A Valve employee has revealed the wonderful internal name for the new Steam Controller's puck-style adapter. Are you ready for this? You're not ready for this. Dear readers, it was called... "the chongle." I know. I know. I can't contain myself.
Presumably because it looks like a chonky, dongle-type thing, the chongle is an objectively more powerful name than... Puck, which seems to be its official name. The chongle, which I'm choosing to continue calling it in defiance of official Valve lingo, is "a wireless transmitter that provides a fast, stable connection for your Steam Controller" that doubles as a charger you can use while you play. The puck can also connect up to four Steam Controllers at once.
In a tweet, Nick Bizzozero, a modeler and animator working at Valve, voiced his full support for calling the newly revealed Steam Machine the "GabeCube," a portmanteau referencing Valve president Gabe Newell and the iconic boxed-shape Nintendo Game Cube.
More importantly, Bizzozero gifted this insight to the world: "Also internally the puck was called the chongle and I'm leaking that information come get me."
Listen don't tell him I said this, but I support calling it the "Gabecube".Also internally the puck was called the chongle and I'm leaking that information come get me.November 13, 2025
In general, Valve seems to be going with a very straightforward, matter of fact, comparatively boring approach to naming its new hardware. Steam Machine. Steam Controller. Puck. I just wonder, have they considered these respective alternatives: Lean Mean Steam Machine? GabeBird? Indeed, The Chongle? This is harder than I thought.
