Since the launch of the Steam Deck, Valve has poured a lot of effort into not only developing SteamOS but also making the Steam Store and client more user-friendly on handheld devices. Valve's latest Steam Deck Client update builds on this, introducing a number of small changes that make the Steam Deck all the more useful as a console-like gaming experience. Some of the highlights in this latest update include a new optional "Switch to Desktop" button on the login screen—a change that should make the Steam Deck that much easier to user as a docked workstation when necessary. The update also adds a wireless gamepad battery indicator and a low battery level toast notification.

In addition to the aforementioned new UI features, the Steam quick access menu now also houses Steam chat, making in-game socials easier, and there is now a new quick chat feature in Steam Deck and Big Picture mode. Users can access user-configurable quick chats by holding down the view button and selecting the appropriate response. The Steam Deck also now supports Remote Downloads management, allowing you to manage, for example, the downloads on your gaming desktop from the comfort of a couch across the room or the discomfort of an airport across the country. The update also includes a number of bug fixes and UI changes to features like the Steam Input controller customization settings, which can all be viewed in the full update changelog.

Valve confirmed not too long ago that it had delayed announcing the pricing of the Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller because of the ongoing DRAM shortage and price volatility crisis that has plagued the PC hardware industry in recent months. Eventually, the gaming giant caved and announced the Steam Controller ahead of the rest of the hardware that was meant to ship alongside it, and in a recent interview with Polygon, Valve confirmed what we all suspected: The Steam Machine and Steam Frame are still being held back by the DRAM crisis. As Valve hardware engineer, Steve Cardinali, explained about the early launch of the controller: "This doesn't have RAM in it, and it's not as complicated to start getting out the door for us. We're ready for it. We wanted to build up quantity so that we could try to address everybody who wants one at launch, but it's possible that the demand for it far exceeds our expectations."

He goes on to explain that there was never a hard-and-fast rule that the Controller, Frame, and Machine had to launch together, although he confirmed that Valve would not launch the Machine ahead of the Controller. It's safe to assume, then, that the Steam Machine and Steam Frame were originally meant to launch around May as well—Cardinali says that the Controller and Machine are "a pair made in heaven," so it only makes sense to try to launch them around the same time, even if "there's no point in holding it back while we work through the other stuff." According to VR industry insider, Brad Lynch on X, the Steam Machine is more severely affected by the memory supply issues than the Steam Frame, since it relies on on-package RAM and on mobile RAM, which doesn't appear to be as severely impacted by the shortages. Reading between the lines, it seems entirely possible that the Steam Frame may launch ahead of the Steam Machine as long as RAM prices remain elevated and unstable.

With Valve today officially announcing pricing and availability for the Steam Controller, it was only a matter of time before people started asking questions about the Steam Machine and even the Steam Deck 2. Fortunately, in a recent comment to IGN, Valve developer, Pierre-Loup Griffais, has addressed the latter right off the bat. Griffais commented that the Steam Deck 2 is actively being worked on at Valve, although neither he nor the gaming giant can divulge any more concrete information about the upcoming gaming handheld, let alone a potential release window. He does note that the Steam Deck 2 will be a culmination of the lesson Valve learned during the development of its previous hardware projects.

Given prior comments that the Steam Deck 2 would need to be a sizeable performance leap over the current Steam Deck, it would not be surprising to see Valve wait until something like RDNA 4 or 5 reaches sufficient efficiency, performance, and pricing figures to be stuffed into a handheld APU without severely impacting the battery life. At that point, the Steam Deck 2 may have more serious competition to contend with, specifically from the likes of Sony. It has recently been rumored that the Steam Deck 2 would not use a semi-custom AMD APU but would launch in 2028 like the original Steam Deck, instead being powered by an off-the-shelf unit—a move that may offer Valve more flexibility to react to different market conditions and new mid-cycle CPU refreshes.

Valve has officially confirmed that its highly-anticipated Steam Controller will go on sale globally on May 4. It will be priced at $99 in the United States, €99 in European Union countries, £85 in the UK, $149 CAD in Canada, and $149 AUD in Australia, marking a truly global launch. Designed as a universal control device, the Steam Controller aims to be a versatile gamepad for the broader Steam ecosystem, supporting PCs, laptops, Steam Deck, Steam Machine, and even the Steam Frame VR headset. While maintaining familiar core controls, Valve is clearly focusing on additional inputs, including dual trackpads, a gyro, Grip Sense, and four rear grip buttons, all of which can be customized through Steam Input.

Interestingly, Valve has revealed more details about some of the core technology behind the Steam Controller, with perhaps the most intriguing being magnetic thumbsticks built around TMR technology. Valve claims they offer a better feel, improved responsiveness, and much greater durability. They also add capacitive touch support for motion-based controls, meaning your commands can now be expressed in multiple ways. There is also a new puck accessory that handles both wireless connectivity and charging, snapping onto the controller magnetically to serve as a dock and transmitter in one.

Valve's Steam Controller is reportedly just a few days away from launch, as the company is preparing for a May 4 release in Japan. According to a now-deleted post by 4Gamer, the Japanese launch is expected on May 4, with a price of $99. This price includes the controller, a charging cable, and a 2.4 GHz dongle for wireless connectivity to a PC. The removed 4Gamer post mentioned the exact launch time as May 4 at 15:00 local time in Japan, which means the launch timing will differ for the Western hemisphere. This effectively sets the launch date exactly a week from the time of writing, confirming rumors of an imminent release. As a reminder, Valve's Steam Controller will feature elements that justify its $99 price point, including four programmable buttons, dual touchpads, a hall effect sensor, HD rumble for haptic feedback, decent battery life, and connectivity options that include Bluetooth and a separate 2.4 GHz dongle.

Below are some pictures from the 4Gamer article, which has now been taken down.

Valve's upcoming Steam Controller is one of the most anticipated hardware releases the company plans to unveil soon. In a leaked video review that has since been taken down, we learned that Valve has reportedly priced this product at $99. This price point may leave enthusiasts weighing the potential higher cost against its features. While it is on the pricier side for a wireless controller, Valve positions the Steam Controller as having an ergonomic, programmable, and immersive design. What makes it special are its features, including four programmable buttons, dual touchpads, a hall effect sensor, HD rumble for haptic feedback, decent battery life, and connectivity options that include Bluetooth and a separate 2.4 GHz dongle. All of this may justify the asking price, but given the recent influx of high-quality third-party controllers, we should wait for official reviews before drawing any conclusions.

Just a few days ago, Valve quietly uploaded a Steam Controller unboxing video on its Steam platform. However, the video has not been made available for viewing, as attempting to play it results in a "This video has not been processed for streaming" message. This indicates that the launch of the controller is imminent, but since a review was released early, we are likely just a week or two away from the official unveiling. Below is a screenshot from the leaked video review, which has now been taken down.

Since the launch of the Steam Deck, Valve has been steadily updating SteamOS with new features in order to improve the gaming experience on its gaming handheld, all the while working with developers and providing them with tools to make it easier to support the Steam Deck. The latest beta update to the Steamworks dashboard for partners—developers and publishers—comes in the form of frame rate reporting for SteamOS users. With the new feature, game developers whose games have received Steam Deck Verified status will be able to access data gathered from Steam Deck users who opted into frame rate reporting.

Currently, the feature will provide game developers with a graph of average frame rate data for the 30 days, but Valve says that it will later add additional information about frame rate fluctuations, giving developers even more information to use to optimize the game. Valve says that it has added frame rate reporting to the Steamworks platform in order to help developers address user feedback from gamers who disagree with Steam Deck Verified ratings, stating that this data "can be valuable for developers to better understand the experiences of customers who disagree, especially in the context of a specific title or update." In the future, it will also expand this frame rate data to include games rated as "Steam Deck Playable," and it will add frame rate variance to the graph to indicate frame rate stability. Valve also provides developers with other Deck Verified data gathered by surveying users who have spent more than 10 minutes in a game. Presumably, features like these will eventually be available for the upcoming Steam Machine and Steam Frame, too.

Valve has quietly uploaded a Steam Controller unboxing video to the Steam platform. However, the video is currently unavailable for viewing, as attempting to play it results in a "This video has not been processed for streaming" message. This occurred late last night when one of the Valve watchers noticed, via a SteamDB entry, that Valve had uploaded a video titled "steam_controller_unboxing_2026" on April 20. It makes it seem as one of the clearest indications that the launch of this new hardware from Steam is imminent, possibly just days away.

This follows another confirmation from the same industry insider, @SadlyItsBradley on X, who noted recent shipping documents indicating that Valve has received its first large volume imports of a new wireless controller. The company may be stocking up warehouses in preparation for the Steam Controller's launch. Since this happened early last week, Valve's stockpiling of the new Steam Controller may be complete, and the first unboxing materials are about to be released for streaming. Additionally, this might coincide with the launch and pricing update, as we currently have no information about the Steam Controller's price. For now, all we know is that the launch is imminent, and we expect to hear the news any day now.

Natalie Vock, a well-known Valve contractor and Linux graphics driver developer, recently debuted a new patch that enabled better VRAM management on Linux for GPUs with low VRAM. When we originally covered the set of kernel patches, we noted that it could cut VRAM usage in half in some applications, potentially making certain aging graphics hardware viable for gaming where it may not have been before the patches. Aside from some early tests by Vock herself, not much other data was available at the time to draw any conclusions about the potential performance improvements. Now, thanks to NJ Tech on YouTube, we have some idea of how the patch could improve performance on a GPU like the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT, which has a mere 4 GB of VRAM. The YouTuber tested the GPU across nine games, including some heavy hitters, like Crimson Desert, Hogwarts Legacy, and Cyberpunk 2077 in CachyOS, which was the first Linux distribution to package and release Vock's kernel patches in what it calls GPU Booster. In the current GPU market, it would be nice to have a silver bullet to make low VRAM GPUs viable, but the results are far more varied than that, with some games seeing no improvement and others seeing up to 100% increases in FPS.

In Alan Wake II, VRAM use is actually increased, but there's a more than 2× increase in FPS, going from 14 FPS to a very playable 42 FPS average. In Resident Evil: Requiem, VRAM use is identical, but there's a 16% FPS increase, and in Silent Hill f, the story is similar, with identical VRAM utilization but marginal performance increases. Crimson Desert saw a decrease in VRAM usage, but there was no measurable performance increase as a result, as was the case with Hogwarts Legacy and Cyberpunk 2077, both of which saw reduced VRAM usage but an increase of 1 FPS average in the former and identical performance in the latter. The Last of Us Part 2 actually saw a 1 FPS drop in both average and 1% low FPS, but it seems as though there was just too much graphics memory pressure for Vock's VRAM patches to mitigate the issue. Death Stranding 2 and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 also saw little to no improvement despite reduced VRAM utilization in the former. The full video by NJ Tech follows.

It seems as though Valve's Proton 11 is rolling out in a new Beta update, and along with it, all of the improvements that come from the recent updates introduced in Wine 11, as pointed out by Brad Lynch on X. The changelog for Proton shows the inclusion of Proton 11 Beta, which would be based on Wine 11. Wine 11 made waves in mid-March when it launched, specifically because it added NTSync kernel driver support to the translation layer, introducing theoretical massive performance improvements to Linux games.

NTSync theoretically reduces the overhead when running Windows games via Proton by moving Windows NT library emulation into a kernel driver. While it isn't going to improve frame rates across the board, it has been reported to improve compatibility where esync and fsync were lacking, and it may reduce CPU overhead. This has the end result of making some games feel smoother, thanks to improving frame rate consistency and increasing 1% and 0.1% low frame rates.

Valve is implementing a number of new changes to its Steam platform, all aimed at enhancing the quality of the user experience for gamers. One of the latest updates involves adding a 30-day price history to all listed games. This feature will allow buyers to see if a game's price has changed recently, promoting greater transparency. Previously, gamers had to rely on third-party tools like SteamDB to track price fluctuations over time. Now, the Steam platform itself is set to include price tracking, integrating this functionality directly. This update will also highlight when a game is on discount, the percentage drop compared to its launch price, and how it compares to its price over the last 30 days. Gamers will be able to use these metrics to decide whether to wait for a Steam Sale or purchase the game immediately if it's a good deal.

Additionally, Valve is reportedly developing the SteamGPT AI system to assist with customer support queries, covering issues such as refunds, platform problems, and payment processing, among others. There is also talk of a new "Frame Estimator" tool that can predict your PC's performance before you buy a game. While Valve hasn't confirmed these features or provided a timeline for their release, these developments suggest preparations for future updates, which could be unveiled soon. Below is a sample price tracker from SteamDB for NBA 2K26 game, as we could see something similar on the main Steam platform soon.

Since Valve announced the Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and new Steam Controller, gamers have been clamoring for the launch of the updated hardware—especially the Steam Controller. While Valve has yet to announce the release date or even the price, it seems as though the gaming giant is preparing for the launch of the new controllers in the US. According to industry insider, @SadlyItsBradley on X, recent shipping documents indicate that Valve has just received its "first large quantity imports" of a "Wireless PC Controller," suggesting that the company may be stocking up warehouses in preparation for the Steam Controller's launch.

Steam had originally planned to launch the Steam Machine, Controller, and Frame as soon as Q1, 2026, but the announcement and launch of all three products were delayed due to the ongoing hardware shortages and dramatic DRAM price increases. Valve still plans on releasing all three hardware products in 2026, but it is no longer promising a specific launch window, seemingly in the hopes that DRAM pricing will cool or stabilize before the Steam Machine's launch. Despite the original plans to launch all three new hardware products at the same time, it doesn't seem as though Valve is preparing for the Steam Machine or Frame launch with imports the same way it is for the Controller.

Epic Games launched its Epic Games Store in 2018 to challenge the dominance of Valve's Steam platform in the PC gaming space. Known for its promotions and free games, the storefront has attracted a large gamer base that quickly adopted the platform. However, two former Epic Games employees claim that the Epic Games Store saw only an initial spike in active users during the free game promotions, with gamers eventually returning to Steam. Many gamers find switching between multiple storefronts to be a cumbersome experience. While free game deals are an excellent way to attract customers initially, the Epic Games Store needs to make further improvements to retain those gamers.

Meanwhile, Valve's Steam platform continues to break records for concurrent gamers. Just a few weeks ago, the platform reached 42,318,602 players on Sunday, March 22 of this year. This set a new record, surpassing the previous impressive 42 million concurrent players on January 11 earlier this year. At the time of writing, Valve's Steam platform has 37,053,591 active players, indicating that a large majority keep returning, with no signs of slowing down.

Valve's Linux developer, Natalie Vock, has introduced a new method for handling memory management on GPUs with 8 GB or less VRAM. Since a large part of the gaming community uses systems with limited resources, improving performance and VRAM allocation is an excellent way to maximize frames per second. According to Vock's solution, GPUs with 8 GB of VRAM or less on Linux will now benefit from better background VRAM management, allowing more free space for games. Several Linux kernel patches have been submitted to guide how Linux manages resources when a game is loaded. Previously, when a game used too much VRAM on a low-VRAM GPU, the Linux Graphics Translation Table (GTT) would move data to system RAM to prevent the game from crashing. Since Linux doesn't prioritize programs, it could sometimes move the actual game from VRAM to system RAM to make space for something like a browser or another third-party app.

In Vock's testing before these new patches, running Cyberpunk 2077 resulted in the system using only 6 GB of the 8 GB of available GPU VRAM, with about 1.37 GB spilling over to GTT and being allocated in system RAM. This could lead to game stuttering and frame-pacing issues. Now, Vock has developed a real-time dmemcg-booster, which stands for Device Memory Control Groups, to inform Linux when a program running on the GPU VRAM needs to stay there without being moved to GTT and then to system RAM. With the new patch, running Cyberpunk 2077 now uses almost the entire available system VRAM, reaching 7.4 GB, while GTT allocation has been reduced to 650 MB, cutting usage by more than half. In the picture below, you can check the "GameThread" behavior before and after the patch is applied.

Valve seems to be incorporating more AI integration into its Steam gaming platform to assist gamers with various aspects of their experience. In the latest development of this AI integration, Valve is reportedly developing the SteamGPT AI system to assist with customer support queries, while also integrating many additional features into the system. As you know, Valve's Steam platform receives thousands of support questions daily, ranging from refunds and platform issues to payment processing problems and many other inquiries. Valve's support staff is often overwhelmed, especially during major sales events. If Valve creates a customized AI system for chatting, support, and other infrastructure tasks, the company could alleviate a significant portion of the daily issues.

Additionally, recent source code leaks mention some connection to Valve's Trust systems, which enhance matchmaking quality by grouping players with similar levels of trustworthiness in games like Counter-Strike 2. This is an algorithmic process where an AI system could improve grading, as AI can naturally solve these tasks by grouping players more effectively than any custom algorithm. Furthermore, it could also detect cheating patterns performed by players and activate the anti-cheat system. However, while an AI system can assist with customer support queries, it may still make errors, necessitating human oversight to ensure the validity of support resolutions.

Steam is reportedly in the process of adding a "Frame Estimator" tool that can estimate your PC's performance before you purchase a game. As you know, Valve's Steam platform is the largest gaming platform in the world, with access to millions of PCs. The Steam Client application offers an option to include your PC in Valve's telemetry system, which processes data such as your PC's specifications and game information, including your library. Using these data points, Steam will estimate how many frames per second your PC can generate in any game, depending on your configuration. For example, for a specific CPU, GPU, and available system memory, the Steam Client will indicate whether a game can reach 60 FPS at 1440p using high settings, or whatever your preference is. We can only speculate at this point about what the feature will look like, as Steam is still refining it before the public beta release.

Additionally, Valve has already started asking users for anonymous FPS data collection about a month ago whenever they run a game. With this data pool, likely involving millions of participants, Valve aims to build a system that estimates your FPS output based on your specific PC configuration, without needing to run a game first. Reportedly, this feature will appear in the Steam Client and show how much performance your PC can deliver before you even purchase a game. This is a classic recommendation system that will indicate what your configuration typically delivers at specific game settings and resolutions.

Valve's next-generation Steam Deck 2 handheld console is reportedly planned for release in 2028, with significant manufacturing changes expected for this sequel to the highly successful handheld gaming device. According to a well-known industry leaker, KeplerL2, posting in the NeoGAF community, Valve is targeting a 2028 refresh for the second-generation Steam Deck. However, the ongoing supply chain shortages of DRAM and NAND Flash could cause disruptions to these plans, potentially leading to delays. Interestingly, this period is when the shortages are expected to start easing, so the Steam Deck 2 could still be released on time, depending on Valve's sourcing capabilities.

One of the most significant procurement shifts for the Steam Deck 2 is Valve's choice of the computing base that will power the handheld. Instead of using a semi-custom AMD APU, Valve is expected to use an off-the-shelf AMD APU that won't require any custom tuning from AMD to meet Valve's needs. This is welcome news, as the latest Steam Machine showed that Valve's reliance on a semi-custom APU solution made the hardware "obsolete" quickly while the rest of the industry advanced. With any semi-custom solution, stockpiling silicon and waiting for DRAM/NAND modules to arrive puts pressure on Valve to ship a product that is significantly underpowered or too expensive. However, with an off-the-shelf solution, Valve could use the best available option at the time of shipping and optimize SteamOS around it.

As we enter a new month, Steam's Hardware and Software Survey data has been processed, providing us with a clearer view of the overall gaming market that uses Steam platform. Today, the most notable change in the Steam Survey is the increase in Linux gamers, who have moved from their historically low single-digit market share to mid-single digits. As of March, Linux-based operating systems were running Steam on 5.33% of all polled systems. This represents an impressive 3.10% increase over February's data, which showed a dip in Linux market share from January's 3.5%. Fortunately, the numbers have now been revised upwards, marking a significant improvement for the community that has been steadily implementing improvements and making Linux-based gaming more accessible to everyone.

What might not be surprising is that a large portion of those 5.33% Linux installations run on Valve's customized SteamOS operating system. With a 24.48% share, the use of SteamOS grew by 0.65% last month alone, while other Linux distributions also contributed significantly. Other Windows alternatives like macOS are gaining momentum as well, with Apple seeing a 1.19% month-over-month increase to 2.35%. Although Linux now holds more than twice the market share of macOS, its growth within the Steam install base is a significant change, nearly doubling in just a month. Perhaps these alternative operating systems are now attracting enough attention from big game studios to encourage them to release native ports instead of relying on translation tools like Wine/Proton.

Aside from the recent accusations made in court by the New York State Attorney General, Valve's Counter-Strike 2 _has a bit of a sordid history when it comes to case farmers and bots, thanks to its strong in-game item economy, which raked in over $1 billion in 2025. In a recent post on Reddit, Valve's Ido Magal revealed that the gaming giant has just issued 960,000 bans using Valve Anti-Cheat.

These sorts of bans are often celebrated by the Counter-Strike community, because, aside from interfering with the CS2 skin and key market, farming accounts generally have a negative effect on gameplay, either throwing matches by being AFK in-game or by having the match played by bots. After revealing the ban wave, Magal encourages players to report farming bans by email (csgoteamfeedback@valvesoftware.com).

Valve has long been preparing its software stack for the arrival of both the Steam Machine and the upcoming Steam Frame, and the latest update sees the gaming giant add a long list of fixes, QoL improvements, and features to SteamVR as well as changes to the developer back-end in order to prepare for the Steam Frame. As pointed out by u/FantasySynthDev on r/Steam on Reddit, Valve's developer back-end now includes the option to select Android as a supported operating system—a change that delivers on Valve's promise to increase Android support for the Frame at GDC.

The new toggle seems to be there to indicate to users that there is an Android version of the game available, but the Redditor notes that checking the box and uploading an Android build does not yet make an Android version available for download in Steam, further suggesting that this is more preparation for the Steam Frame. Steam has also added documentation for the Android APK upload and VR testing workflows in the Steamworks documentation. While the Steam Frame and Steam Machine may not launch as early as many gamers had hoped, these changes to the back-end and documentation suggest that the new hardware may not launch as long after the "first half of 2026" plans as many feared when Valve declined to announce pricing earlier this year.

With the May 19 launch of Forza Horizon 6 just around the corner, Microsoft and Playground Games have officially revealed the minimum hardware requirements for the new racing game, and, at least on the low end, Forza Horizon 6 will not ask players for a lot when it comes to hardware. The minimum spec for the game to run is an Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 paired with 16 GB of RAM, an SSD, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, Radeon RX 6500 XT, or Intel Arc A380 GPU. This should make the game playable at 1080p, 60 FPS at low settings preset. For 1440p at 60 FPS and high settings, or the recommended hardware spec, Horizon 6 will demand an Intel Core i5-12400F or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X paired with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, Radeon RX 6700 XT, or Intel Arc A580 GPU and 16 GB of memory.

The "Extreme" requirements, which target 4K native at 60 FPS, call for an Intel Core i7-12700K or AMD Ryzen 7 7700X with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT with 24 GB of RAM, while the "Extreme RT" option, which targets 4K upscaled with Ray Tracing enabled, bumps up the GPU requirement to an RTX 5070 Ti or an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT as well as requiring 32 GB of RAM and an NVMe SSD. The game also supports DLSS 4, AMD FSR 3 and 4, and Intel XeSS 2.1, as well as Ray Traced Reflections and Global Illumination, and the engine aims for "high, uncapped framerates," and will support both the Valve Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally handhelds, although there is no word on whether there will be a graphics preset for the handhelds.

Not four months ago, we reported on Steam breaking 42 million concurrent players, but much like Crimson Desert's recent success, Valve's gaming platform doesn't seem to be slowing down, even during an unlikely time of year. According to SteamDB, Steam has once again broken its own record for concurrent players, reaching 42,318,602 players on Sunday, March 22, 2026, at 14:20 UTC. Steam's own statistics report a peak concurrent player count of 42,282,922 players, which is a little less than SteamDB reports, but still a record high.

Compared to February 2026, which itself was a slower month for the gaming giant, Steam saw an increase of over a million players at its peak. This doesn't necessarily mean all of those players were in-game—in fact, SteamDB reports that there were only 13,731,783 players in-game at the time of the new record. The new player count record was set on a Sunday, which tends to be Steam's busiest day of the week both for players on the platform and in-game. This new player-count record comes in spite of a recent spate of layoffs and studio closures, which have historically signalled a downturn in the gaming industry.

Valve has just introduced a preview of its SteamOS 3.8 operating system, designed for the Steam Deck and other upcoming hardware. This version marks a significant step toward enabling the future Steam Machine, as the SteamOS 3.8 preview build includes initial support for it. This update comes with a host of improvements, such as better support for third-party handhelds, reduced input latency of handheld controllers, optimized graphics drivers with performance and stability fixes, a new KDE desktop environment build, and support for a wider range of Intel and AMD SoCs. For the upcoming Steam Machine, we anticipate optimizations for a semi-custom six-core AMD "Zen 4" processor with 28 compute units of RDNA 3 graphics. Valve claims the PC can achieve 4K gaming at 60 FPS with ray tracing and FSR support. It features 16 GB of DDR5 system memory and 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM, powering a semi-custom GPU that may be closer to AMD's RDNA 3.5 than pure RDNA 3.A complete changelog of added features follows.

If you are a long-time Counter-Strike player, you know how magazine reloading works. Whenever you reloaded in a Counter-Strike game, any leftover ammunition from your magazine would be returned to your reserve supply. However, Valve is now changing this rule after decades of Counter-Strike gameplay. With the latest update, Counter-Strike 2 is introducing a change where reloading will discard your remaining magazine, essentially depleting your ammunition supply. This alters what used to be a standard procedure for gamers. Even after firing a single bullet, players would reload to keep their supply high in case of nearby combat. However, this has now changed in CS2 to make the experience feel more realistic and to introduce higher stakes for both sides. Careful planning, ammunition purchasing, and balancing will now better represent a real-world scenario.

ValveWhen you reload in CS2, the leftover ammo in your magazine is dumped back into an essentially endless reserve supply. And so the decision to reload has never offered significant trade-offs—in a safe position with enough time, you might reload after firing a single bullet, or half a mag, or after firing down to empty, and the rest of the round would be unaffected. We think the decision to reload should have higher stakes, so in today's update reloading has been redesigned. Now, when you reload, you'll drop the used magazine and discard all of its remaining ammo. Instead of 'topping off' your weapon with a few bullets, a new full magazine will be taken from the reserves whenever you reload.

The New York state attorney general, Letitia James, recently announced that she was taking Valve to court over what she called "quintessential gambling" via loot boxes in games like Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, and Dota, stating that these loot boxes target children and adolescents, and that they put children at risk of becoming addicted to gambling when they reach adulthood. On March 11, Valve published a response to this lawsuit in a dedicated Steam Support page, stating that it does not believe the mystery boxes violate any New York state laws, defending its loot box economy by likening it to real-world blind boxes, and criticizing the attorney general for taking Valve to court while turning a blind eye to the aforementioned real-world examples.

Valve says that it had previously met with the attorney general and explained that these mystery box systems are widely used "not just in video games but in the tangible world as well," likening loot boxes to real-world products like baseball cards, Magic: The Gathering cards, Pokémon cards, and even Labubus. Valve adds that "players don't have to open mystery boxes to play Valve games," and it insists that most gamers never do. According to the gaming giant, it has been cooperating with the NY attorney general's investigation and has shut down a number of accounts found to be using loot box cosmetics on gambling sites, citing that it has closed over a million accounts for this reason. Building on its example of baseball cards, Valve criticizes the NY attorney general taking issue with the fact that the in-game items are tradable and transferrable, suggesting that if trading physical goods, like baseball cards, isn't prohibited, neither should trading in-game cosmetics be.