine. The idea is that by recycling spare parts, motherboards, or parts from systems with busted screens, you can put RTX 5060 machines back into action for "three times cheaper than a system out of standard components."

In the tutorial, Perks explains that unlike the parts in a Steam Machine or even a regular desktop build, laptop motherboards are considered "exclusively only useful to people who need them as a spare part." Effectively, the only users really reaching for these components are people who have a specific damaged device, meaning only a "limited pool of people" has eyes on existing stock.

Perks adds that these motherboards have been "insulated from the insane cost of hardware we've seen lately," describing the phenomenon as like a "time glitch where you can buy high-powered parts at yesterday's prices." Keep in mind you're not just getting a motherboard here; you're also getting a discrete RTX 4060 GPU, AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, 32GB DDR5 RAM, and a full cooling solution included for under $400.

The price paid for this project specifically was $380, and given that you'll pay $420 today for a 32GB RAM kit. Naturally, the catch is that you'll have to take the motherboard and adapt it slightly to be a standalone gaming PC. That's way simpler to do than you'd think, though, and while DIYPerks is known for making more elaborate pieces of tech art, you could just borrow some basic tips for your own.

Some of the challenges of this project are exclusive to the choice of motherboard, as DIYPerks first has to whip up a power-on button. Many laptops include a standalone button, but this one opts for a more modern power key on the keyboard that corresponds to a specific ribbon cable connector pin. Luckily, the same rules as testing a full desktop PSU apply; if you can locate the responsible pin, you'll be able to send the right signal by shorting it to ground.

Doing that means you can hook up a button of your choosing for mounting to whatever case you end up opting for. In typical DIYPerks fashion, Matthew goes the extra mile and restores a smashed iMac Retina screen by removing its laminated glass, framing it with wood, then making a custom backplate out of aluminium before mounting the laptop motherboard to the back along with a display driver and a TV subwoofer.

The end result is a gorgeous tripod all-in-one RTX 4060 PC with front speakers and full access to ports. You don't have to go that far if you're just looking for a Steam Machine alternative, though, as DIYPerks reveals an ultra slimline portable rig with a yellow housing using the same technique of sandwiching the motherboard between standoffs and aluminium, resulting in something that almost looks like an extra large graphics card for just $300 all in.

I've already touched on why you can't build your own Steam Machine, but DIYPerks has illustrated how to make a close alternative. Creating a custom version of the GabeCube wasn't the main focus of this DIYPerks project, but if you're more fussed about cost than obtaining a mini PC with the exact same thermals, power efficiency, and SteamOS already included, reviving an old laptop could be the right call.

Take a peek at the best Steam Deck docks if you'd rather use Valve's portable as a console.

Palworld recently got its long-awaited 1.0 update, with patch notes so big they can only be described as monstrous – and boy, has it brought in a lot of players.

In fact, the survival gem saw its new full release spur enormous player numbers – and loads of positive reviews on Steam to boot. In fact, Pocketpair's game has even managed to overtake Valve's own Counter-Strike 2 in terms of its concurrent players a couple of times on roundups of Steam's most-played games.

Fans have caught sight of Palworld doing so over on Reddit and the like… but they're not alone. The developers have evidently noticed its climb up the Steam charts, too.

Head of Pocketpair publishing and communications John "Bucky" Buckley acknowledges the feat over on Twitter, showcasing a screenshot of Steam's most-played charts – and Palworld's spot right at the top, with Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 following right behind it.

"Pause," writes the lead. "Let me enjoy this moment for just a little longer." A well-deserved moment, too, if I do say so myself, considering the sheer amount of content 1.0 boasts.

Fellow industry heads are chiming in as well, with Pearl Abyss (the studio behind Crimson Desert and Black Desert Online) PR and marketing director Will Powers commenting, "It's a good feeling. Well deserved." In response, Bucky says, "Thank you, gamer."

In a separate post, Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe celebrates the game's achievement, sharing his thanks with fans and expressing how glad he is that players are enjoying it.

It's wholesome, and it's nice to see a team that started as an indie group now thriving. Pocketpair's not done with Palworld yet, either, with more for the game and beyond up its sleeve.

There's still the Stardew Valley-esque farming sim Palfarm to look forward to, which will be a nice cozy counterpart to Pocketpair's flagship title, and the admittedly cursed Palworld dating sim that's also underway at the company.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a base to go build, and Pals to command – those trees aren't going to chop themselves, after all, and I'm in dire need of more wood to use on my virtual home.

Palworld would collab with Ark, No Man's Sky, and Enshrouded "tomorrow" if "we could make it make sense," says publishing chief.

Hi, have you had your fill of bad video game news this week? I hope not, because I just picked up a plate of fresh, sizzling garbage: a study by former Habbo Hotel developer Sulka Haro suggests half of the games available on Steam by 2028 will incorporate AI-generated content.

Haro analyzed approximately 53,600 Steam games launched across a three-year period, from July, 2023 to July, 2026, he shares in the study posted on his Substack. According to the developer, once Steam introduced the AI-disclosure feature in 2024, a steady increase of games on Steam began admitting to AI-generated content. "If the current trajectory holds," Haro writes gravely, "AI-disclosed games cross ~50% of all Steam releases somewhere in 2027–2028."

Haro says that nearly 31% of Steam games currently share their AI usage – that's "roughly one in three new Steam games," he remarks. "A real adoption ramp built on top of a baseline that started at literal zero," since there was no Steam page field for developers to punch in details of their AI usage before 2024.

It seems that part of Haro's anticipation of more, so many more AI-assisted games on Steam comes from his discovery that the people he calls first-time, "AI developers" usually squeeze out crud like a frog giving birth. "AI lowers the barrier not just to make a game but to make several," says Haro, "which also feeds the shovelware tail (the 5+ bar is 3× higher for AI devs)."

At the same time, Haro clarifies that "80% of the 37,000 distinct publishers [on Steam] have never shipped a single AI game, and of those that have, 89% shipped exactly one." So the slop factory is operating at a modest, rather than exponential, pace.

Though, anecdotally, I can see that its wheels are quickly churning. Earlier this week, Circana industry analyst Mat Piscatella predicted that game discovery will only get worse on storefronts like Steam as AI vibe coding makes it easy for people to clone legitimate games, including indie hits like Peak. So as we walk faster toward Haro's prediction of 50% AI-made games on Steam by 2028, I bet we can expect to get hit with more scams and lazy ripoffs, too. Oh, well. I hope all that slop tastes good.

P.S. It doesn't. Earlier this summer, we found out why so many game developers don't want to use generative AI.

Valve's Steam Deck LCD partnership with iFixit was a big moment for handheld repairability, but it looks like parts are now being discontinued. While it's currently unknown whether every component will become unavailable, the repair site says it's looking "less likely" that it will continue to stock OEM batteries.

The Steam Deck LCD part revelation was originally unearthed by Zok-Felswyn on Reddit, with a post revealing correspondence from iFixit. According to the shared email enquiry response regarding gaming handheld batteries, the stockist says "we do not have immediate plans to stock this product."

It was originally unclear from the reply why iFixit was no longer stocking batteries, but a member of the team has since clarified, "It’s not that we’re choosing to not stock these anymore. Unfortunately, Valve is just starting to sunset these parts. We’re looking at alternatives!"

As someone who fixes, repairs, and mods both old and new gadgets, I am pretty bummed out. I appreciate Valve's efforts to make Steam Deck LCD components readily available, but it appears to be winding down access just when people will need components most. I know from decades of dealing with battery tech that after four years, you'll want to start thinking about a replacement depending on usage, and a lot of players in need of a reliable replacement will be out of luck.

It's worth noting I've reached out to Valve for comment on whether it is officially discontinuing Steam Deck LCD replacement parts. The company hasn't made any announcements regarding the decision, so finding out whether the handheld maker is actually ending part support, or if there's a change internally with iFixit, is important.

Before you also get any bright ideas, just know you can't use a Steam Deck OLED battery in the LCD model. The two portables may look similar, but there are subtle design changes and specs under the hood, including capacity. That said, I do wonder if Valve is actually working on supplying a different battery than the one it supplies currently, which may have led to the supply hiccup.

If Valve is actively discontinuing Steam Deck LCD parts, though, it'll leave players at the mercy of the hard-to-navigate third-party market. It can be a nightmare narrowing down which alternatives are reliable and of acceptable quality, and that's something iFixit will also have to do to fill its stock gap.

Check out the best Steam Deck docks if you're planning to make a low-spec Steam Machine alternative.

Valve's new Steam Controller is unsurprisingly a PC gamepad, but not if you swap out its puck. Yes, the dongle included in the box is designed to pair the pad specifically to ordinary rigs or the Steam Machine, but OpenPuck project aims to break down platform walls and enable compatibility with the PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.

Serving as a bridge between Valve's Steam Controller and other platforms, the OpenPuck uses a Pro Micro NRF52840 board to emulate the default receiver's abilities. (cheers, Hackaday!) Custom firmware by Safijari then enables the PC controller to connect just like it would with the included dongle, only this accessory can also then mimic other gamepads and pretend to be an official wired set of buttons.

In a short clip, the puck's creator demonstrates how to install the Openpuck microcontroller and get it working with the Steam Controller. The process comes down to getting the board into DFU mode (Device Firmware Update), allowing it to show as a flash drive so you can upload the software. That should be the case for fresh boards, but the modder includes instructions on which pins to bridge if not.

I am blown away by how easy the process of making your own Steam Controller puck appears to be. Even if you're not looking to turn Valve's accessory into a makeshift PS5 or Switch pad, the fact that the microcontroller is available for $8 should save you some pennies should you lose the real deal. You won't even need to mess around with anything complicated should you make use of the Openpuck's abilities, as there's a web interface for switching USB mode or customizing inputs. Not to mention there's a 3D printable shell just to help it feel a bit more like a real accessory.

The retro console collecting goblin is now curious whether there's a way to get the puck working with old systems. Naturally, you'd need specific gameport connectors to turn it into a best retro controller contender, but perhaps there is a way to make a dongle with even wider compatibility.

If I can perhaps persuade someone to let me kindly borrow their Steam Controller, I'll maybe grab one of these boards and try making an OpenPuck. If you beat me to it, feel free to let me know how you get on and whether Valve's buttons make for a great PS5 or Switch pad.

Check out the best gaming handhelds if you're looking to take your backlog with you.

The Steam Machine isn't shy with its red LED error codes, but it's apparently jumping the gun in terms of temperature warnings. Luckily, Valve is already working on a BIOS fix that will tweak the thresholds to 100°C for both the CPU and GPU, which should prevent any scary false alarms from disrupting your couch PC sessions.

Originally flagged by Reddit user Pure-Outcome-5977, the Steam Machine temperature warning can currently kick in at way below 100°C. Performance overlay stats shared by the cube's owner show the full red LED bar showing with the CPU at just 81°C, with the GPU and VRAM sitting at an even cooler 75°C and 81°C, respectively.

If you're not used to dealing with gaming PC temperatures, the red warning light might have you believe the cube's about to explode. However, Steam Support has confirmed that the error codes are indeed in need of calibration, and Valve is reportedly already on the case.

"After discussing with our engineers, there is a known issue with the current BIOS that results in the red LED lights displaying much earlier than they should." Valve confesses. "The issue is just with when the lights are set to come on."

That's Valve's way of immediately signalling that there are no major faults at play here, especially since this isn't the first time error codes have caused a ruckus (looking at you, GPU Red Line of Dead). Instead, the mini PC maker explains that the "Steam Machine itself is within normal operating temperatures, which they confirmed from your screenshot."

"Steam Machine will start throttling performance at 100 C for the CPU/GPU and will shut down to protect itself if temperatures rise past that." Valve guidance is honestly in line with every other GPU I've encountered, and in reality, chipsets won't immediately die even if it's running at those temps for some time. Emergency shutdowns are more a protective measure to ensure chips can live a long and happy life and flag absurd temps ASAP to protect the rest of your rig.

If your Steam Machine is currently shouting at you for temperatures nowhere near 100 C, Valve has your back. Steam Support confirms that "a BIOS update is being worked on to be released soon that will fix the red LED light behavior to be at 100/100 C for the CPU/GPU instead of 95/90 for the CPU/GPU that is currently happening."

I do find this specific instance a little curious, seeing as plenty of enthusiasts are currently pushing the Steam Machine to its limits for reviews and benchmarks without any red LED issues. I suspect that the lightbar is simply a little twitchy right now and more likely to sound false alarms, something that might not happen with every unit. Still, it's both nice to hear Valve is already on it, and I'd probably rather be safe than sorry with my $1,049 cube had I nabbed one at launch.

If you've got a Steam Machine sitting pretty on your desk or TV bench, it's probably worth checking out Valve's reference error codes. If you do end up with an aggressive red HAL light trying to get your attention, it might indicate a serious fault, but you'll at least have a rough idea of what's going on from the pattern displayed.

Swing by the best Steam Deck docks to turn Valve's portable into a budget Steam Machine stand-in.