Topic: REDDIT vs Valve's November: HLX or Deckard?

There's a reddit thread:

"Valve uses the top banner on the front page of the Steam Store whenever they want to promote a Steam Sale, Steam Event, or new products like games or hardware. Whatever's on the front page of Steam gets a HUGE amount of exposure. They put Half-Life: Alyx on the front page banner immediately after the announcement back in 2019, as well as the Valve Index when it was announced. When there's a Steam Sale or Event, it takes up the top banner for the whole duration of those events (Summer Sale, Next Fest, etc.). Therefore, they will not announce anything at the same time as major Steam Events are happening, as they would be cannibalising their own sales. They'd rather reschedule stuff to ensure they're not cannibalising themselves."

Speculation is wild that this will be the release of HLX which is pretty certain to be 'Half-Life 3'.

But after a bit more research I think we're going to see "Deckard" + "Roy" in ten days time: Steam Frame VR headset and new VR controllers.

Why?

1. Chinese analysts (XR Research Institute) report mass production already started, targeting 400K–600K units in year one, assembled in the US/China. Trademarks filed recently ("Steam Frame"), SteamVR code renames "Overlays" to "Frames" which matches this branding.

2. Valve's hardware track record supports this, they surprise-dropped Valve Index (2019) and Steam Deck (2022).

3. Timeline fits and rumours peg end-2025/early-2026; mass production [which has begun] aligns with Xmas/holiday push, unlike unproven game polish claims for HLX.

What is this anyway?

Deckard:
High-end VR headset, recent developments indicate that the commercial name may be “Steam Frame,” following trademark registrations and code references. It's designed to be a standalone VR headset, similar in function to Meta’s Quest series i.e. run VR experiences independently without requiring connection to a PC, thanks to an onboard Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and Adreno Gen 3 GPU, dual 2.8” LCD panels at 2160 × 2160 per eye at 120Hz with eye tracking (like PSVR2), and inside-out tracking too. Also offers PCVR modes via cable or wireless connection, positioning it as a hybrid capable of both standalone and high-fidelity PC VR play. Big rumour is similar to how Microsoft has got backwards compatibility out of old Xbox games Valve have got some kind of enhancement to SteamVR to add VR to old non-VR games—maybe like Nvidia RTX Remix some say—not sure how much I believe that.

Roy:
The VR controllers associated with Deckard/Steam Frame, referencing Roy Batty from Blade Runner (mirroring the Deckard codename).

SteamOS ARM64:
Valve have been reportedly testing official SteamOS ARM64 support and investing in ARM64 versions of Proton too; obviously SteamVR ARM64 as well. Which is why I imagine there's the wired or wireless connection to PC, because unless VR games are ported to ARM they're going to have to support x86-64 PCVR games.

Rumours are similar to Proton being a transaction layer for Windows games, they're using FEX-Emu as an x86-64 emulation layer, which dynamically recompiles x86-64 instructions for ARM64 processors, acting much like Rosetta 2 on Apple Silicon—although Apple added hardware-level features and optimisations to their ARM chips to speed up and enhance x86-64 instructions, and Valve are unlikely to have been able to do this with off-the-shelf silicon.

Fremont + Ibex:
We're going to start to see multiple CPU as well as multiple OS versions of Steam and SteamVR games — this feels a long way ahead of Microsoft, especially when you include the Fremont (console under the television version of Steam Deck) that also looks imminent.
The Fremont console comes with Ibex controller—Steam Controller 2, looks like a Steam Deck with the screen removed (like the opposite of a PlayStation Portal or ROG Ally X)—not VR-only and is aimed at traditional gameplay; likely to be sold on it's own for PC gamers and some say to be used with Deckard as well as Roy controllers.

tl;dr
In my opinion it's Steam Frame launch, which I would expect comes with an ARM64 SteamOS native version of Half-Life Alyx. I think that's coming in ten days time or less from Valve.

What does everyone else think?

I mean, I would not bet on Half-Life 3, so probably the VR thing. Wonder if they bother porting Alyx to it and other platforms while they are at it.

That and half life 3 not existing.

Plenty of evidence to show that HLX exists, is being polished for release, and is … Half-Life 3.

Personally I wonder if they're going to release this as the launch title for the Steam Console — obviously available on regular Steam too.

I also think it's hardware. I haven't seen real evidence that HLX is anywhere close to a release or announcement, but there are plenty of indications that a hardware launch, be it a VR headset, new Steam Controllers or both, is imminent.

I also think it's hardware, but would love for it to be a new Half Life game. If it is a high-end $1000+ headset, what would it have to do better than the Quest 3 and 3s (which costs half that amount) for someone to consider it? For me, it's still the lack of software that keeps me from picking up my Quest. I think the hardware is still excellent, and barring any locomotion breakthroughs, I'm not sure what Valve can offer that would make me want to buy one.

SteamVR got a update today, focusing more improvements for OpenXR rather than OpenVR which 100% feels like that ARM based headset with x86-to-ARM version of Proton is going to come out very soon, and trying to adapt Steam onto Android headset devices

Well tomorrow is the rumoured day, and with the leak of the Ibex handset Steam Controller 2 I wonder if it's actually the Fremont + Ibex Steam Machine 2 release.

Leaks since August 2025 confirm Fremont as:

• TV-focused SteamOS box
• 6-core/12-thread 'Zen 4' APU, RX 7600 GPU, full HDMI with 2x Steam Deck power
• ~$400–600 for living-room gaming—reviving 2015 Steam Machines with Proton maturity
• Ibex for bundled wireless play, gyro/trackpad focus fixes original Steam Controller flaws—Ibex sold separately too price ~$60–80
• Steam Link for Deck/Deckard integration—stream to these from Fremont—unifying Steam's ecosystem (PC, handheld, console, VR)

Timeline aligns:

• Fremont SoC Geekbench'd August
• Ibex production fall 2025 — underway
• 10-year Steam Machines anniversary (Jan 2025) but shifted to holiday push

Looks like Deckard + Roy Steam Frame is parallel (claimed end-2025 / start-2026), because the leaked Ibex photo screams controller/console synergy over VR in my opinion.

Perhaps they're bundling HLX with Fremont, that would be incredible launch title, but I don't believe they'd do that. Pure Steam Machine 2 console launch IMO.

Rumours flying left right and centre that the announcement is today or tomorrow.

Edit: trying to work out how to make bullet lists work.

Haha, well it turned out the be Steam Controller 2, Steam Machine, and Steam Frame.

I really like the Steam Frame, but I'm not sure I can justify it over already owning a Quest 3. I think that streaming PC VR will likely be a very similar experience between the two of them. One thing that I wonder on that topic is if you need the 6ghz dongle or if they'll let you use a router. That's a pretty big deal for me (and probably others) because the room I use for VR isn't where my PC is.

I think the most interesting detail about the Frame is the x86 to ARM translation layer. It seems like a lot of work for only this device, so I have to assume that they plan on more ARM devices in the future. Steam Deck 2 powered by Nvidia maybe? Or maybe they want Steam OS to be to be even more flexible for third parties.