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China’s Biggest Social Media Celebrity Is… Kris Jenner?

China’s Biggest Social Media Celebrity Is… Kris Jenner?

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What is a U.S. reality TV star all over Chinese social media? The simple answer is “Why shouldn’t she be?” But if you’re American, and you feel lost without a deep understanding of Kris Jenner’s sudden popularity among China’s netizens, you need a lot of context.

We don’t often think of memes in the same terms as the rest of the digital economy, but there are parallels to be made between the evolution of how our time and money is spent online and how each new era’s memetic social comedy has grown and shifted in size, scope, and provenance. Stepping back to survey online humor’s development from demotivational posters to “facts” about recently deceased actor Chuck Norris to image macros, trollfaces, wojaks, slop, and beyond—the breakneck pace of it all is nothing short of watching a fish crawl out of the primordial sea and Animorph into a Neanderthal in front of your eyes.

As the internet stratified itself into ever-more-niche silos of interest and allegiance, online memes became increasingly inscrutable to those outside of each in-group, save for the few terminally online individuals shackled to their screens and cursed to understand them all. Helpful resources like KnowYourMeme.com would eventually show up, academically taxonomizing and chronicling each new meme that emerged.

But just as offline Western hegemony is crumbling in real time, so too may be our meme supremacy. A brave new world of Chinese memes is emerging that has even our foremost meme scholars scrambling to keep up and legacy news outlets scratching their heads. Earlier this year, Harry Potter character Draco Malfoy became the unofficial mascot of Lunar New Year celebrations after netizens discovered that the Mandarin transliteration of Malfoy sounded auspiciously like both “horse” and “fortune.” Soon enough, Malfoy actor Tom Felton’s face was plastered throughout Chinese malls, homes, and social media.

Today, with the petrodollar’s death rattle soundtracking the next chapter of the American Century of Humiliation, a new prosperity-focused Chinese meme has emerged to end-zone dance on our misfortune. While younger generations of online Westerners may long to “become Chinese,” certain swaths of China’s Gen-Z are seeking the life of one particular American: Kris Jenner.

The Kardashian clan matriarch has become an overnight icon on the social media platform RedNote (aka Xiaohongshu). There, users have taken to changing their profile pictures to photos of the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star. The frenzy has also taken the form of public appeals and prayers to Jenner with the hopes of manifesting her fortune, fame, or even just a job offer. As TikTok user marcelowang0527 notes, the career-focused Jenner fans have even gone so far as to customize their pfp image of her in an outfit exemplifying their particular job—doctor, engineer, teacher, etc.

A Business Insider report on the trend found a RedNote user praising Jenner as “The Empress Dowager” and another encouraging everyone to “keep that 9-figure bank balance!”

Given the recent revelation that it was mostly bots behind the recent shaming of Chappell Roan, and the general degradation of our trust in reality thanks to AI, it would be more than reasonable to assume this Jenner fever is a manufactured marketing gimmick. A new season of KUWTK is filming right now, after all. But access to the show has been limited in China since 2011, and some of the country’s most egregiously wealth-flaunting influencers even found themselves deplatformed in 2024. A convoluted promo play just doesn’t add up. It seems this viral moment—now over 53 million views of the #krisjenner hashtag—may be a genuine case of another culture organically finding its way to wholesome, good-natured shitposting.

KnowYourMeme may still be reluctant to log this Kris Jenner meme and others originating from what is arguably now the most powerful country in the world, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us shouldn’t be paying attention. Whether keeping tabs for cynically self-interested reasons or because you’re able to connect with the universality of the humor and humanity they convey, Chinese memes have undeniably broken containment. Let’s just hope we’re fortunate enough to catch some more before things go dark over here.



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As public backlash to the seeming omnipresence of artificial intelligence intensifies, the collective quest to weed out—and reject—telltale signs of its use continues.

One of the first casualties, to my dismay, was em dashes—which are a great, and very human form of punctuation, by the way! There’s also the “rule of threes,” which is meant to scan as rhythmic, but often comes across predictable, hackish, and stale. And, of course, there are the clunky grammatical constructions of the “not X, but Y” variety.

Now certain fonts and typefaces—specifically serifs—seem to be defining (and giving away) AI, both in actual software, and in vibe-coded design boilerplates. Some are calling it “tasteslop,” the results of the effort to make generative AI designs seem superficially sophisticated or distinguished.

The shift away from slicker, more conspicuously computerized typefaces is something the San Francisco Bay Area writer, designer, and type practitioner Keya Vadgama has termed “the serif renaissance.” In a recent newsletter, published on her Substack, Vadgama suggests the move is a bid for companies to project more “personality and warmth.”

“It’s not that difficult to discern why AI-native companies in particular are being drawn to serif fonts: AI is inherently cold and without opinion,” she writes. “[Using serifs] signals ‘We’re AI! But real humans use (and made) our product! We swear!’”

“Serifs have an origin in calligraphy,” Vadgama tells WIRED. “It connotes a very human, fluid way of making letterforms.” Vadgama has noticed that Anthropic’s Claude was defaulting to serifs. Other AI companies—Runway, Perplexity, Manus—had also adopted similar typefaces in their UX and branding.

Reached for comment, Perplexity chief communications officer Jesse Dwyer tells WIRED: “Why wouldn’t we have human design? Perplexity is for people.”

Vadgama believes the use of serifs is as much about aesthetics as building confidence between users and brands. Certain font choices signal, even at some preconscious psychological level, trust. Sans serifs (your Arials, Calibiris, Helviticas) are too clean, too computer-y. Good old Times New Roman, and similar typographic designs, can feel a bit more dignified. Recently, Vadgama was doing some branding work with a (since-shuttered) AI startup, which favored the serif text. “A big part of it,” she says, “is, ‘How do we position ourselves in a way that people are not afraid of us?’”

Serifs can help build that conviction, or at least the illusion of it. Times New Roman itself was commissioned in the 1930s by Britain’s Times newspaper. The typeface carries a certain authoritative heft. Books and newspapers are printed using it. It was all but standardized in the decades before screen reading. Perhaps most famously, the Encyclopedia Brittanica—arguably the authoritative compendium of human knowledge, at least pre-World Wide Web—was set in Times.

“In the broad public, a serif carries connotations of scholarship,” says Ali S. Qadeer, chair of graphic design at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto. “Claude is interesting. It’s using this slightly brown background to mirror a book page. It’s sort of emulating the feeling of reading print. And print has deeper associations with trust.”

As reported by The New York Times, even the US State Department has returned to using Times New Roman after Secretary of State Marco Rubio decried Calibri as “informal,” pegging the department’s adoption of the sans serif typeface on some wider, Biden-era DEI initiative.

Both Qadeer and Vadgama see the trend toward serifs as a rejoinder to AI’s perceived (and, indeed, literal) lack of soul, and the wider public suspicion of the technology. They’re not the only ones. Alongside the “tasteslop” discourse, people online have criticized the serification of AI aesthetics as “generic” and “very ugly.”

#Serif #Fontsartificial intelligence,design,ux/ui,art,typography,fonts,chatbots,claude,chatgpt">AI Has Come for Serif FontsAs public backlash to the seeming omnipresence of artificial intelligence intensifies, the collective quest to weed out—and reject—telltale signs of its use continues.One of the first casualties, to my dismay, was em dashes—which are a great, and very human form of punctuation, by the way! There’s also the “rule of threes,” which is meant to scan as rhythmic, but often comes across predictable, hackish, and stale. And, of course, there are the clunky grammatical constructions of the “not X, but Y” variety.Now certain fonts and typefaces—specifically serifs—seem to be defining (and giving away) AI, both in actual software, and in vibe-coded design boilerplates. Some are calling it “tasteslop,” the results of the effort to make generative AI designs seem superficially sophisticated or distinguished.The shift away from slicker, more conspicuously computerized typefaces is something the San Francisco Bay Area writer, designer, and type practitioner Keya Vadgama has termed “the serif renaissance.” In a recent newsletter, published on her Substack, Vadgama suggests the move is a bid for companies to project more “personality and warmth.”“It’s not that difficult to discern why AI-native companies in particular are being drawn to serif fonts: AI is inherently cold and without opinion,” she writes. “[Using serifs] signals ‘We’re AI! But real humans use (and made) our product! We swear!’”“Serifs have an origin in calligraphy,” Vadgama tells WIRED. “It connotes a very human, fluid way of making letterforms.” Vadgama has noticed that Anthropic’s Claude was defaulting to serifs. Other AI companies—Runway, Perplexity, Manus—had also adopted similar typefaces in their UX and branding.Reached for comment, Perplexity chief communications officer Jesse Dwyer tells WIRED: “Why wouldn’t we have human design? Perplexity is for people.”Vadgama believes the use of serifs is as much about aesthetics as building confidence between users and brands. Certain font choices signal, even at some preconscious psychological level, trust. Sans serifs (your Arials, Calibiris, Helviticas) are too clean, too computer-y. Good old Times New Roman, and similar typographic designs, can feel a bit more dignified. Recently, Vadgama was doing some branding work with a (since-shuttered) AI startup, which favored the serif text. “A big part of it,” she says, “is, ‘How do we position ourselves in a way that people are not afraid of us?’”Serifs can help build that conviction, or at least the illusion of it. Times New Roman itself was commissioned in the 1930s by Britain’s Times newspaper. The typeface carries a certain authoritative heft. Books and newspapers are printed using it. It was all but standardized in the decades before screen reading. Perhaps most famously, the Encyclopedia Brittanica—arguably the authoritative compendium of human knowledge, at least pre-World Wide Web—was set in Times.“In the broad public, a serif carries connotations of scholarship,” says Ali S. Qadeer, chair of graphic design at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto. “Claude is interesting. It’s using this slightly brown background to mirror a book page. It’s sort of emulating the feeling of reading print. And print has deeper associations with trust.”As reported by The New York Times, even the US State Department has returned to using Times New Roman after Secretary of State Marco Rubio decried Calibri as “informal,” pegging the department’s adoption of the sans serif typeface on some wider, Biden-era DEI initiative.Both Qadeer and Vadgama see the trend toward serifs as a rejoinder to AI’s perceived (and, indeed, literal) lack of soul, and the wider public suspicion of the technology. They’re not the only ones. Alongside the “tasteslop” discourse, people online have criticized the serification of AI aesthetics as “generic” and “very ugly.”#Serif #Fontsartificial intelligence,design,ux/ui,art,typography,fonts,chatbots,claude,chatgpt

artificial intelligence intensifies, the collective quest to weed out—and reject—telltale signs of its use continues.

One of the first casualties, to my dismay, was em dashes—which are a great, and very human form of punctuation, by the way! There’s also the “rule of threes,” which is meant to scan as rhythmic, but often comes across predictable, hackish, and stale. And, of course, there are the clunky grammatical constructions of the “not X, but Y” variety.

Now certain fonts and typefaces—specifically serifs—seem to be defining (and giving away) AI, both in actual software, and in vibe-coded design boilerplates. Some are calling it “tasteslop,” the results of the effort to make generative AI designs seem superficially sophisticated or distinguished.

The shift away from slicker, more conspicuously computerized typefaces is something the San Francisco Bay Area writer, designer, and type practitioner Keya Vadgama has termed “the serif renaissance.” In a recent newsletter, published on her Substack, Vadgama suggests the move is a bid for companies to project more “personality and warmth.”

“It’s not that difficult to discern why AI-native companies in particular are being drawn to serif fonts: AI is inherently cold and without opinion,” she writes. “[Using serifs] signals ‘We’re AI! But real humans use (and made) our product! We swear!’”

“Serifs have an origin in calligraphy,” Vadgama tells WIRED. “It connotes a very human, fluid way of making letterforms.” Vadgama has noticed that Anthropic’s Claude was defaulting to serifs. Other AI companies—Runway, Perplexity, Manus—had also adopted similar typefaces in their UX and branding.

Reached for comment, Perplexity chief communications officer Jesse Dwyer tells WIRED: “Why wouldn’t we have human design? Perplexity is for people.”

Vadgama believes the use of serifs is as much about aesthetics as building confidence between users and brands. Certain font choices signal, even at some preconscious psychological level, trust. Sans serifs (your Arials, Calibiris, Helviticas) are too clean, too computer-y. Good old Times New Roman, and similar typographic designs, can feel a bit more dignified. Recently, Vadgama was doing some branding work with a (since-shuttered) AI startup, which favored the serif text. “A big part of it,” she says, “is, ‘How do we position ourselves in a way that people are not afraid of us?’”

Serifs can help build that conviction, or at least the illusion of it. Times New Roman itself was commissioned in the 1930s by Britain’s Times newspaper. The typeface carries a certain authoritative heft. Books and newspapers are printed using it. It was all but standardized in the decades before screen reading. Perhaps most famously, the Encyclopedia Brittanica—arguably the authoritative compendium of human knowledge, at least pre-World Wide Web—was set in Times.

“In the broad public, a serif carries connotations of scholarship,” says Ali S. Qadeer, chair of graphic design at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto. “Claude is interesting. It’s using this slightly brown background to mirror a book page. It’s sort of emulating the feeling of reading print. And print has deeper associations with trust.”

As reported by The New York Times, even the US State Department has returned to using Times New Roman after Secretary of State Marco Rubio decried Calibri as “informal,” pegging the department’s adoption of the sans serif typeface on some wider, Biden-era DEI initiative.

Both Qadeer and Vadgama see the trend toward serifs as a rejoinder to AI’s perceived (and, indeed, literal) lack of soul, and the wider public suspicion of the technology. They’re not the only ones. Alongside the “tasteslop” discourse, people online have criticized the serification of AI aesthetics as “generic” and “very ugly.”

#Serif #Fontsartificial intelligence,design,ux/ui,art,typography,fonts,chatbots,claude,chatgpt">AI Has Come for Serif Fonts

As public backlash to the seeming omnipresence of artificial intelligence intensifies, the collective quest to weed out—and reject—telltale signs of its use continues.

One of the first casualties, to my dismay, was em dashes—which are a great, and very human form of punctuation, by the way! There’s also the “rule of threes,” which is meant to scan as rhythmic, but often comes across predictable, hackish, and stale. And, of course, there are the clunky grammatical constructions of the “not X, but Y” variety.

Now certain fonts and typefaces—specifically serifs—seem to be defining (and giving away) AI, both in actual software, and in vibe-coded design boilerplates. Some are calling it “tasteslop,” the results of the effort to make generative AI designs seem superficially sophisticated or distinguished.

The shift away from slicker, more conspicuously computerized typefaces is something the San Francisco Bay Area writer, designer, and type practitioner Keya Vadgama has termed “the serif renaissance.” In a recent newsletter, published on her Substack, Vadgama suggests the move is a bid for companies to project more “personality and warmth.”

“It’s not that difficult to discern why AI-native companies in particular are being drawn to serif fonts: AI is inherently cold and without opinion,” she writes. “[Using serifs] signals ‘We’re AI! But real humans use (and made) our product! We swear!’”

“Serifs have an origin in calligraphy,” Vadgama tells WIRED. “It connotes a very human, fluid way of making letterforms.” Vadgama has noticed that Anthropic’s Claude was defaulting to serifs. Other AI companies—Runway, Perplexity, Manus—had also adopted similar typefaces in their UX and branding.

Reached for comment, Perplexity chief communications officer Jesse Dwyer tells WIRED: “Why wouldn’t we have human design? Perplexity is for people.”

Vadgama believes the use of serifs is as much about aesthetics as building confidence between users and brands. Certain font choices signal, even at some preconscious psychological level, trust. Sans serifs (your Arials, Calibiris, Helviticas) are too clean, too computer-y. Good old Times New Roman, and similar typographic designs, can feel a bit more dignified. Recently, Vadgama was doing some branding work with a (since-shuttered) AI startup, which favored the serif text. “A big part of it,” she says, “is, ‘How do we position ourselves in a way that people are not afraid of us?’”

Serifs can help build that conviction, or at least the illusion of it. Times New Roman itself was commissioned in the 1930s by Britain’s Times newspaper. The typeface carries a certain authoritative heft. Books and newspapers are printed using it. It was all but standardized in the decades before screen reading. Perhaps most famously, the Encyclopedia Brittanica—arguably the authoritative compendium of human knowledge, at least pre-World Wide Web—was set in Times.

“In the broad public, a serif carries connotations of scholarship,” says Ali S. Qadeer, chair of graphic design at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto. “Claude is interesting. It’s using this slightly brown background to mirror a book page. It’s sort of emulating the feeling of reading print. And print has deeper associations with trust.”

As reported by The New York Times, even the US State Department has returned to using Times New Roman after Secretary of State Marco Rubio decried Calibri as “informal,” pegging the department’s adoption of the sans serif typeface on some wider, Biden-era DEI initiative.

Both Qadeer and Vadgama see the trend toward serifs as a rejoinder to AI’s perceived (and, indeed, literal) lack of soul, and the wider public suspicion of the technology. They’re not the only ones. Alongside the “tasteslop” discourse, people online have criticized the serification of AI aesthetics as “generic” and “very ugly.”

#Serif #Fontsartificial intelligence,design,ux/ui,art,typography,fonts,chatbots,claude,chatgpt

With clear skies tonight, you’ll be able to pick out a few details on the Moon’s surface. But what exactly are you looking at? With the help of NASA’s Daily Moon Guide, we have the answers.

What is today’s Moon phase?

As of Friday, June 5, the Moon phase is Waning Gibbous. Tonight, 79% of the moon will be be lit up, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide.

Without visual aids you should be able to spot the Mares Imbrium and Vaporum as well as the Tycho Crater . If you have binoculars you’ll also spot the Grimaldi Basin, and the Gassendi and Alphonsus Craters. And finally, with a telescope you’ll also see the Apollo 16 landing spot and the Caucasus Mountains.

When is the next Full Moon?

The next Full Moon will take place on June 29.

What are Moon phases?

NASA explains that the Moon completes one full orbit around Earth in about 29.5 days, during which it moves through a sequence of eight phases. Even though the same side of the Moon always faces us, the amount of sunlight we can see changes as it travels along its path. This shifting light is what produces the lunar shapes, ranging from slim crescents to half-lit Moons and the bright Full Moon. All of these stages together make up the lunar cycle:

New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.

Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

#Moon #phase #today #explained #Moon #June">Moon phase today explained: What the Moon will look like on June 5, 2026 With clear skies tonight, you’ll be able to pick out a few details on the Moon’s surface. But what exactly are you looking at? With the help of NASA’s Daily Moon Guide, we have the answers.What is today’s Moon phase?As of Friday, June 5, the Moon phase is Waning Gibbous. Tonight, 79% of the moon will be be lit up, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide.Without visual aids you should be able to spot the Mares Imbrium and Vaporum as well as the Tycho Crater . If you have binoculars you’ll also spot the Grimaldi Basin, and the Gassendi and Alphonsus Craters. And finally, with a telescope you’ll also see the Apollo 16 landing spot and the Caucasus Mountains. When is the next Full Moon?The next Full Moon will take place on June 29.What are Moon phases?NASA explains that the Moon completes one full orbit around Earth in about 29.5 days, during which it moves through a sequence of eight phases. Even though the same side of the Moon always faces us, the amount of sunlight we can see changes as it travels along its path. This shifting light is what produces the lunar shapes, ranging from slim crescents to half-lit Moons and the bright Full Moon. All of these stages together make up the lunar cycle:New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye). Mashable Light Speed Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again. #Moon #phase #today #explained #Moon #June

NASA’s Daily Moon Guide, we have the answers.

What is today’s Moon phase?

As of Friday, June 5, the Moon phase is Waning Gibbous. Tonight, 79% of the moon will be be lit up, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide.

Without visual aids you should be able to spot the Mares Imbrium and Vaporum as well as the Tycho Crater . If you have binoculars you’ll also spot the Grimaldi Basin, and the Gassendi and Alphonsus Craters. And finally, with a telescope you’ll also see the Apollo 16 landing spot and the Caucasus Mountains.

When is the next Full Moon?

The next Full Moon will take place on June 29.

What are Moon phases?

NASA explains that the Moon completes one full orbit around Earth in about 29.5 days, during which it moves through a sequence of eight phases. Even though the same side of the Moon always faces us, the amount of sunlight we can see changes as it travels along its path. This shifting light is what produces the lunar shapes, ranging from slim crescents to half-lit Moons and the bright Full Moon. All of these stages together make up the lunar cycle:

New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.

Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

#Moon #phase #today #explained #Moon #June">Moon phase today explained: What the Moon will look like on June 5, 2026

With clear skies tonight, you’ll be able to pick out a few details on the Moon’s surface. But what exactly are you looking at? With the help of NASA’s Daily Moon Guide, we have the answers.

What is today’s Moon phase?

As of Friday, June 5, the Moon phase is Waning Gibbous. Tonight, 79% of the moon will be be lit up, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide.

Without visual aids you should be able to spot the Mares Imbrium and Vaporum as well as the Tycho Crater . If you have binoculars you’ll also spot the Grimaldi Basin, and the Gassendi and Alphonsus Craters. And finally, with a telescope you’ll also see the Apollo 16 landing spot and the Caucasus Mountains.

When is the next Full Moon?

The next Full Moon will take place on June 29.

What are Moon phases?

NASA explains that the Moon completes one full orbit around Earth in about 29.5 days, during which it moves through a sequence of eight phases. Even though the same side of the Moon always faces us, the amount of sunlight we can see changes as it travels along its path. This shifting light is what produces the lunar shapes, ranging from slim crescents to half-lit Moons and the bright Full Moon. All of these stages together make up the lunar cycle:

New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.

Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

#Moon #phase #today #explained #Moon #June

When the company originally announced the Machine and Frame alongside its new Steam Controller late last year, it said that it would start shipping the new gadgets in early 2026. But in February, the company announced that the ongoing memory and storage crunch had forced it to revisit its pricing and shipping plans. And in March, Valve said in a blog post that it would be “shipping all three products this year” — though that was after the company initially said in the post that “we hope to ship in 2026,” which it removed in an update.

Valve opted to release the Steam Controller on its own, putting it up for sale in early May. For the Machine and Frame, while “summer” isn’t exactly a specific date, it narrows the window for when the products might finally come out.

Ahead of actually launching the devices, Valve is redesigning the Steam store and sharing information about the Verified programs for the hardware so that developers can prepare their games. Like with the Steam Deck, if a game is verified for the Machine or the Frame, the badge signals that the game should work well without any tweaks from the user.

For the Machine, the requirements for a game to be verified are “nearly identical” to what they are for the Steam Deck. With the Machine being “roughly six times as powerful” as the Deck, in theory, many more games will be verified for it. Valve also says that it’s testing “every title on Machine that fell below our performance requirements on Deck.”

For the Frame, Valve’s verified badge will signify games that run well while being played natively on the headset — as opposed to games that work well streamed to the headset, which the Frame is also capable of. “Like Steam Deck Verified, the Steam Frame Standalone Verified program focuses on the experience customers will have with the device out-of-the-box in standalone mode,” Valve says.

Now, we just need Valve to share exactly when the Steam Machine and Steam Frame will be released and how much they might cost. After last week’s price hikes for the Steam Deck, I’m gearing up for sticker shock.

#Valve #ready #launch #Steam #Machine #summerEntertainment,Gaming,News,PC Gaming">Valve says it’s ready to launch the Steam Machine this summerValve now says that the delayed Steam Machine PC and Steam Frame VR headset are set to launch sometime this summer. In a Thursday blog post detailing its Verified programs for both pieces of hardware, Valve concludes by saying that “We’re excited for players to try your titles on the new Steam hardware once they launch this summer.”When the company originally announced the Machine and Frame alongside its new Steam Controller late last year, it said that it would start shipping the new gadgets in early 2026. But in February, the company announced that the ongoing memory and storage crunch had forced it to revisit its pricing and shipping plans. And in March, Valve said in a blog post that it would be “shipping all three products this year” — though that was after the company initially said in the post that “we hope to ship in 2026,” which it removed in an update.Valve opted to release the Steam Controller on its own, putting it up for sale in early May. For the Machine and Frame, while “summer” isn’t exactly a specific date, it narrows the window for when the products might finally come out.Ahead of actually launching the devices, Valve is redesigning the Steam store and sharing information about the Verified programs for the hardware so that developers can prepare their games. Like with the Steam Deck, if a game is verified for the Machine or the Frame, the badge signals that the game should work well without any tweaks from the user.For the Machine, the requirements for a game to be verified are “nearly identical” to what they are for the Steam Deck. With the Machine being “roughly six times as powerful” as the Deck, in theory, many more games will be verified for it. Valve also says that it’s testing “every title on Machine that fell below our performance requirements on Deck.”For the Frame, Valve’s verified badge will signify games that run well while being played natively on the headset — as opposed to games that work well streamed to the headset, which the Frame is also capable of. “Like Steam Deck Verified, the Steam Frame Standalone Verified program focuses on the experience customers will have with the device out-of-the-box in standalone mode,” Valve says.Now, we just need Valve to share exactly when the Steam Machine and Steam Frame will be released and how much they might cost. After last week’s price hikes for the Steam Deck, I’m gearing up for sticker shock.#Valve #ready #launch #Steam #Machine #summerEntertainment,Gaming,News,PC Gaming

saying that “We’re excited for players to try your titles on the new Steam hardware once they launch this summer.”

When the company originally announced the Machine and Frame alongside its new Steam Controller late last year, it said that it would start shipping the new gadgets in early 2026. But in February, the company announced that the ongoing memory and storage crunch had forced it to revisit its pricing and shipping plans. And in March, Valve said in a blog post that it would be “shipping all three products this year” — though that was after the company initially said in the post that “we hope to ship in 2026,” which it removed in an update.

Valve opted to release the Steam Controller on its own, putting it up for sale in early May. For the Machine and Frame, while “summer” isn’t exactly a specific date, it narrows the window for when the products might finally come out.

Ahead of actually launching the devices, Valve is redesigning the Steam store and sharing information about the Verified programs for the hardware so that developers can prepare their games. Like with the Steam Deck, if a game is verified for the Machine or the Frame, the badge signals that the game should work well without any tweaks from the user.

For the Machine, the requirements for a game to be verified are “nearly identical” to what they are for the Steam Deck. With the Machine being “roughly six times as powerful” as the Deck, in theory, many more games will be verified for it. Valve also says that it’s testing “every title on Machine that fell below our performance requirements on Deck.”

For the Frame, Valve’s verified badge will signify games that run well while being played natively on the headset — as opposed to games that work well streamed to the headset, which the Frame is also capable of. “Like Steam Deck Verified, the Steam Frame Standalone Verified program focuses on the experience customers will have with the device out-of-the-box in standalone mode,” Valve says.

Now, we just need Valve to share exactly when the Steam Machine and Steam Frame will be released and how much they might cost. After last week’s price hikes for the Steam Deck, I’m gearing up for sticker shock.

#Valve #ready #launch #Steam #Machine #summerEntertainment,Gaming,News,PC Gaming">Valve says it’s ready to launch the Steam Machine this summer

Valve now says that the delayed Steam Machine PC and Steam Frame VR headset are set to launch sometime this summer. In a Thursday blog post detailing its Verified programs for both pieces of hardware, Valve concludes by saying that “We’re excited for players to try your titles on the new Steam hardware once they launch this summer.”

When the company originally announced the Machine and Frame alongside its new Steam Controller late last year, it said that it would start shipping the new gadgets in early 2026. But in February, the company announced that the ongoing memory and storage crunch had forced it to revisit its pricing and shipping plans. And in March, Valve said in a blog post that it would be “shipping all three products this year” — though that was after the company initially said in the post that “we hope to ship in 2026,” which it removed in an update.

Valve opted to release the Steam Controller on its own, putting it up for sale in early May. For the Machine and Frame, while “summer” isn’t exactly a specific date, it narrows the window for when the products might finally come out.

Ahead of actually launching the devices, Valve is redesigning the Steam store and sharing information about the Verified programs for the hardware so that developers can prepare their games. Like with the Steam Deck, if a game is verified for the Machine or the Frame, the badge signals that the game should work well without any tweaks from the user.

For the Machine, the requirements for a game to be verified are “nearly identical” to what they are for the Steam Deck. With the Machine being “roughly six times as powerful” as the Deck, in theory, many more games will be verified for it. Valve also says that it’s testing “every title on Machine that fell below our performance requirements on Deck.”

For the Frame, Valve’s verified badge will signify games that run well while being played natively on the headset — as opposed to games that work well streamed to the headset, which the Frame is also capable of. “Like Steam Deck Verified, the Steam Frame Standalone Verified program focuses on the experience customers will have with the device out-of-the-box in standalone mode,” Valve says.

Now, we just need Valve to share exactly when the Steam Machine and Steam Frame will be released and how much they might cost. After last week’s price hikes for the Steam Deck, I’m gearing up for sticker shock.

#Valve #ready #launch #Steam #Machine #summerEntertainment,Gaming,News,PC Gaming

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