Every thing We Know About Valve ‘Fremont’ Steam Console

We don’t but know what sort of gaming {hardware} the cooks at Valve are cooking up, however the makers of the Steam Deck don’t appear to be solely serving up handhelds. Eagle-eyed Reddit customers have noticed what could also be a tool that would resurrect outdated concepts from the Steam Box, Steam Machine, and Steam Link, however in a type that would rival streaming TV units or maybe TV-side consoles.

Valve has a notoriously freeform work surroundings, which implies initiatives get picked up and dropped primarily based on the whims of its comparatively small employees. In its Half-Life 2 twentieth anniversary self-documentary launched final month, the corporate successfully stated its builders left Half-Life 2: Episode 3 on the drawing room desk since few have been involved in making it. Meaning any upcoming {hardware}, particularly these long-rumored units, may be ruminations from a fickle firm. Or, because of the recognition of the Steam Deck, it may very well be the primary inklings of an incoming Valve {hardware} renaissance.

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

Past hypothesis and knowledge mining, there isn’t a official info and little particular info. As one Reddit user on the r/SteamDeck subreddit proposed, the codenamed “Fremont” makes use of an HDMI CEC and has {hardware} “just like Google ChromeOS units.” ChromeOS and SteamOS are Linux-based working methods, however the code factors to the potential for a streaming machine that would want to hook up with an exterior supply like a monitor or TV.

All the knowledge stems from modifications to the newest SteamOS kernel within the Steam Deck. The poster added some conjecture that the machine is a streaming machine, console, or set-top field. Google already has its personal streaming units, just like the Chromecast and the Google TV Streamer, however the ChromeOS controller profile linked by the Redditor is a part of Google’s open-source ChromeOS EC code.

So, it may very well be a streaming machine you’ll connect to your TV, just like the Nvidia Defend, which helps each sport and film streaming. Greater than that, the SteamOS code referenced AMD Lilac, which the Redditor took to imply the machine may run on the AMD 8540U chip. Nevertheless, Valve and VR information hound Brad Lynch pointed out AMD Lilac may merely check with the chipmaker’s developer platform and will check with an entire vary of chips throughout a number of generations.

We don’t know simply how highly effective it may very well be, however taken as an entire, it might be simply as, if no more, highly effective than a Steam Deck. If Valve makes use of the identical “Deck Verified” benchmarks for a TV-based machine, it might show a comparatively low-cost sport console used to play your current slate of Steam video games.

Valve May Attempt to Compete Alongside, or Towards, Meta With a Steam Wi-fi Headset

For years, rumors have circulated that Valve desires to comply with the Index headset with a wi-fi headset. Final 12 months, the corporate updated its SteamVR platform to make it a lot simpler to handle, however there was no peep from the Bellevue, Washington firm about any new VR {hardware}. The very last thing we’ve seen about VR headsets is a patent for a “Deckard” unit. Early rumors hinted that it could require a particular SteamVR field to run while not having a PC.

Lynch has posted some unconfirmed, supposedly leaked renders of controllers for the Deckard, codenamed “Roy.” They’re clearly nonetheless in improvement, and totally different variations function hand loops or flat-faced, Quest-like controllers. As well as, they might have extra buttons than a regular VR controller, with an extra d-pad.

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

— Brad Lynch (@SadlyItsBradley) November 26, 2024

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

If Valve has the {hardware} (and that’s a giant “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, if it expands Proton to ARM64, it might not solely be a good time for all these Snapdragon X Elite and Plus-based Copilot+ PCs, but it surely may be excellent news for VR.

A New Steam Controller From Valve Doesn’t Denote a Steam Deck 2

There are hints that we could lastly see a Steam Controller 2. The final Steam Controller was light-weight, however gamers couldn’t get used to the huge trackpads instead of the same old thumbsticks. The touchpads finally made their strategy to the Steam Deck, the place gamers largely ignored them.

However Valve’s rumored “Ibex” idea may very well be an entire new ballgame for a Steam Controller which may work effectively with a brand new VR headset or set-top field. Lynch claimed, primarily based on unknown sources, that Ibex was already gearing up for manufacturing. If it’s separate from the Roy controllers, it should nonetheless be one of the distinctive designs for a controller for the reason that Wii-mote. Steam isn’t accomplished with attempting to place trackpads on controllers, believing all these video games with mouse controls could finally work simply as effectively on a handheld machine.

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

— Brad Lynch (@SadlyItsBradley) November 26, 2024

The Steam Deck design language is entrenched at this level. Almost each OEM is engaged on its personal PC handheld, so that you shouldn’t anticipate a Steam Deck 2. Valve informed Gizmodo it wouldn’t put out a brand new, refreshed handheld for an additional two or three years. The corporate has launched the same hardware with new color swatches, but it surely reiterated its stance that it needed a “generational leap” earlier than producing one other handheld.