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.

Looking to get into sim racing? Take a look at the best PC racing wheels and the best Xbox steering wheels.

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.

If you're looking to build your own rig instead, you'll need to know more about the best CPU for gaming, the best graphics card, and the best RAM for gaming.

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.

• Join GamesRadar+ Deals on WhatsApp for our top daily discounts

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.

• See all gaming handhelds at Best Buy

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.

If you're looking to build your own rig instead, you'll need to know more about the best CPU for gaming, the best graphics card, and the best RAM for gaming.

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.

Prepping for Steam Frame's launch by upgrading your PC? We'd recommend the best gaming PCs, the best graphics cards, and the best RAM for gaming.

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.

Looking to upgrade your rig before Steam Frame arrives? Take a look at the best gaming PCs, the best graphics cards, and the best RAM for gaming.

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.

Steam has reportedly already brought Valve $11.1 billion in revenue in 2026 so far, and I bet that makes you feel even better about that Steam Machine price point.

Alinea Analytics has released its mid-year analysis of Valve's platform, saying, "In the first half of 2026, we estimate that games on Steam generated $11.1B in gross revenue, the platform’s highest-ever half-year."

The firm adds, "That’s up 14.5% on H1 2025, and up 8% even on the holiday-heavy H2 2025, which is the more remarkable comparison given the back half of the year usually wins on seasonal sales and holiday buys."

As for why Steam did especially well this year, Alinea notes a "surge in Asian players (China especially), higher prices on releases, viral co-op hits, smarter back-catalogue strategies from the big publishers" and "third-party publishers quietly returning to Steam after their own-launcher experiments, tails between legs."

The report notes that the first half of 2026 was roughly four times as big as the first half of 2017. However, a more shocking metric is that Steam has reportedly generated more in the first half of 2026 than in the entirety of 2020 – a year when everyone was inside playing games and dodging COVID.

While massive AAA games like Resident Evil Requiem, Crimson Desert, and 007 First Light – as well as indie hits like Mewgenics and Mina the Hollower – have blown up this year, the percentage of Steam revenue coming from new games actually appears smaller than in the past as backlog sales grow.

Alinea notes that 29% of game sales in the first half of 2024 came from games released that year, while 27% of H1 2025 sales were from new releases. Of course, 2025's first half had Monster Hunter Wilds, which sold 11 million copies in 2025, with 8 million of those selling in the first three days. The first few months of 2024 were also stacked with anticipated games that undoubtedly bumped those numbers up. So far, Alinea is tracking 2026 Steam sales at just 21% from new releases.

This success is maybe a bit harder to swallow given that the 1TB Steam Deck OLED just got a price hike to be almost a grand, while Steam Machine pricing starts at $1,049. RAM shortages and US tariffs are obviously major weights, but when a company is printing money like this, you might expect it to eat some costs. However, Valve made it perfectly clear that subsidizing hardware "doesn't align with our beliefs."

I can't afford $1,049 for a Steam Machine, but Valve has already graced your PC with the ability to be a high-spec living room rig from afar.

Just in case you had any doubts, Jsaux is still making a Steam Machine e-ink faceplate, and its panel plans don't stop there. The front screen, inspired by Valve's own DIY display, will be accompanied by a pixel-clad dot-matrix version alongside a plate that honestly looks like the oddball 2000s Hi-Fi PC currently on my desk.

It's safe to say Jsuax got ahead of the curve with its Steam Machine faceplate plans. It first teased its e-ink display back in January, but the landing page still hasn't got a listing. Admittedly, I was beginning to wonder whether the accessory maker would beat Valve at its own game again, as while it previously started creating Steam Deck docks before the real deal arrived, the landing page still says "notify me".

However, Jsuax has updated its page with reassurance that the Steam Machine e-ink screen is still on the way. The site is still very much in "teaser mode", but the text now replaces the previous "E-Ink? It's happening." message and adds "We said it's happening. We meant it." That should be reassuring for anyone who doesn't want to create their own using Valve's DIY instructions, but I'm now more interested in the other two bonus panels.

"Three front plates for your Steam Machine. Color E-Ink, Mono E-Ink, Color Dot Matrix," says Jsaux while adding three new renders of the lineup. The original black-and-white design still uses a similar 5.83-inch e-ink display to Valve's custom version, whereas the dot-matrix version replaces the whole face with a piercing LED grid.

That color E-ink display, though, is the real talking point here, and Jsaux's description is a bit vague compared to the render. It features a display that's vertically half the size of the monochrome version and uses the space for what appears to be a rotary knob. The dial is accompanied by three oval buttons that make it look more like a music system, and it almost feels like Jsuax has been spying on me using MSI's MEGA Hi-Fi PC at my desk.

Released way back in 2003, the MSI MEGA 651 is a bare-bones Pentium 4 gaming PC that looks like an old-school Hi-Fi. The design isn't just for show, though, as when powered off, the system uses a front LED panel, buttons, and a volume knob to retain control over the CD drive, allowing it to play discs and radio without booting the machine.

I really love the idea of having something that can play my old pop-punk CDs while also doubling as a Windows XP machine for classics like Half Life 2 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Plus, I just really like volume dials. They're neat, and while adding one to the Steam Machine doesn't give it the same physical disc abilities, it feels like Jsaux is going for the exact same vibe as this weird MSI box.

Not that I want to be giving Jsaux ideas for free, but while I sadly don't have a Steam Machine, I've been pondering whether I could add a disc drive using a face plate. This new e-ink and dial combo has reignited those plans, as you could include some sort of mount for a slimline USB Blu-Ray drive that loads from the side. That would hilariously help Valve's box serve as a way to watch movies or even attempt to install older physical games, whereas the PS5 and PS6 are destined for an all-digital future.

Of course, I'm getting ahead of myself, as we should really wait for Jsaux's Steam Machine faceplates to see if they enhance the cube. If the first three prove to be a success, then I'd encourage the accessory maker to steal my ideas, even if no one else is into turning their $1,049 mini PC into a janky 2000s Hi-Fi.

Check out the best gaming handhelds if you'd rather head outside with your backlog.

Before taking on the role of level designer at Valve, game developer Chuck Wilson toyed with recreating Half-Life 2 levels in Source 2.

In case you're out of the loop, Source 2 is Valve's most recent iteration of its in-house engine, powering games like Counter-Strike 2, Deadlock, and Half-Life: Alyx. Older titles from the studio, like the ever-beloved Half-Life 2, used Source – and before that, the GoldSrc engine.

As for Wilson himself, his portfolio includes stints at Sucker Punch Productions, Respawn Entertainment, and now, of course, Valve.

Prior to joining Valve as a level designer in 2022, however, Wilson experimented with Source 2 – perhaps to try and learn the engine before joining the company, or as a test project for the team.

An eagle-eyed fan on Reddit has spotted as much, linking to the dev's website, where he recalls recreating Half-Life 2's spooky ghost town, Ravenholm, in Source 2. Wilson first describes his goal with the recreation.

​"Learn how the editor works by looking over the example content Valve provided, and dive into the levels they shipped to better understand their construction," he writes. "Then build something with what I learned."

Attached are screenshots of his Ravenholm recreation – and, yep, it looks pretty dang great. Much smoother textures than we saw as kids, with improved lighting… but the same eerie vibe from 2004.

Wilson explains why he chose Ravenholm, then goes on to describe his process. "The opening to Ravenholm seemed like it would be an appropriately scaled project to tackle. I started by loading up Ravenholm and taking tons of pictures of the opening area and reacquainting myself with the look, feel, and scale of the space. From the ref, I was able to deduce the scale and re-block it out with Hammer 2's modeling tools."

He's likely referencing Hammer, known by some as Hammer 5 or Hammer 2, which serves as Valve's in-house level editor for games in the Source 2 engine.

"After I got the whole space blocked in, I decided to make some compositional changes to the space to better guide players to the zombie and to the eerily lit sawblade shack," continues Wilson.

Once he was done with the composition, he explored "some of the new features Hammer 2 had to offer." It sounds as though he was a big fan of his time in Source 2 recreating Ravenholm, too – even if there was much to learn.

"Throughout the project, I was able to learn and make use of Hammer 2's modeling tools for geometry, physics sims for cloth, cables, and the hanging zombie ragdoll, tilesets (3d meshes placed off of a single face), hotspot materials (insanely fast UVing of faces), volumetric fog, cubemaps, compile processes, and more."

The level designer concludes: "A small space proved to be a fantastic way to learn a wide variety of tools and prepare me for future projects. I walked away being blown away at how powerful these tools are for Level Designers, and even more so if you are a Level Designer with some environment art background. These are easily my favorite tools I have worked with to date." That's quite the compliment.

Unsurprisingly, Wilson's portfolio share here has sparked new hope in fans' hearts for a Half-Life 2 remake in Source 2. As one commenter exclaims, "This genuinely makes me excited for a Half-Life 2 Source 2 remake in vein of Black Mesa."

Others aren't convinced this means anything at all, though. As somebody else says, "There’s nothing to be read into here." Hey, a girl can dream… right?

Sadly, I doubt we'll see a Half-Life 2 remake from Valve anytime soon, however. Heck, we're still playing the waiting game for Half-Life 3.

Steam is more than 50% larger than PlayStation according to expert's estimate, which puts Valve's store around 200 million monthly active users

The internet at large seems to think you can build your own Steam Machine. I hate to burst your budget PC bubble, but that's not actually true, and any attempts to do so will simply result in you assembling a rig that's substantially larger, not quite as sleek, and more like a traditional desktop than a console rival.

All the build-your-own Steam Machine conversations are part of an annoying tradition within the gaming PC scene. The arrival of a new console normally kicks off a ritual that prompts anyone who writes about hardware online to lure you in with supposed DIY alternatives. It's really no different from when the PS5 launched and a sea of voices washed in with advice on how to make a PC with equivalent specs, but the situation that Valve's cube has sparked is slightly different.

Don't get me wrong, I'm more than up for finding alternatives to the $1,044 Steam Machine. At the same time, the fact that Valve's cube is technically a gaming PC will sow confusion around what's going on inside the box and whether you can replicate that using stock parts. Again, you can't, and I reckon it's helpful to set expectations before things get out of hand.

The Steam Machine is smaller than you'd think

The single most important detail PC enthusiasts claiming you can build your own Steam Machine is size. Valve's box is small, and it's hard to grasp just how tiny the cube actually is from marketing images and on-paper dimensions alone.

Now that Steam Machine reviews are alive, and early adopters are pitching up the cube next to real life setups, its footprint is being accurately portrayed. Even early hands-on features and articles didn't quite capture Valve's dimensions for me, though, as I'm the type of weirdo who was itching to sit the box next to everything I can get my hands on.

Thankfully, Giant Bomb understands the assignment and quickly shared a Steam Machine size comparison video post-launch. Keep in mind I'm also the editor responsible for talking about the best retro consoles, so I was extremely pleased to see Dan Ryckert hold Valve's cube next to the only other cube that matters: the GameCube.

Alright, some of Dan's points of comparison are less useful than others, as the Tetris McNugget handheld probably didn't need to meet the Steam Machine. However, seeing the 3.5-litre cube next to the Steam Deck OLED, Xbox Series X, and yes, even a loaf of sliced wholewheat bread, drives home this system's commendable compactness.

Valve's Steam Machine dimensions are kudos-worthy for sure, but it's the type of feat that can only be achieved by the same custom engineering traditionally reserved for the console scene. Aside from the RAM and storage, Valve's mini PC is a compacted lump of unupgradium, and that's exactly what's supposedly 4K 60fps capable parts fit into a six-inch cube.

More like a console than a traditional mini PC

Yes, the Steam Machine is adorably small, but it ain't the smallest "mini PC" in town. There's a sea of tiny systems out there that will technically run your Steam library, and I've tested remarkably tiny boxes like the Ayaneo Mini PC AM02. The issue is that these gadgets have more in common with a gaming handheld than Valve's new hardware, and the closest comparison point to what's going on inside the box really is a modern-day console.

The difference in my eyes boils down to the Steam Machine's custom AMD chipsets. Most mini PCs, consoles, and handhelds use an APU, or "Accelerated Processing Unit" that combines the CPU and GPU into one package. That may have you thinking the PS5 and something like the Steam Deck have more in common than the Machine since they both use an APU, but in reality, it comes down to performance class.

The Steam Machine features two semi-custom AMD chips for graphics and processing, whereas most "mini PCs" out there either opt for a mobile-class APU or try to somehow squeeze in a full-size GPU. The latter is the domain of systems like the AtomMan G1 Pro, which stows away a desktop RTX 5060 GPU, but that means it takes up a much wider footprint than something like the Steam Machine.

The common alternative is the AMD Ryzen APUs used in systems like that aforementioned Ayaneo mini PC. That chip can live in something significantly smaller than the Steam Machine, but you're then getting performance that feels more like a screenless handheld with an HDMI port and access to full power supply wattage. I'm sure that said chipsets will eventually reach new performance heights, but honestly? Even 1080p can make this genre of devices sweat in recent games.

It's for that reason that, despite using a single high-powered APU rather than two chips, the PS5 is the closest setup to the Steam Machine. There are absolutely differences, as Valve's custom GPU has separate 8GB GDDR6 VRAM and 16GB system memory, whereas Sony uses a unified 16GB. However, the approach to adding custom chips to a proprietary motherboard designed to suit a specific console-friendly shell while hitting up to 4K 60fps is the same.

That's not to say the Steam Machine and PS5 are an absolute match performance-wise, as there are holes to be picked via comparative benchmarks. It's more that they share an end goal of making something that'll fit neatly in your TV bench while hitting the current-gen frame rate and resolution bar, and that matters when it comes to making your own or picking up an alternative mini PC.

Close, but no Steam Machine cigar

Just to recap, the reason you can't just "build your own Steam Machine" comes down to size and custom components. When you spell that out, it's hardly a shocker, as there'd be little point in spending $1,049 on Valve's box if it was using an off-the-shelf case and parts. But, saying it out loud matters when there's a lot of noise about making your own version, especially when many builders are just throwing standard parts at you.

Prior to Valve's launch, I went on a personal mission to find the closest custom build. That left me wondering if I should build a modern Shuttle XPC that looks like my compact 2000s rig instead, as the long-standing compact rig builder still sells a bare-bones kit to this day for $699.99. I've been reflecting on whether, despite being 3.5 times the size of the Steam Machine, the custom template is closer to the intended experience than anything else, and it's almost a yes.

I think the part we need to get comfortable with is the idea of making a living room gaming PC rather than a DIY Steam Machine. The latter isn't any different from trying to make a PS5, and you've got even less chance of making the same kind of 4K gaming machine that fits into a 3.8-litre cube.

If you instead aim for something that can sit next to your TV or on a cabinet shelf without looking that an intrusive obelisk, you'll have a much better time. What I will say, though, is that it'll be up to you to manage thermals and resulting cooling noise, and it's entirely likely that smaller systems like the Shuttle XPC bear bones kit will be far more audible under load. Valve's custom design really makes an impression with its whisper quiet setup, and if even the PS5's fans upset your ears, you're in for a rude awakening once you park a small rig in your space.

The above isn't going to stop me sharing ideas for Steam Machine alternatives, especially when it comes to embracing the console-inspired benefits of SteamOS. There are ways to use Valve's controller-friendly operating system on a bunch of devices, and that will give you a taste for the software side of things.

When it comes to the idea of actually building your own Steam Machine, though, I'm going to make sure everyone knows it's not something you can really do. I'm willing for someone who throw a 6-inch cube in my face with the same capabilities, thermals, and footprint, but I can almost guarantee you won't be making that yourself at home.

Check out the best Steam Deck docks for ways to turn Valve's handheld into a console.

Valve hasn't released a few official Steam figures in several years, but reasonable math from a reputable source reckons the biggest store in PC gaming is hovering around 200 million monthly active users, which would make it more than 50% larger than the entire PlayStation platform.

This soft figure comes from Simon Carless' GameDiscoverCo newsletter. Carless used some pretty basic math and alternate data sources to estimate Steam's growth over the past few years, and we can check it ourselves with some equally simple arithmetic based on Valve's 2025 Steam report.

Carless notes that Steam's Digital Services Act notice affirms that the store had "an average of 31.1 million monthly active recipients" in the EU as of the second half of 2025 (this has been cited elsewhere as well). He used this figure as a base to compare the EU's Steam audience to the store's entire demographic, and for that he consulted Steam's public bandwidth chart, which tracks how much data is used where.

Already, caveats come into play. We don't know exactly how much activity makes someone a monthly active user (MAU) under these terms – for example, playing a game versus viewing the homepage or one Steam sale link – nor will bandwidth usage perfectly correlate with user distribution.

However, the math, with non-EU countries removed from Europe's stats, does roughly line up. Carless notes that this approach puts Steam at around 198 million MAU for the second half of 2025, meaning it may have crossed 200 million by now.

Now for official stats. In 2021, Valve said Steam had 132 million MAU. This year, the company said Steam had been gaining about 3.4 million concurrent users each year ever since hitting 25 million for the first time five years ago.

Again, we have to make an assumption: that Steam's concurrent users and MAU grew at exactly the same rate, which they surely did not. But they probably weren't massively detached, either, so we can approximate MAU using that rate (3.4 being 13.6% of 25) to plot five years of growth.

The most generous version of this estimation gives us around 213 to 221 million MAU. We see this range because using 2021's peak of 27.4 million concurrent users as a base reduces the growth rate to 12.4%. Either way, this isn't far off Carless' result. He used a similar formula to gauge his findings and got 210 million; I just plugged in a slightly different number based on Valve's blogs.

This method would also give us roughly 44 million concurrent Steam users, which is only about 9% ahead of the actual 41.2 million users that Valve reports in Steam's charts hub. We assuredly don't have the street address right, but we're probably in the right zip code, or at least the right county.

This is an exercise more than anything, and I wouldn't use this kind of soft math if I were building a space shuttle. But, especially given the larger growth in PC gaming versus console gaming, it does seem fair to assume that Steam is around 50% larger than PlayStation.

A recently translated report from Sony confirms PlayStation had 125 million monthly active users in March 2026, which, as a reminder, is below what Steam had five years ago. If we remove a chunk from the most conservative Steam estimate we have, we'd be right in line with the 187 million monthly users we'd need to hit that 50% mark.

Instead of putting its games on PC, Sony apparently wants to escape the reputation that "PlayStation equals the living room" by selling monitors and speakers.

Valve just dropped Windows 11 Steam Machine drivers, and while I firmly believe stripping the cube of SteamOS is blasphemous, you can now do so with full hardware support. Dual-booting isn't a thing yet, so you will need to wipe your drive to turn the box into something closer to Xbox Project Helix.

Over at Valve's Windows Resources page, you'll now find Steam Machine drivers alongside existing Steam Deck OLED and LCD device controllers. Effectively, you've got downloads for graphics, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and the SD card slot to enable full functionality on Microsoft's operating system, which in theory should help it run like any other gaming PC.

In theory, everything else within Valve's cube should already play nicely with Windows 11 without additional drivers. That includes motherboard elements like USB ports, but there's no guarantee you'll get the same level of optimized performance in games. This is something I've witnessed as players try to swap out SteamOS on everything from the Steam Deck to the Lenovo Legion Go S, but it will grant you wider compatibility with PC storefronts.

Yes, there are workarounds to get the Epic Game Store and GOG working in SteamOS. If you do swap things out for Windows, though, you'll be able to easily download games using your Xbox Game Pass subscription, and you won't run into anti-cheat issues when playing competitive romps. As impressive as Valve's Proton compatibility layer is, many of those tools work at a Windows kernel level, and the ones that don't, like Easy Anti-cheat and BattleEye, often block Linux.

I can't see many players permanently swapping out SteamOS for Windows 11 on the Steam Machine right now. In my eyes, this driver drop is in prep for dual-booting, which could honestly make Xbox Project Helix look a little silly if it arrives with just some sort of consolized Windows OS.

Yes, the "Full Screen Experience" has helped handhelds like the ROG Xbox Ally X feel a bit more couch-friendly, but it doesn't remotely hit the same comprehensive console notes as SteamOS. If the Steam Machine gains the required Wizard for dual-booting before the next-gen Xbox arrives, though, it could be pulling all the same tricks while retaining direct access to Valve's PC console hybrid vision.

Valve is already off to a flying start with Steam Machine support, having just also implemented VRAM enhancements via improved memory management. Even that recent scare with one system showing "Red Line of Death" symptoms is now resolved, as leaving it off for 24 hours cleared the GPU bug in question.

Simply put, the Steam Machine is thriving despite its $1,049 price tag, and it's got something of a head start against any other console PC hybrids that plan on showing up. The next Xbox will almost certainly be that, and releasing Windows 11 drivers ASAP means it'll be more than ready to play Project Helix at its own game.

If you completely swap out SteamOS for Windows 11 right now, though, I will brand you a sicko.

Swing by the best gaming handhelds for portable PCs with a punch.

One of the first Steam Machine "Red Line of Death" victims has made a miraculous recovery, and Valve didn't even have to step in. While the specific visual error code displayed originally signalled GPU failure, the early adopter says leaving it unplugged overnight has cleared the issue, and from my experience, that smells like a firmware glitch.

In an "anticlimactic and somewhat embarrassing" faulty Steam Machine update, Reddit user me_hill says they tried various power cycle lengths following suggestions. "I left it unplugged for about half an hour last night and then tried plugging it back in... and it didn't work." laments the mini PC's owner. "So I left it unplugged for a couple of hours and then tried it again before bed... and it didn't work. Same error light despite multiple power-cycling attempts."

In a last-ditch effort to revive the Steam Machine, me_hill says they then "left it unplugged overnight" before attempting to boot up the next day to experiment with BIOS shortcut keys. You could say the user was third time lucky, as after 24 hours, the box apparently "booted up immediately without issue."

As someone who's been fixing, building, and writing about gaming PCs for decades, I want to assume me_hill that they shouldn't feel silly. The user admits, "I feel stupid about even posting this now, especially since it blew up a bit, but I was tired and irritable after a long day of work, and an ominous GPU error code wasn't exactly the seamless plug-and-play experience I had hoped for."

I'd feel the exact same if my $1,049 cube started making Xbox 360 red error codes at me, especially given Valve's guidance online. That said, this isn't remotely the first time I've encountered a device that ends up with nonsense floating around memory that prevents a boot, and I've previously had to power-cycle the Steam Deck OLED to get it working after a failed firmware update.

The now-happy Steam Machine user rounds off their update with the exact same advice I'd give: "If anyone encounters the same error, don't panic like I did, just let it sit for a few hours and it will somehow sort itself out." While I'm still seeing some comments suggesting they should contact Valve anyway, I suspect the mini PC maker is already on the case and will address it with its next SteamOS firmware update, and I'll be reaching out to my contacts to see if there's an official response to the error.

For now, at least, it looks like we don't have any serious Steam Machine "Red Line of Death" fiascos unfolding before us. It'd be naive to think this will be the last quirk with the box that makes its way online, but there's nothing to suggest there are any real hardware faults at hand, even if the cube does display a dreaded error code.

Check out the best Steam Deck docks if you're using the handheld as a Steam Machine alternative.

There's a relatively high chance Valve co-founder Gabe Newell and Hollywood director James Cameron are at least friendly. How do I know? They both partake in the hilariously ridiculous rich person hobby of investing in submarines.

One of the central figures behind Half-Life and Steam, Newell is already a relatively big player in ocean exploration, since he owns Inkfish, a research firm dedicated to learning about the ocean depths. He footed the bill on a new vessel known as RV6000, a 100-meter-sized project that recently started construction at a shipyard in Romania, and now he's taking his investment even further

Per Boat International, RV6000 is being put together by Vard, a Norwegian company, and once the outer hull is finished in Romania, it'll be sent to another shipyard in Norway to be finished. It's a state-of-the-art undertaking, described as "one of the most modern research vessels the world has seen" by Vard.

Here's the kicker: it's being handled by Oceanco, a manufacturer of high-end boats and the like Newell actually acquired himself last year. Let it never be said he does anything in half measures. He's following in the footsteps of James Cameron, who famously became infatuated by oceanic research while making 1997's Titanic, and is now a bona fide and highly qualified expert in the area.

The RV6000 costs €200 million (around $228 million) and now Newell's greenlit a second wave of investment, to the sum of €700,000,000 – or just shy of $800,000,000 – for the RV11000. This hulking mass comes to a total size of 162-meters, and it's expressly designed to go farther than most other deep sea vessels ever could.

The RV11000 will be able to hold 130 crew, and it's expected to follow the same pipeline as the RV6000. The latter should be finished in 2028, whereas the former is projected to be operational in 2030. Think of them when you're convincing your friend to buy a Half-Life bundle for $1 in the next Steam sale.

Uh-oh, the Steam Machine is having its own Xbox 360 "Red Ring of Death" moment, and Valve's lightbar codes point towards GPU failure.

Consoles are running on adrenaline. Serious damage has been dealt but the pain hasn't fully set in yet, so like an MMA fighter blissfully unaware that their forearm has gained a cool new elbow, manufacturers are staggering through the same old motions. And in today's AI-driven component drought, consoles are hurting. Gaming has never been less affordable. But what actually scares me is the apathy I feel at the thought of another console generation.

We're coming up on the seventh year of the PS5 and Xbox Series X. The same old motions demand a new box be enshrined in the hallowed media center, but many of the factors hurting current-gen consoles will only get worse with a new generation. This leaves me wondering: does anyone actually want new consoles any time soon?

The next generation

The Nintendo Switch 2 just barely made it. Even Nintendo, whose strategy of staying well behind the cutting edge of processors is really paying off today, has marked up prices in response to ballooning production costs (and US tariffs). And Nintendo got lucky, launching its latest handheld just before the landscape soured.

Valve, the latest living room contender, got unlucky, and its Steam Machine's dizzying price offers a glimpse of what is staring down the PS6 and Xbox Project Helix. Nobody is happy with the Steam Machine, least of all Valve. The company wanted, and planned, to price its box significantly lower. Even if you like the Steam Machine – and it has some genuinely solid features and upsides, including a great OS – there's no denying that it costs too much for what it can do. Because of course it does. Everything costs too much right now! And in a world where Valve is selling a weaker PS5 for $1,050 at base, I don't see the PS6 or Xbox Project Helix getting over the price hurdle.

Console gaming faces mounting challenges. First of all, if you hike the price of consoles too high, you risk pricing them out of relevancy altogether. Microsoft just went through this with Xbox Game Pass. It got so expensive that it lost its use case for millions of people. Everything has a price threshold where people stop caring, and that's especially relevant here because affordability and convenience are core selling points for console gaming. You pay $500 for a box that plays games. Oh, how good we had it.

This is an essential part of the console bargain. It's the fast food problem – worse, really, because games aren't a need. But I get fast food because it's cheap. If fast food and sit-down food are the same price, I'm not going to Taco Bell. In this analogy, console platform holders can thank their lucky stars that PC gaming hardware is also on fire and everyone is pawing their way through the smoke.

But games exist elsewhere, too. Free games that run on phones and potatoes alike are already eating a huge chunk of the rapidly aging gaming market, to say nothing of other media in the attention market. Never mind bringing new or younger players into the next generation; an intimidating price could also block existing console gamers from trading up, and consoles have survived this long by remonetizing the same people in a matured market. Underpinning this is the existential threat of a vanishing audience, which is worthy of its own screed.

Your money's worth

Now put two more bricks on the scale. New consoles have to justify themselves with software and hardware. Does this have enough awesome new games to warrant a purchase? Does it run or display my games appreciably better?

Performance gains have gotten smaller and smaller with each passing console generation. Now more than ever, Sony and Microsoft have to deliver big enough upgrades to distinguish new systems without pushing the price so high that people tune out, and I don't know if any architect can do that with the AI monkey on their back. Godspeed, Mark Cerny.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to buy a new console right now anyway, not just because life has gotten more expensive, but also because my PS5 and Xbox Series X still work fine and, frankly, feel untapped. This has not been a great generation for exclusive games, and for many reasons.

A lot of the bids on live service games and studio acquisitions amounted to nothing at best and disaster at worst. Remakes have been injected into release schedules like liquid bandages. As much as a third of developers have been laid off in the past few years. Loads of studios have canceled exciting projects or closed their doors entirely. And bloated production cycles have given us between zero and maybe two games from almost all of the big first-party hitters in the past seven years.

I do not want to minimize the far more important human toll of the games industry's contraction. I just want to also point out that there ain't many system sellers 'round here. (Again, I think Nintendo's strategy of not firing its best people is pulling ahead.) The list of PS5 exclusives could fit on a napkin, or a gum wrapper if you trim it to console exclusives. Xbox is in even worse shape because Microsoft's primary export is layoffs. Sony and Microsoft haven't done a great job securing games for the newest consoles I already have. How are they going to sell me on an even more expensive version?

PlayStation, for one, is transparently charging more for less. In January 2028, PlayStation will end production of all new physical games. The future of the brand is digital-only, and if you think the new consoles won't follow suit, I've got a bridge to sell you. Maybe programs like Microsoft's rumored disc-to-digital library can take the sting off backwards compatibility, and maybe we get another add-on disc drive to bring PS5 games forward. But physical copies are also a major selling point for consoles. Losing discs hurts, and it hurts everyone.

I'm not predicting the end of console gaming, but year after year of unprecedented times has upended the industry's established cycles. Now does not feel like a good time for new consoles. Few seem ready or willing to buy one, and platform holders appear equally incapable of delivering a product people will or should accept. Frankly, as soon as we got consoles with NVMe SSDs, I was basically comfortable for life. I'd be happy to hunker down for several more years, enjoy the consoles I have, let the AI monkey jump into a woodchipper that it hallucinated was a pile of money, and talk about a new console generation when we aren't living through a particularly heavy chapter of future history books. I would like my times to be a little more precedented. And at this point, I'd be happy if the next few years somehow go that smoothly.

On the topic of using what we already have, check out the best PS2 games that made Sony's second-gen console such an icon.

The Steam Machine is supposed to feel like a console, but I didn't think it'd get Xbox 360 "Red Ring of Death" symptoms like one. Yes, ten years on from the catastrophe that bricked millions of Microsoft's sixth-gen systems, a user has encountered a similar error code after using Valve's mini PC for just 20 minutes, and official error codes suggest the worst.

In a Reddit post titled "Well, the Steam Machine was pretty cool for the 20 minutes that it worked," user me_hill shares a photo of the mini gaming PC with a specific red lightbar pattern. According to Valve's own error code guidance, if the LEDs are "red, right half breathing", it means that the "system detects GPU failure", which adds up since the user says they're getting no video output.

Prior to the fault code, the unlucky Steam Machine owner says, "got five minutes of No Man's Sky in, then I installed the update the machine had available, and it bricked itself." As someone who has experienced similar "bricked" symptoms after updating the Steam Deck OLED, I'm wondering whether the issue is actually tied to BIOS or software shenanigans that can be fixed using recovery mode, rather than a physical GPU chip fault.

Rather than tinkering, me_say has shrugged off suggestions for DIY fixes, and rightfully exclaims, "Holy shit this thing is a week old, best send it to Steam Support." I'm certainly the type that would tirelessly try to get it working myself before conceding and reaching out to Valve, but the user has a point when they say it "does seem to kind of defeat the purpose of plug and play."

Honestly? I'm right there with this unlucky Steam Machine user. When you spend $1,049 on a console rival, you shouldn't have to fiddle with reflashing firmware, and while PC players might be up for troubleshooting, players that'd normally reach for a PS5 or Xbox Series X may feel a bit lost trying to implement fixes.

The sort of good news here is that while Valve's codes suggest GPU failure, there's a good chance a firmware update has failed and borked the startup process. In theory, that would make the graphics side of things unreachable, resulting in an error code and no idea output.

I don't blame the user for not messing around and waiting for Valve's support to get back. At the same time, I'm itching to troubleshoot the box and find a quick solution, as it could help the many new players receiving their Steam Machines right now from day-one hiccups. I have no doubt that if there are any serious software quirks, an update will swiftly sort them out (we've already just had a SteamOS patch that enhances VRAM management, after all), and I do doubt that this is a physical chip fault.

If Valve's box is suffering from a PS3 YLOD (Yellow Light of Death) Xbox 360 RROD scenario, it could be catastrophic for the Steam Machine. Pricing is already causing upset, with even former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida criticising the MSRP in a mini review, so the PC giant ends up needing to RMA units due to physical faults or even classic soldering issues, which could simply lead to even higher prices or stock scarcity.

Again, I would be surprised if GPU board connection issues are an issue with the Steam Machine. Not least because I can't see No Man's Sky ramping up thermals to a degree that'd crack faulty solder joints like with the Xbox 360, but I'll be patiently waiting for the support verdict. In brighter news, Valve has just shared how to make your own Steam Machine e-ink faceplate, so if you're already up and running without any ominous red HAL lights, you could jazz your box up with an Inkterface.

Swing by the best Steam Deck docks if you're looking to use the portable as a makeshift machine.

Valve just dropped everything new Steam Machine owners need to make their own e-ink faceplate, and the timing is impeccable. Right now, the cube is landing on the doorsteps of early adopters around the world, and I've no doubts that some of them were originally lured by the "inkterface" and its papery stat screen abilities.

The freshly uploaded Steam Machine Inkerface kit includes 3D print files, a complete bill of materials, and instructions to guide you through making the e-ink panel (thanks, Brad Lynch). There's even a video detailing the process step by step, providing invaluable steps that should help make some of the steps, like soldering wires to its Adafruit brains, a little less intimidating.

I know not every new Steam Machine parent will have a 3D printer to hand or the confidence to solder. The nice thing is that since the 5.83-inch Adafruit e-Ink panel actually connects via Bluetooth, there's less chance of you doing something that'll blow up your beloved new cube. That said, it would be nice if Valve would just make one of these screens, but thankfully, renowned Steam Deck dock maker Jsaux is ready to step in (again).

Yes, just like when it beat Valve to releasing its docking station, Jsaux is already planning its own Steam Machine e-ink faceplate. At the moment, the landing page still says "coming 2026", but I suspect plans will be moving forward now that the mini is actually a thing.

At the moment, renders depict an entirely white Steam Machine shell with an e-ink panel similar to the one used by Valve. That could mean we'll get an entire kit that lets you swap out the case, which would make sense, given that it's sitting next to an additional transparent box on the site. In any case, if it actually arrives (and is a reasonable price), it will save you from resorting to DIY methods, even if the project sounds pretty fun.

If I manage to get hold of Valve's console rival in the future, I'll no doubt end up making my own Inkterface for the box. So far, we've only really witnessed it displaying performance stats, but I reckon someone will eventually add an LCD to the front and make it look like a faux Sony PVM CRT monitor. Even if that's not possible, if Shuhei Yoshida's mixed Steam Machine review is anything to go by, the former PlayStation boss will be delighted at the e-ink panel after praising Valve's face plates.

Swing by the best gaming handhelds if you'd rather take your backlog outside.

It might sound like a betrayal, but PlayStation legend Shuhei Yoshida has a Steam Machine perched next to their TV. The former president even took time to share a bullet-point review covering their thoughts after a few hours of play, and oh boy, does he have mixed feelings about the new PS5 rival, its $1,049 price tag, and PC gaming capabilities.

In an X post appropriately titled "Thoughts after a few hours of playing with Steam Machine," Yoshida rhymes off a pretty long list of testing takes. I'm not sure how I'd feel if I were Valve, sifting through some of these for some industry veteran insight, as he kicks things off with "3D performance is just…meh." Yikes.

If I'm being real, that first bullet sounds like the sort of critique you'd see tied to the Sega Saturn or a cheaper graphics adapter back in the day versus the PS1. That said, seeing as Yoshida's final role at PlayStation was heading up Sony's Indie developer initiative, I imagine he means that smaller, non-AAA outings naturally run better on Valve's mini PC.

However, Yoshida's hit list does feature both positives and negatives. Yes, exclaiming, "Am I going back to the PS4 days?" regarding the Steam Machine apparently recommending 1080p is firmly still a burn, and the ex-PlayStation head also says, "Some games take a looooooong time to boot, what is it doing?" Yet, there's praise in there, as he calls being able to boot up with a controller button press a "killer feature" and describes the system UI as "easy to use."

From where I'm sitting, Yoshida's Steam Machine review captures the typical reactions I'm seeing from gaming PC and console players alike. Yes, it can serve as a solid alternative to the PS5 or Xbox Series X, but it's certainly not a console killer, and it has landed on planet earth with a very specific objective.

"It allows me to play Steam games on my living room TV, which is a reason enough to keep it", is a closing line on the list that perfectly explains what the box is all about, and I'm pretty sure Valve would agree. The mini PC can serve as a lower-end desktop rig should you so desire, but breaking through to couch players and offering up access to a vast ecosystem with newfound controller-friendly access is the reason the system now exists, even if that $1,049 price tag is hampering the mission.

Naturally, the big "but" in Yoshida's Steam Machine assessment is Valve's unfortunate MSRP. "But the price was very unfriendly. Hard to recommend to people unless for research," is the closing line on this mixed bag of punches and praise, and it's exactly how I feel as a hardware reviewer discussing the mini PC. The $1,049 barrier makes the box feel like it's almost in early access, and only those privileged enough to have over a grand for a console rival will be experiencing what could be the future of mainstream gaming.

That said, Valve is already working on improving its newly released box, as the Steam Machine has already received updates that improve its VRAM abilities. I can certainly see a future where prices start to fall, and performance hits consistently harder than a base PS5, but by the time AI datacentres stop gobbling vital components, we might be looking at a sequel.

If you've got Valve's handheld, it's maybe time to grab a Steam Deck dock and use the portable as a low-spec Machine.

No one is happy with the Steam Machine costing over a grand, and that includes Valve. But, the storefront giant isn't holding back on trying to make the mini PC a success, and I'm thrilled to see what looks like a previously pitched Linux VRAM management fix put into action with the latest SteamOS update.

The SteamOS 3.8.20 Beta patch notes allude to the Steam Machine receiving "greatly improved VRAM management, improving performance and stability in cases where VRAM is limited." That sounds a lot like a Linux Kernel patch proposed by a savvy Valve engineer back in April, and if it is indeed that same fix, it'll help the box use "every last byte" of its 8GB GPU memory for gaming.

I know, the idea of a gaming box not doing that by default sounds a little silly, but SteamOS still has some janky old Linux elements under the hood. That's not to say Windows 11 suffers from fewer quirks, as that's not remotely true, but in the case of devices like the Steam Machine and Steam Deck OLED, crucial data for games in memory was at risk of being "evicted" by other processes.

By adding "Device Memory Control Groups", or "Cgroups" for short, to the Linux Kernel, Valve developer Natalie Vock was able to prevent games from being sent to a slower GTT (Graphics Translation Table) fallback memory reserve, which would lead to big performance woes. While SteamOS 3.8.20 Beta doesn't explicitly mention using this exact approach, the description featured in the general updates section does sound exactly like this previously proposed Kernel tweak.

Simply put, running beefy games on the Steam Machine like Cyberpunk 2077 on 8GB VRAM should be far more stable. That's not going to help its $1,409 price tag hold up against custom PC builds or consoles, but it will demonstrate that it can provide OS-level optimization more like the latter.

The way I see it, the Steam Machine is setting the stage for Valve's console-PC hybrid platform, rather than stealing the show right away. Had the box arrived for the same price as a Steam Deck like originally planned, it'd perhaps be more of an immediate threat to the PS5 and Xbox Series X, especially with the latter set to get even more expensive.

For now, though, the Steam Machine is a premium platform that has some growing to do. The latest SteamOS Beta is also bringing an updated Mesa graphics driver to the cube "containing many ray-tracing performance improvements, as well as other performance and functionality improvements." I'd say that's an excellent start for a mini PC that's been on the scene for a week, and the updates will also benefit custom builds, gaming handhelds, and anything else using Valve's Linux-based Windows rival.

Side note, but if you've already spotted cheaper Chinese Steam Machine clones making the rounds, you may want to tread carefully.

You'll want to peek at the best Steam Deck docks if you're sticking with Valve's gaming handheld for now.

PC and mobile accessory and case maker dbrand was forced to cancel and refund all sales of its Steam Machine Companion Cube case after realizing and publicly admitting that it never got permission from Valve to make the dang thing.

In a Reddit post you'll be redirected to from the Companion Cube case's now-defunct listing page, dbrand confirms the product "was eviscerated from our website" and won't be coming back.

The Portal-inspired case began as a joke posted on the heels of the Steam Machine reveal, dbrand says, but a wave of real consumer interest sparked some hasty development and, "in the months that followed, we built the idea into something real without ever asking Valve if we could."

"We're going to regret that decision for a very long time," dbrand says.

Across seven months, dbrand says "more than a thousand hours went into engineering" the case, with 44 sets of injection molding tools created. "By the end, we were losing money on every $99 Poverty Cube sold, but it didn't matter," the company says. "This had turned into a passion project for the entire organization. Unfortunately, being proud of the thing we made did not give us the right to make it."

Dbrand even took pre-orders for the case beginning June 22. It became "the second-fastest selling product in our 15-year history," but those pre-orders will be refunded today, as this was what finally triggered alarms and action at Valve.

"Shortly after, Valve's legal team reached out," dbrand adds. "They stated that the Companion Cube is Valve intellectual property, for which dbrand does not have a license. They requested we take down the product and launch film immediately. This was entirely within their rights, and they were direct, fair, and respectful throughout."

Dbrand did try to salvage the work put into all this by finally asking Valve for permission, but the company "said no." Dbrand admits that, "given our backwards approach of building first and asking permission later, it was a fair answer." It also stresses that "Valve didn't do anything wrong here," and concludes by saying, "We should've asked first."

Rarely do companies publicly take eggs to the face so willingly, especially companies this established. But I suppose it is also rare for experienced manufacturers to forget about licensing for seven months.

Journalists often have to dig to get even modest acknowledgements of blame from large companies. In this case, a Reddit user responded to dbrand's statement and said, "You guys are fucking stupid, you know that?" The company replied, "Yes."

On Steam Machine, Valve engineers say "the cheaper the better," but a price drop is unlikely "any time soon."

There's customer service, and then there's customer blessing, and indie game creator Luka Hizo Algo is now adept at the latter. The benevolent horror dev recently released an update for liminal space horror game Buenos Aires Mirror Line just because one guy wanted him to.

Earlier this month, Algo and co-developer Rafael Di Carlo shared a minor fix for Buenos Aires Mirror Line, an hour-long horror experience about being trapped in a time loop in a grungy edition of Argentina. But Steam user MadMcMan didn't care. MadMcMan needed to invert their mouse, and so Buenos Aires Mirror Line devs fell to the floor and obliged.

"An update with no invert mouse, literally the worst," scoffed Steam user MadMcMan on June 18, reacting to Algo and Di Carlo's small update. By June 21, Algo got to say, "You're welcome." He had – as he put it in a Steam announcement post – "added Invert Y option specifically for MadMcMan."

"You could say I'm a people pleaser," Algo continues in the post.

MadMcMan eventually admitted the new feature was "nice" in the comments of Algo's announcement, and they completed a Buenos Aires Mirror Line playthrough on June 27. This all culminated in the Steam user's glowing review of the horror game: "Its good."

I can't think of a better ending for a heartwarming tale about inverting the Y-axis in a game, which I didn't realize anyone actually did. According to visual science research (thanks, The Guardian), people who invert their controls may have developed a preference for it by playing games like Microsoft Flight Simulator through the '80s, though they aren't necessarily predisposed to it. So MadMcMan likely would have thought "its good" about Buenos Aires Mirror Line had they given its default controls a chance, but it's important to be adamant about what you want.

I've been playing Steam Next Fest demos for over 5 years, and here are the 12 demos you shouldn't miss during the June event.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, who recently criticized Valve's use of mandatory Steam disclosures for games with AI-generated content, will surely not be using a new browser plugin which makes those disclosures significantly more noticeable and even hides AI-aided games in Steam search results.

Self-described Linux gamer and coder seeeeew shared the "AI warning for Steam" plugin on Bluesky earlier this month, shortly before Sweeney made the case that Steam's disclosures make it "much, much, much harder for a game developer to have a chance of success".

The plugin is available for Firefox and Google Chrome directly, and is also listed on Github. I've seen reports of workarounds that can get it running in the Steam client itself, but I haven't been able to confirm this functionality.

I have tested the Chrome version myself, and it works as described. When you open the Steam store page of a game with any sort of AI content disclosure, that disclosure will appear as a pop-up when you first load that page, making it utterly unmissable.

Additionally, in Steam search results, any AI-aided games are blurred out by default, covered with a label reading, "AI Generated Content Disclosure found." If you consider any gen AI use to be a deal-breaker, or if you're just a stickler for the tech, this plugin could save you some time filtering or checking games on Steam.

Many people discovered this plugin during the latest Steam Next Fest, a week-long showcase of Steam demos for upcoming games. As Palworld lead John Buckley lamented, more and more Steam Next Fest entries use AI-generated images or assets, reflecting a broader rise in the use of the technology.

Sweeney has repeatedly pushed Steam to drop AI content disclosures, which are not used on the Epic Games Store. His latest argument is that they attach a "Scarlet Letter" to games which use AI and can invite a "hater community trying to kill the game".

Sweeney says devs "have to choose from either not using tools that can make you way more productive, and probably failing due to competition that does," reiterating his stance that AI will be central to game development going forward, and suggesting that devs who don't use AI tools will fall hopelessly behind.

In a report featuring over 30 game developers from across the industry and around the world, GamesRadar+ repeatedly heard that many game devs do not want to use generative AI for myriad reasons.

Joint The Witcher 4 and CD Projekt Red CEO says fully AI-generated games are coming, but he has "some doubts whether this is really the path to follow."

Three things are guaranteed in life: death, taxes, and scalping. Valve's Steam Machine pre-orders have started shipping, and given the much higher demand than supply, the vultures are straight in on the new console. Listings show resales are already happening, up to double the regular price of the box.

Yes, double. Valve is currently selling Steam Machines based on a lottery system, since there's so much interest. People who signed up started being filtered into either the queue to buy this week, with some going there while others were told they're still on the waitlist.

There are four options for the system, each providing different hardware and memory for your buck. The cheapest is the 512GB model, which comes without a Steam controller and costs $1049. The most expensive, then, is the 2TB version, which will run you $1428 with Valve's official joypad. Regardless of the price, these have been unilaterally swept up already, and are going for even more exorbitant amounts on eBay.

One sold listing on the user-based marketplace had the 512GB Steam Machine going for $1,500. A strong markup – the seller made a pretty penny, for sure – but not egregious when you see how high others have gone for.

In one instance, the 2TB option without a controller went for $2,899. That is more than double Valve's asking price for that package. And that's without factoring in shipping, which is a separate amount added afterward for the buyer.

At time of writing, the highest listing I've found is a nice, round $3,200, for the 2TB model with the Steam controller. We're heading toward three-times the money on the second hand market, and this is just the first wave.

The hardware is shipping out as of today, June 29, and presumably these listings will be heading to their original owners first, before then being shifted toward their actual forever homes. The waiting list is back open for sign-ups, but I wouldn't hold my breath for an opportunity to buy for some time given the state of manufacturing right now. Just don't blow your savings on one of the inflated reseller listings in the meantime, your chance to buy will come around – eventually.

As the Steam Machine, Xbox, and PS5 consoles reach eye-watering prices, Lenovo says we're in a new normal for RAM costs.

Looking for something excellent to read this weekend? We published over 400 articles on GamesRadar+ this week, but here's our pick of the five stories that you absolutely need to read.

1. A match made in heaven: Star Wars, racing, and roguelikes combine in Galactic Racer

Star Wars has been in desperate need of something a little different ever since the Skywalker Saga collapsed. Perhaps it'll be Galactic Racer that reignites some energy into the franchise, a fast-paced racing game while blurs a development studio's expertise with Burnout and Need for Speed with the sort of lush, cinematic storytelling that Star Wars is known for delivering. We played the game ahead of its October 6, 2026, release date and the early signs are exceptionally promising.

2. Epic Games' CEO has a lot of opinions on Steam AI disclosures. None of them are good.

The use of generative artificial intelligence in video games continues to be exceptionally divisive, if not actively volatile. Recent comments from Epic Games' longtime CEO Tim Sweeney have only inflamed the conversation, as he simultaneously comes to the defense of Gen AI in certain cases and attacks Valve over its requirement that developers publicly flag when the tech has been used on Steam. This story has sparked a lot of discussion, so don't be afraid of adding your voice to the conversation.

3. "It's huge for us": Why Obsidian is finally ready to take Grounded 2 to PlayStation 5

If there's one thing that's clear from Xbox's somewhat messy approach to console exclusivity, it's that live service games will continue to be widely available – all in an effort to help build better, larger communities of players. Grounded 2 is a perfect example of this strategy in action. Obsidian legend Chris Parker walks you through all of it, the promise of the new Into the Abyss update coming this August, and the potential for the studio's survival game to grow to new heights on PS5.

4. What did we learn from the Grand Theft Auto 6 pre-order campaign starting? Rockstar is ready to change open-world games forever

The silence surrounding Grand Theft Auto 6 has been deafening. It's been over a year since the last trailer released, leaving nothing but space for rampant speculation. That's why it was so damn refreshing to see Rockstar come out this week ready to celebrate GTA 6 pre-orders going live. We got some controversial launch details, we got over 60 new screenshots, and even a bunch of new gameplay details. If anything, this is a time to remember that GTA 6 is not only real, but that it's actually coming November 19, 2026.

5. "Destiny 2 fell short of expectations": Understanding the crisis enveloping Bungie

It's been a difficult year for Bungie. The studio has enjoyed the highs of bringing Marathon online and the lows of having to abandon Destiny 2. This week, the crisis at the famed studio behind the creation of Halo hit another bump in the road, as PlayStation CEO Herman Hulst announced a restructure of the organization that has caused widespread layoffs and a massive shift in priorities. It's been disappointing to see the studio (responsible for revolutionizing the FPS genre twice over) impacted in this way, and it's difficult to see where it will go from here.

6. Shigeru Miyamoto created The Legend of Zelda. He has some things to say about the quality of its dungeon design

Shigeru Miyamoto is responsible for bringing some of the most iconic characters and worlds in the video game industry to life. It's rare for him to do interviews, which is why GR+ staff writer Dustin Bailey had to go all the way back to 1999 to find the legend commenting on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Miyamoto had a revelation during the development of this iconic adventure game, and it's one that clearly reshaped all of the games that followed.

The big news this week in PC gaming was the reveal that Valve's Steam Machine PC-console hybrid costs $1049 for the cheapest model, a figure that sent shockwaves through the gaming community despite the fact that component and thus hardware prices have been historically high for quite some time.

The rapid proliferation of AI data centers has driven the cost of memory through the roof, and when you couple that with global economic instability and high inflation, well, you have both video game consoles and gaming PCs with exorbitant price tags both on store shelves and on the second-hand market. Still, $1049 for the entry level model in a lineup of PC-only gaming consoles is a tough pill to swallow no matter how much we've all got used to everything being ridiculously expensive, but don't expect Steam Machines to drop in price any time soon.

Talking to Digital Foundry, Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais is asked if there's any chance Steam Machine costs will drop when the current RAM shortages are resolved, and he dodges the question but argues that from a business perspective, the current price doesn't make sense.

"There's no point for us to keep hardware at a high price," he says. "It's meant to be an enabler of a stronger connection between people and their games, and not something that we're trying to sell to people for other reasons... [For us], the cheaper the better."

Meanwhile, another Valve engineer on the Steam Machine's hardware team, Yazan Aldehayyat, straight-up downplays the idea of a price drop any time in the near future.

"It's obviously hard for us to predict the future, but we're not optimistic it's going to happen any time soon. Other people in the industry have said as much.

"Obviously, we would love to be able to make the Steam Machine more affordable and reach more people, but I don't want to promise to people that it's coming soon," adds Aldehayyat. "I wouldn't say that this is something that's going to resolve very soon."

If you want something slightly more concrete, or at the very least specific, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra recently estimated that the ongoing RAM shortage will likely continue through 2027 before "gradually" improving in 2028. That doesn't help much if you're looking to lock in a Steam Machine pre-order soon, but it's good to have some idea of when things might start to normalize... well, in terms of the cost of gaming hardware anyway.

$1,049 Steam Machine is still a "good value," Valve engineer says, even though it was supposed to be $789 like the Steam Deck

The dusty, wet, and unfriendly grime of a survival game doesn't seem like the perfect place to meet a nice acquaintance, but Pocketpair head of publishing and communications John "Bucky" Buckley suggests it might be. Survival games aren't nearly as unwelcoming behind-the-scenes.

Buckley writes on Twitter, "So many people view survival games as competition to each other, and think there is bad blood." But he says that "actually, we all get along really well because we all have something in common! We love survival games!"

It seems Pocketpair developers particularly get along with the teams behind renowned survival games like Rust, Valheim, and Ark: Survival – 10 of these types of popular titles make up the Super Survival Summer bundle available now on Steam. The entire package costs $148.40 in total, which is a 25% discount from the $197.90 these 10 games would have originally cost together.

Still, the Super Survival Summer bundle isn't the most dramatic discount available during the Steam Summer Sale running now through July 9. After all, you can purchase the originally $50.96 Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Complete Bundle for $5.06, a price that should turn your eyeballs into a pair of lucky dice. But about $150 is nevertheless a sweet price to pay for 10 big deal games. In addition to the titles mentioned earlier, and others, the Super Survival Summer bundle contains Palworld, V Rising, and Windrose, and it seems like an ideal opportunity for survival game professionals to grab those games for an easy $15 each.

The Bundle is also the fruit of Buckley's own love for survival games, as he shares on Twitter, "This has been a personal side project of mine since the start of 2026." When a valiant survival game soldier then tells the developer that they already own every game found in the Bundle (it's understandable if this happens to you, too; most of the Bundle's games were cataclysmic internet phenomena at some point), Buckley advises them to "buy it again and gift it to the person you want to punish most in life."

Brutal, but good advice. It comes when we could use it. time. Between rampant layoffs and serious price increases in the video game industry, it's nice to remember our ability to survive.

I've spent 5 hours diving into the Steam Summer Sale with our features editor, and these are the 11 best games on discount I'd recommend.