Every thing We Know About Valve’s ‘Fremont’ Steam Console

We do not but know what sort of gaming {hardware} the Valve bosses are cooking up, however the makers of the Steam bridge does not appear to be only for handhelds. Eagle-eyed Reddit customers have noticed what could possibly be a tool able to resurrecting outdated world concepts. Steam box, Steam engineAnd Steam linkhowever in a kind that would rival streaming TV units or maybe TV-side consoles.

Valve has a notoriously free-wheeling work setting, that means tasks are picked up and deserted based mostly on the whims of its comparatively small workers. In his Half-life 2 twentieth anniversary self-documentary launched final month, the corporate really mentioned its builders left Half-Life 2: Episode 3 on the lounge desk as a result of few had been keen on making it. Because of this any upcoming {hardware}, particularly long-rumored units, may simply be ruminations from a fickle firm. Or, because of the recognition of the Steam Deck, this could possibly be the primary signal of a Valve {hardware} renaissance to return.

Valve’s ‘Fremont’ Might Be a TV Streamer or Console

Past hypothesis and information mining, there isn’t a official data and little particular data. Like a Reddit User on the proposed r/SteamDeck subreddit, the codename “Fremont” makes use of a HDMI-CEC and has {hardware} “much like Google ChromeOS units”. ChromeOS and SteamOS are Linux-based working methods, however the code highlights the potential for a streaming machine that would wish to connect with an exterior supply like a monitor or TV.

All data comes from adjustments made to the newest SteamOS kernel in Steam Deck. The poster provides an assumption that the machine is a streaming machine, console, or decoder. Google already has its personal streaming units, just like the Chromecast and the Google TV feedr, however the Chrome OS Controller the profile linked by Redditor is a part of Google’s open supply software program EC ChromeOS code.

So it could possibly be a streaming machine that you’d connect with your TV, just like the Nvidia Defend, which helps sport and film streaming. Moreover, the SteamOS code referred to AMD Lilac, which Redditor took to imply the machine might run on the AMD 8540U chip. Nonetheless, Valve and VR data are monitoring down Brad Lynch underlines AMD Lilac might merely consult with the chipmaker’s improvement platform and an entire vary of chips throughout a number of generations.

We do not know the way highly effective it could possibly be, however taken as an entire it could possibly be simply as highly effective, if no more so, than a Steam Deck. If Valve makes use of the identical “Deck Verified” benchmarks for a TV-based machine, it could possibly be a comparatively cheap gaming console used to play your present line of Steam video games.

Valve might attempt to compete alongside or in opposition to the meta with a Steam wi-fi headset

For years, rumors have been circulating that Valve needs to observe the Index headset with a wi-fi headset. Final 12 months, the corporate has updated its SteamVR platform to make it far more manageable, however the Bellevue, Washington, firm hasn’t made any noise about new VR {hardware}. The most recent factor we have seen about VR headsets is a patent for a “Deckard” unit. The primary rumors prompt that it might require a selected SteamVR field to work with out the necessity for a PC.

Lynch launched unconfirmed and allegedly leaked renders of controllers for the Deckard, named “Roy”. They’re clearly nonetheless in improvement and totally different variations characteristic hand loops or Quest-style flat controllers. Moreover, they might have extra buttons than a typical VR controller, with a further directional pad.

Development of Valve Deckard’s Roy controllers from prototype to mass manufacturing tooling (EV1 at the least) pic.twitter.com/66VLcu5GuG

– Brad Lynch (@SadlyItsBradley) November 26, 2024

However when the Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S exist, would anybody actually pay extra for a tool that may’t play video games anyplace natively? Meta has been working with Valve to make its Steam Hyperlink app operational for all Quest customers, so maybe Valve is shifting in the identical route with a translation layer particular for placing VR video games on ARM-based platforms, like Quest.

If Valve has the {hardware} (and that is an enormous “if”), then the software program is left. Valve’s Proton Compatibility Layer already ports video games from Home windows to Linux with its Proton Compatibility Layer. Nonetheless, whether it is extends Proton to ARM64This may increasingly not solely be good timing for all these Snapdragon X Elite and Plus-based Copilot+ PCs, nevertheless it is also excellent news for VR.

A brand new Steam controller from Valve doesn’t imply a Steam Deck 2

There are hints that we’d lastly see a Steam Controller 2. The final Steam Controller was light-weight, however gamers could not get used to the large trackpads rather than the same old controllers. Touchpads finally made their option to the Steam Deck, the place gamers largely ignored them.

However Valve’s “Ibex” idea could possibly be an entire new ballgame for a Steam controller that would work properly with a brand new VR headset or set-top field. Lynch claimed, based mostly on unknown sources, that Ibex was already getting ready for manufacturing. If it is distinct from the Roy controllers, it’s going to nonetheless be probably the most distinctive controller designs because the Wii-mote. Steam is not achieved making an attempt to place trackpads on controllers, pondering that every one these video games with mouse controls might finally work simply as properly on a handheld machine.

Ibex render mannequin thumbnail leaked in SteamVR drivers pic.twitter.com/amw3SFExF5

– Brad Lynch (@SadlyItsBradley) November 26, 2024

Steam Deck’s design language is properly ingrained at this level. Virtually all OEMs are engaged on its personal PC handheld, so that you should not anticipate a Steam Deck 2. Valve informed Gizmodo that it will not launch a brand new, refreshed handheld for an additional two or three years. The corporate revealed the same material with new color sampleshowever he reiterated his place that he wished a “generational leap” earlier than producing one other handheld laptop.