Gaming · Tuesday, 15 September 2026

01 Briefing what happened

Valve's new headset costs $1,059. Valve had planned for it to cost less than its old $999 one.

Valve priced its Steam Frame headset at $1,059 on Monday, during a shortage of memory chips. IGN and the worker-owned studio KO_OP cut jobs, and three older games sold again after new add-ons.

$1,059

for the cheapest Steam Frame, with 256GB of storage

the 1TB model costs $1,299, and a charger is $29 extra [1][4]

$60

more than Valve's own Index headset cost in 2019

Valve had wanted the Frame to come in under the Index's $999 [3]

130

games Valve has checked to run on the headset alone, with no PC

the count has grown since reviewers first got the headset [6]

1 per home

sign-up for the first batch, drawn at random after 17 September

only Steam accounts that bought something before 27 April 2026 can enter [8]

The lead story — what happened

Valve, the company that runs the Steam store for PC games, priced its Steam Frame headset on Monday. [8]
The Steam Frame costs $1,059 with 256GB of storage and $1,299 with 1TB. [1][4]
When Valve showed it in November 2025, it planned to make it cheaper than its Valve Index headset. [5]
The Index cost $999 in 2019, so the new headset ended up $60 dearer. [3]
Reviewers at IGN and Rock Paper Shotgun blame a shortage of memory chips that has pushed up the cost of the parts inside. [3][5]
Game Developer says the shortage comes from AI companies signing exclusive deals with big memory makers such as Samsung and SK Hynix. [9]
Game Developer also says Valve refuses to sell hardware below cost and make the money back on games. [9]
Meta's Quest 3 headset costs $599. [3] The Verge says Valve's headset costs two to three times as much as similar-looking Meta headsets. [2]
The Frame is not only for VR. It can stream a player's whole Steam library from a PC, or run lighter games on its own chip. [2][8]
Every Frame comes with Half-Life: Alyx, Valve's 2020 VR game, rebuilt to run on the headset without a PC. [1][6]
People sign up until 17 September. Valve then draws a random order and sends the first invitations to buy on 18 September. [1][6]
Only Steam accounts that bought something before 27 April 2026 can sign up, and each household gets one sign-up. [8]
Valve says the same draw helped stop resellers when it sold its Steam Machine PC this summer. [7][1]
Reviewers found games that crashed and a battery that lasts one to two hours. [2][3] The power charger is not in the box and costs $29. [1][4]

Who is involved

Valve

the company that runs the Steam store for PC games; it makes the Steam Frame, the Steam Machine PC and the Steam Controller [1]
Meta

Facebook's owner, whose Quest headsets are the most common VR headsets; its Quest 3 costs $599 [9][3]
Samsung and SK Hynix

two of the biggest makers of memory chips; AI companies have signed exclusive deals with them, Game Developer reports [9]

How it unfolded

Nov 2025 Valve shows the Steam Frame, Steam Machine and Steam Controller [5]
May 2026 the Steam Controller goes on sale [1]
June 2026 the Steam Machine goes on sale [1]
Mon 14 Sept Valve prices the Steam Frame at $1,059 and opens sign-ups [8]
17 Sept sign-ups close and Valve draws the order [1]
18 Sept the first invitations to buy go out [1]

Where this points

The next thing to watch is whether Valve's draw on 17 September leaves people on a waitlist, which happens only if more people sign up than Valve has headsets. [5]

What is pushing on the whole day

The bar and the word are our reading of how hard each one is pushing today. The arrow is where it is heading. The evidence is in the stories below.

More games jobs cut High↑

IGN, one of the biggest games news websites, cut staff across several departments on Monday. [10] KO_OP, a small studio owned by its workers, cut 13 jobs because it could not find money for new projects. [11]

Old games selling again Building↑

Borderlands 4, a shooter from 2025, reached its most players since November after a new $9.99 character. [16] Rain World, a 2017 survival game, grew from 600 players at once to 15,500 after two add-ons. [18] Dave the Diver, a 2023 diving game, passed 10 million copies. [17]

Big publishers releasing less Steady→

Ubisoft has only two new games this autumn, and one of them, a Rayman remake, moved from October to December. [13] Blizzard will make no more Diablo 4 expansions before Diablo 5 arrives in 2029. [19]

Shops and shows picking fewer games Building→

Blizzard says its Battle.net store will stay picky and add only outside games its own players would like. [14] An independent games show said in March that it gets more than 300 games for about 40 places. [22] Sony's September additions to PlayStation Plus are a thinner list than August's. [24]

The rest of the day

12 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

02
IGN cuts well-known hosts

IGN, one of the biggest video game news websites, laid off staff across several departments on Monday, Kotaku's sources say. [10] Those cut include Brian Altano, at IGN since 2009 and a host of its PlayStation podcast Beyond, and Seth Macy, an editor and Nintendo podcast host. [10] A smaller group, including engineers, was cut months earlier, days after IGN Live, the site's yearly event in Los Angeles. [10] IGN's owner, Ziff Davis, bought Eurogamer and Rock Paper Shotgun in 2024. [10]

Why it matters — IGN has not said how many people lost their jobs. [10] Kotaku says some cuts may depend on whether remote staff were willing to move. [10]
03
A worker-owned studio cuts 13 jobs

KO_OP, the studio behind Goodbye Volcano High and Young Suns, has laid off 13 people. [11] KO_OP is owned and run by its workers, and it says the decision was made democratically. [11] It says it could not find money for new projects while working on its current ones. [11] Team leads and elected executives are among those leaving. [11] Young Suns, a life game played with other people, launched on Xbox and is coming to other machines. [11]

Why it matters — KO_OP says it will share any Young Suns profits with the people it laid off, and rehire if new funding arrives. [11] Its members were told about the cash shortfall well in advance. [11]
04
Ubisoft's only new autumn game slips

Ubisoft, the French publisher of Assassin's Creed, has delayed Rayman Legends Retold from 1 October to 3 December. [12][13] It is a remake of the 2013 platform game Rayman Legends, rebuilt with 3D graphics. [13] The team says the game has gone gold, meaning finished and ready for release, but wants more time on the details. [12][13] Apart from a new Just Dance, it is Ubisoft's only new game this autumn. [13]

Why it matters — Polygon counts dozens of games coming this autumn, led by Grand Theft Auto 6, and only this one from Ubisoft. [12] Kotaku says earlier delays led to money troubles that pushed Ubisoft to seek outside funding, lay people off and close studios. [13]
05
Battle.net takes Witcher and Cyberpunk

CD Projekt Red, the Polish studio behind The Witcher, will sell The Witcher 3 Remastered and Cyberpunk 2077 on Battle.net before the end of the year. [14] Battle.net is Blizzard's own PC game store, started in 1997 alongside the first Diablo. [14] It sold only Blizzard games until Destiny 2 arrived in 2017, then Activision and Xbox games. [14] Blizzard's Andrew Guerrero told Polygon it is not trying to compete with Steam or the Epic Games Store. [14][15]

Why it matters — Guerrero says Battle.net will stay picky and add only games Blizzard's own players would like. [14] Blizzard also ties a Geralt outfit in Diablo 4 to pre-ordering a Witcher 3 add-on on Battle.net. [15]
06
No more Diablo 4 expansions

Blizzard says Diablo 4 will get no more expansions before Diablo 5, which is due in 2029. [19] Game director Brent Gibson said the team is focused on Diablo 4's seasons and on getting to Diablo 5, and more story will come through those seasons. [19] A new season for the series' 30th anniversary starts today, 15 September. [19] The same day, Diablo 4 comes out on the Nintendo Switch 2 with everything released so far. [19]

Why it matters — Players who wanted a big story add-on get about three years of seasons instead, and a returning Amazon class in the first half of 2027. [19]
07
Borderlands 4 players come back

Borderlands 4, Gearbox's shooter from September 2025, has climbed to about 26,000 people playing at once on Steam. [16] That is its most since November 2025, after months below 10,000 following complaints about how it ran. [16] The rise came after Loveless, a $9.99 add-on character, arrived on 10 September with a second story pack. [16] Gearbox also cut the game to $34.99 during a free weekend that ended on 14 September. [16]

Why it matters — The base game climbed back into Steam's top five sellers in the US. [16] IGN says it is unclear whether the players will stay. [16]
08
Rain World's add-ons grew its crowd

Rain World is a hard 2017 survival game from the small studio Videocult, where a slug-like cat hunts for food before deadly rain. [18] When Akupara Games took over publishing from Adult Swim Games in 2022, its record was about 600 players at once. [18] Two add-ons lifted that record to 8,500 and then 15,500. [18] Akupara says the game has sold 3.5 million copies since, 1.3 million of them in one Steam summer sale. [18]

Why it matters — Akupara says Rain World is still tied to Warner Bros., which owns what is left of Adult Swim Games. [18] It hopes a deal to go fully independent is close, but has thought that before. [18]
09
Dave the Diver passes 10 million

Dave the Diver, a 2023 game that mixes deep-sea diving with running a sushi restaurant, has sold more than 10 million copies, its maker Mintrocket says. [17] Its In the Jungle expansion, released in June, has sold more than a million on its own. [17] Mintrocket is part of the publisher Nexon, which caused an argument when the game was nominated as an indie in 2023. [17] Next comes Bancho the Chef, a cooking spin-off. [17]

Why it matters — The game sold its first million copies in 10 days in 2023. [17] Three years later it is still selling, with an add-on selling alongside it. [17]
10
Capcom opens its first US shop

Capcom, the Japanese publisher of Resident Evil and Street Fighter, opens its first shop in the US on 19 September. [20][21] It is a pop-up in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, open until 18 October, and a branch of Capcom's store in Tokyo. [21] It sells plush toys, T-shirts and keychains, and visitors can try Mega Man: Dual Override. [20] Resident Evil Requiem, out this year, has sold more than 7 million copies, and Pragmata more than 2 million. [20]

Why it matters — Merchandise like this has mostly been sold only in Japan, Polygon says. [21] The shop brings it to US fans for one month. [21]
11
An indie showcase returns with 40 games

The Triple-i Initiative Showcase, a not-for-profit show of independent games, returns on 8 October. [22] It is run by Evil Empire, a studio in Bordeaux, France, and promises no ads and no host. [22] About 40 games will appear, including Dave the Diver, Risk of Rain 2 and the pirate game Windrose. [22] In March its organisers said they receive more than 300 games for about 40 places in a 45-minute show. [22]

Why it matters — Polygon calls it a counterpoint to The Game Awards, which Geoff Keighley hosts. [22] Most studios that apply are turned away, so the choosing decides which small games get seen. [22]
12
PlayStation Plus adds a thinner list

Sony is adding a slimmer set of games this month to PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium, the higher tiers of its subscription, Kotaku says. [24] RuneScape: Dragonwilds and WWE 2K26 join today, 15 September. [24] Ball x Pit and Slitterhead follow on 22 September. [24] Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, Dungeons of Hinterberg and Sniper Elite: Resistance arrive on 29 September. [24] August's list, led by Helldivers 2, was stronger. [24]

Why it matters — Subscribers pay the same each month whatever gets added. So the list of new games is the part of the service that changes for them.
13
Xbox's boss answers support tickets

Asha Sharma, head of Xbox for about six months, spends a few hours each month answering customer support tickets, The Wall Street Journal reports. [23] In that time she ended the This is Xbox adverts, cut the price of Game Pass Ultimate and oversaw mass layoffs. [23] She has told Xbox studios to focus on its best-known series, and Obsidian has begun a new Fallout game. [23]

Why it matters — The Journal says the ticket work showed her how hard it can be to fix one player's problem. [23]

02 Lesson why it matters

A new add-on can sell the old game all over again

Borderlands 4 got a new $9.99 character and a half-price weekend, and the year-old game climbed back into Steam's top five US sellers.

The twist

An add-on is made for the players a game already has. Some of the money it brings in comes from people who never bought the game at all.

How it works

A game sells most in its first weeks, then sales fade
The studio releases a paid add-on for people who already own it
Those players come back, and the game climbs the charts again
People who never bought it see a busy game in the charts and in sales
Some of them buy the old game, because the add-on needs it

The same force, elsewhere today

Where this chain is also running, in today's other stories.

Borderlands 4 players come back

A $9.99 character arrived during a sale, players came back, and the base game then climbed into Steam's top five sellers in the US.
Rain World's add-ons grew its crowd

Each add-on raised the number playing at once, and the old game went on to sell 3.5 million copies after the first one.
Dave the Diver passes 10 million

The In the Jungle expansion sold a million, and the three-year-old game it needs kept selling past 10 million.

Where you've seen this

Book series

a new book in a series sends new readers to buy the first one

TV on streaming services

a new season puts the first season back on the most-watched list

Board games

an expansion box on a shop shelf sells copies of the base game next to it

The catch

It only works if the old game is still worth playing. Today's numbers also cannot separate the add-on from the discounts and free weekends that came with it.

And the whole of it

A returning player sees a new character, and a stranger sees a busy game near the top of a chart. The studio sees a sales number, and cannot fully tell which of those people put it there.

03 Truth what's really going on

What is really going on

Valve once planned to sell its new headset for less than $999, and on Monday it priced it at $1,059. [3][5] Reviewers blame a shortage of memory chips, and Valve will not sell its hardware at a loss to make the money back on games. [3][5][9] In the same few days IGN and the worker-owned studio KO_OP cut jobs, while Borderlands 4, Rain World and Dave the Diver made new money from old games by selling add-ons. [10][11][16][17][18]

Who gains

Valve — It sells each headset at a price that covers its costs, and its draw limits resellers, which it says worked for the Steam Machine. [9][7]
Meta — Its Quest 3 at $599 now sits beside a Valve headset that costs $1,059 or more. [3]
CD Projekt Red — The Witcher 3 Remastered and Cyberpunk 2077 reach Blizzard's own PC players through Battle.net before the year ends. [14]
Akupara Games — After taking over Rain World in 2022 it sold 3.5 million copies and more than seven figures of merchandise. [18]
Mintrocket and its owner Nexon — Dave the Diver passed 10 million copies and its expansion sold a million on its own. [17]

Who pays

People who want a Steam Frame — They pay $1,059 or more, $29 more for a charger, and must enter a draw with one sign-up per home. [1][8]
Newer Steam users — Accounts with no purchase before 27 April 2026 cannot sign up at all. [8]
KO_OP's 13 laid-off workers — They lose their jobs, including team leads and elected executives, with only a share of any Young Suns profits to follow. [11]
IGN hosts and staff — Brian Altano, Seth Macy and people in several departments lost their jobs on Monday. [10]
Diablo 4 players — They get no more expansions for about three years, only seasons, until Diablo 5 in 2029. [19]

What nobody knows yet

Open questions from across today’s stories — ours included.

01

How many Steam Frames Valve has to sell in the first batch.

None of the reports gives a stock number from Valve. Whether anyone lands on the waitlist after the 17 September draw is the first public sign of how many people want one. [1][5]
02

What the 1TB Steam Frame actually costs.

Game Developer gives $1,200, while The Verge, GamesIndustry.biz and Polygon all give $1,299. We used $1,299. [9][1][4][8]
03

What the ergonomic accessories kit costs.

PC Gamer lists it at $49, while The Verge, Engadget and Rock Paper Shotgun list it at $59. [7][1][6][5]
04

How many people IGN laid off.

Kotaku says the scale is not yet clear, and IGN did not answer its request for comment. [10]
05

Why a finished Rayman game needs two more months.

Ubisoft says only that the game has gone gold and the team wants more care on details. [13]
06

How much of Borderlands 4's jump came from the new character.

The game was also half price during a free weekend at the same time, and IGN says it is unclear whether players will stay. [16]
07

Whether KO_OP will find the money to rehire.

The studio says it will rehire as many people as possible only if it secures funding in the coming months. [11]
08

Whether Rain World ever becomes fully independent of Warner Bros.

Akupara says it hopes a deal is close, and says it thought the same a couple of years ago. [18]

04 Hope carry this

Rain World, a hard game about a slug-like cat surviving deadly rain, had a record of about 600 people playing at once in 2022. Two add-ons later that record is 15,500, and 3.5 million copies have sold since.

Also true today

Dave the Diver, a 2023 game about deep-sea diving and running a sushi restaurant, has now sold more than 10 million copies.