The story so far
The first try
The name is older than the cube. In 2015 Valve had a range of Steam Machines built by partner manufacturers: living room PCs running SteamOS, meant to take on the consoles. Too few games ran on Linux, players stayed away, and by 2018 the experiment was quietly shelved.
The detour that fixed it
Valve kept building anyway. Proton, its compatibility layer, taught Linux to run the Windows catalogue, and the handheld Steam Deck proved it worked at scale. SteamOS finally had the games it was missing the first time around.
The cube
On 12 November 2025 Valve announced a new Steam Machine: a roughly 16 cm cube for under the TV, built by Valve itself this time, running SteamOS.
The launch
Registration opened on 22 June 2026 and sales began a week later, on 29 June, through a randomized waitlist meant to keep scalpers out.
The open front
The front panel comes off, held on by four magnets, and in July 2026 Valve published the CAD files so anyone can make their own. A console that ships with an invitation to change how it looks.
