Filed just yesterday, September 2nd 2025.
STEAM FRAME™ trademark registration is intended to cover the categories of computer hardware; computer networking hardware; computer peripherals; computer hardware and computer software for the reproduction, processing, and streaming of audio, video, data, text, and multimedia content.
https://uspto.report/TM/99370857
STEAM FRAME™ trademark registration is intended to cover the categories of computer game consoles for recreational game playing; video game consoles; video game accessories, namely, controllers for video games.
I’m pretty sure this is for an AI robot that is meant to play our backlog games for us
I don’t have a videogame addiction… I have a videogame buying addiction.
Deck -> frame -> veranda?
Is there a reason valve calls all their products “steam something” as opposed to “valve something” ?
Valve is the company, it let’s out steam
Probably more brand recognition with Steam than Valve, I assume.
I would guess it’s to indicate heavy association with the Steam client/service. Valve could make other products (I know they’re working on human brain interface stuff), but if it’s called “Steam…” you can easily identify it’s in the gaming line for use with Steam.
A Valve is a mechanism used to regulate and control the release of Steam?
There was the Valve Index
I am hoping this ends up being a PC hardware ecosystem, where each component is a cartridge or LEGO brick. Just pull out the power supply, RAM, GPU, or CPU, and slot in another, without worrying about breaking something or technical details. No need to dig your paws into the flesh of the machine and hope your rocket surgery skills are up to the task.
Serious question: Have you ever built a PC?
Because it really isn’t rocket appliances. I would venture your average 12 year old could do it, and has done it given a YouTube tutorial.
All of the connectors only fit one way, and they are all uniquely shaped/sized.
More expensive, Proprietary hardware, sounds like a nightmare for all involved.
Plus it would probably heavily limit your hardware choices unless all hardware vendors jump in. If not a lot do so, you might as well just stick to prefabs.
Personally I don’t see the benefit. PC building really is already simple enough. It’s just people’s mentality that keeps them back. You really have to something dumb to break anything except maybe with some CPU socket designs So if they would fix that last pain point we are already there basically.
If PC customization was casualized, you might end up with more choices. If people are mentally blocked from putting together a custom system due to fear, that disincentives companies from being in the market. I know that I would consider the odd upgrade every couple of years, if FUD wasn’t making that feel like a bad thing to try.
Maybe. I’m not against the idea. A new form factor could be good… But if it’s just to make it more ‘casual’, imho I find what we have already casual enough.
The only way they could make a PC more modular without making more proprietary is to use laptop expansion ports or USB C expansion ports.
If you don’t understand how the parts work, what they do, how delicate the connectors are… Without any experience you can’t know what not to do. Trying to build a PC, a lot can go wrong if you don’t know what you’re doing. That a lot of expensive parts that can be destroyed in a blink of an eye if you make a mistake.
You say all the parts fit only one way. Well, that depends on how clumsy or ignorant the builder is. Or both
Yes, it’s possible to screw it up, but most people seem to be really nervous about screwing it up and don’t screw it up. There are plenty of tutorials and whatnot on PC building that you can follow, and they’ll tell you when you need to be careful (mostly just the CPU and PCIe cards like GPUs).
The average person will be fine if they do some amount of basic research. A modern PC only has like 6 parts anyway (motherboard, RAM, CPU, GPU, storage, and PSU), so there are only so many ways to get the wrong parts or something (mostly just mobo/CPU/RAM combo, which you can usually buy in a bundle). You don’t have to know what everything does, you just need to be able to follow detailed instructions, which the motherboard will provide.
I can tell you without a doubt the average 12 year old is most likely unable to even install windows…they don’t know how to use computers anymore like people born in the 80s early 90s learned to use and fix them.
I’ll be honest, even though it’s not hard, it’s still intimidating to the average person. Having easier connecters with clear slot labels would be an absolute win for everyone. But then it introduces the problem of having another competing standard.
The connectors have to be very sturdy, making them easier will not be good for performance
That’s definitely not a blanket statement you can make. I’m not saying everything needs to be USB-C. Even just a connection like VGA/DVI that you can screw in would be perfectly fine.
Oh boy, the amount of engineers I have seen who end up with computers dangling from cables is not zero. At the time of VGA as a standard almost no average user bothered to screw on connectors.
An HDMI cord will pull itself out
A screwed in connector will rip the pins off the board. There is no extra strength there.
The difference is you can just plug the HDMI back in. You aren’t reattaching the pins to the mobo
I have built at least three machines, and I hate it. My hands tend to shake, and I worry when I drop a screw into the motherboard or trying to figure out how to wind a wire into position without causing damage. I am not a rich man, and fear losing money or my data if I mess up.
Honestly, I dislike your position, it sounds like a humble brag.
So… a PC?
They really are close to plug and play. You need to know that parts are compatible, but that’s true for anything.
No, a PC ecosystem where all the parts are shrouded and there are no wires to futz with.
It isn’t unrealistic - the original Starfox and Yoshi’s Island games were on cartridges, which included 3D acceleration (Super FX) hardware that increased the performance over the standard SNES. For the player to use it, all they had to do was just insert the cart into the SNES and start playing. The Nintendo 64 also had RAM expansion Paks that plugged into the machine, doubling the RAM to a massive 8 megabytes, in less than 10 seconds.
Sadly this isn’t going to happen, but is my dream too.
They need to get better marketing people. “Gonna go play a game on my frame” just sounds silly.
Yeah, I’d rather play on my deck instead
I don’t understand why they didn’t stick with the piping metaphor when naming things. You know, Valve, Steam… The Steam Deck should have been called “Boiler”.
kettle
😳
Chill, they’re not a Kiwi.
At least, I hope they’re not a Kiwi
What’s a kiwi?
Someone from New Zealand. They pronounce deck in a funny way, look it up.
Just for further reference 😉
It’s a fruit https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwifruit
I’m also a fruit
Considering the Steam Deck is not a deck, and the Valve Index is not an index, I’m assuming this is not a frame.
Oh wait, Steam Controller.
Surely it’s a mechsuit?
Honestly I’m ecstatic to see more Valve hardware. They’re setting the target for hardware for game developers which means a better experience for us all.
PC Game Developers will know they need to get they’re game running on deck (and now FRAME) if they want to hit the maximum size audience. Nvidia currently owns PC gaming but they’re not good stewards of the PC gaming ecosystem anymore (nor is Microsoft).
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I really have no interest in title’s that beg me to run buggy builds on a $2000 graphics card that is less than 2 years old to be “playable”. (Looking squarely at unreal engine 5 games)
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I have no interest in GPUs that cost 200% the cost of the rest of the PC.
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
I want AMD apus to dominate the space. I want Linux to empower them. I am tired and TBH my next gaming PC is going to end up running Kazeta.org at this rate.
Thank you for coming to my TEDex talk
I just looked up Kazeta.org and it looks like a gaming console with extra steps. It looks cool, but the amount of effort needed to build a physical collection of carts is so tedious that I would have spent better time simply purchasing a gaming console because they are always plug- and- play
I just think it’s neat!
Thanks for sharing this!! I agree, seems hella neat! Only downside would be the shelf life of the physical media - but I think that’s besides the point! Clicky physical media that holds the game itself is the point!
Real neat concept!
I want AMD apus to dominate the space. I want Linux to empower them.
Monkey’s Paw: I have really good news for you about the PS4/5!
Lol yes 😂
I have no interest in GPUs that cost 200% the cost of the rest of the PC.
Well, CPUs have come down in price because they just aren’t advancing in performance that quickly any more; serial compute hasn’t improved that much. If you charge much for a modern processor, people will just use an older one. Parallel compute improvements has kept going, and thus GPUs aren’t under that kind of pressure from physical limitations.
For a while, I’ve also just wanted to use igpus since my gaming demands are not that extreme, but they were enough that older igpus couldn’t handle it. The steam deck was the first machine that could do it for me.
Unless I want to start running ai models in my home, I’ll skip the gpu.
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Steam machines was a better name to be honest. I’m sad that effort withered and died.
GabeCube was good enough for me.
I sorta dig Frame™
I’d say more effort went into the software which sets us up for where we are now where a great deal of PC games is already compatible making this a must buy for playing the massive libraries that everyone has been amassing since 2003. If it can boot Plasma Bigscreen or if Steam Big Picture gets more entertainment apps like Netflix, it will be a home entertainment juggernaut.
Maybe they will use the stream machines name as an umbrella term for all their “consoles”. I like that name too.
Frames -> Glasses -> new VR headset?
PS: Whatever you call it, please Steam Controller 2, it’s been too long 🥲
I’m sure a new VR headset would still use the Index name. AR glasses maybe, but I doubt it.
Agreed.
But I get a strong feeling it is going to be all-in-one like the Quest. Computer and Battery are on the headset.
Deck Verified to now extend to VR titles through this new device. Frame Verified.
I wish. I like the idea of a standalone headset but I’m not exactly thrilled to give Meta any money…
Valve have had prototype schematics leak a few times for their standalone headset. Internal development name for it is Deckard.
I’m personally speculating something like xr glasses with game streaming ability and the ability to connect to some kind of controller.
High Index Lenses -> Valve Index.
You might be right.
Maybe a self-hosted gaming computer rack via which one Steam Links to Steam Decks around the house, give them a lot more compute capability. :-)
Steam port for IBM mainframes confirmed?!??!!!??!!?!!!??
Mech frame just loaded to the tits with GPUs
I hope you are right.
Hmmm. I was thinking since sort of flat screen that masquerades as a picture frame. Maybe an AIO device for game streaming.
Seems like we’re getting one step close to a full fledge SteamOS. I’m guessing they want to sell pre-builts before releasing the OS?
My guess would be they don’t want to spend a lot of effort supporting arbitrary hardware before they’re ready. Honestly, I don’t get why everyone is so obsessed with it. There are excellent dedicated distro maintainers that provide the same feature set SteamOS will provide —or something more suitable to your taste even. If you have a Deck then great, keep running SteamOS. If not, there are potentially better options for you already.
Plug for CachyOS with KDE Plasma - made switching from windows 10 to Linux on my desktop feel very familiar after learning in KDE Plasma on my Steam Deck. Personally I hope it’s deckard
Valve is building psychic robots remote piloted by orphans.
AMD field detected! Pattern orange!
Is this a “woooosh” or am I missing something? The comment you replied to is referencing Warframe.
Ah, I took it as a Neon Genesis Evangelion reference.
Mechs are universal!
If this is like a SteamOS desktop I am down. My 2080 TI is still going just fine though.
Or a home theater PC, which I am down for
Sounds kinda dumb, ngl. But if they come out with some decent hardware, I won’t mind.
Steam Fream™️
Stame frame ™️
It’s surprising that it’s taken Valve this long to make this kind of hardware.
Please be joking…
