Last year I predicted all three of Valve's announcements so now I reckon I have the ability to speak these 2026 prophecies into reality
Long ago, it was foretold that there would arrive a special person of average height, muddy blonde hair, and absent-minded character, who would prophesy the coming of the most glorious PC gaming technology. Far and wide would he proclaim what is to come in the PC gaming hardware industry.
That's me. I'm that special person. Don't believe me? Let me give you the evidence. Last year, I made my 2025 hardware wishlist, and I absolutely nailed it when it came to Valve's products. Three in a row, literally. Steam Machines? Yep, here they come. Steam Controller? You bet. And a new Steam VR headset—do you even need to ask?
And listen, I can already hear the 'shotgun approach' and 'broken clock' sniggers at the back, but I shan't hear it. I am now a tech prophet, and that's that. I know it's true because I say so, and the fact that I say so can be trusted because I'm a tech prophet. Don't think about that too much.
Jacob closes his eyes and ponders last year's predictions. As he realises these were actually his wishes, not his predictions, the thought strikes him: maybe his wishes can become reality if he truly believes. Perhaps he has unlocked a new faculty of mind, a power akin to the "intellectual intuition" that the philosopher Immanuel Kant claimed could be reserved only for God. A faculty that allows something to be brought into sensible reality by the mere thinking of it.
As Jacob sits and ponders the nature of his new power, he begins to twitch. As twitches turn into spasms, Prometheus' light starts to flow through him. He is ready to reveal the truth to the world.
The AI bubble will burst
Hearken, all ye weary and downhearted. The time will soon come when those who have been playing God are torn asunder and memory and storage will once again flow freely.
'Artificial intelligence': even the name has an air of arrogance to it, as if we, the mighty human race, could take apart intelligence and reconstruct it, recasting it in an artificial frame, divorcing it of the qualia that arguably gave it its meaning in the first place. Such an arrogant attempt was never destined to end well. And indeed, it won't end well for those tech companies and leaders who have taken themselves to be gods on a path towards the post-human.
This year, I foresee an audible 'pop' sounding the world over as the hundreds of billions of dollars that have been pumped into the AI industry finally realise they have nothing to do other than be passed around the same few companies, and swiftly filter out, back into the rest of the technology market where real value lies. One almost immediate result will be memory prices plummeting not just back to normal levels but even lower than this, and there will be much rejoicing across the land.
When will this happen, you ask? Even I am not privy to such things. Ah, go on then, I'll take a pot shot: late September to early October.
Half-Life 3 will launch alongside Valve hardware
You have waited so long, and your faith has not been overlooked. Now weep. Weep with joy as you witness GabeN's grace, long-awaited and prepared in the shadows, now brought into the light.
It's been over two decades since the launch of Half-Life 2, which we scored 96% and called "an unmissable game" in our review way back in 2004. But I don't need to explain all that; we know what Half-Life 2 is. It's the third iteration we have no clue about.
If any company could keep a massive game under wraps, it would be Valve. And wouldn't next year be the perfect time for a HL3 launch? Valve rarely releases new devices but next year it's releasing three. Surely one of those launches would make for a good surprise HL3 launch. The question is which device it will launch alongside.
Half-Life: Alyx is a great VR game, but HL3 will surely have to be a standard, non-VR game. Which makes me think about that Steam Machine. It's very boxy, don't you think? As various Reddit and YouTube comments pointed out after the announcement last month, give that box an orange tint and you'd have… an Orange Box. A new Orange Box collection featuring HL3 packaged alongside the Steam Machine would make for quite the launch.
So that is exactly what is going to happen. And the bonus is that there'll be a surprise Team Fortress 3 thrown in there, too. And that one's just for me, 'cause the second is one of my favourite games of all time. Okay, maybe I'm pushing my luck with the winds of fate, now.
We'll get truly gaming-oriented Strix Halo handhelds
Lighter, faster, stronger, cheaper. By Prometheus' light, 2026 will deliver immense graphical power into the palm of your hand for cheaper.
Ah, Strix Halo, the promised one. At least, that was what we thought. Before it launched, rumours abounded of an APU—an AMD processor with integrated graphics—capable of elevating the portable gaming world to new heights. It was meant to make handhelds soar.
Instead, we got something that practically no gamer will want. It's fast, sure, but it's so fast across the board that it costs a ridiculous amount of money. Money that could be spent on a laptop with a much more powerful discrete mobile GPU, or two handhelds. 40 compute units (CUs) is very nice for a chip with integrated graphics, but the 16 CPU cores are completely unnecessary for gaming, meaning you're paying a lot of extra cash for something you don't really need.
But there's still promise for a true gaming-oriented Strix Halo chip, and I predict it will arrive in 2026. What form will it take, you ask? It will descend as a Ryzen AI Max+ 388. As brother Jeremy so aptly explained when rumour of this fabled chip broke: "What if there was a cheaper model that kept the 40 graphics CUs and 256-bit memory bus, but cut the CPU down to eight cores?"
Indeed. What if, Jeremy, what if? No need to ponder, because we will find out, as the Ryzen AI Max+ 388, with half the CPU cores but just the same GPU might as the AI Max+ 395, shall arrive. In fact, I predict we won't have long to wait, no, not long at all. Did someone say 'CES'? No, it must have been the wind. Yes, yes, just the wind.
We'll see a cheap graphics card with more than 8 GB of VRAM
Lo, a veritable miracle: during a RAMpocalypse, one new and cheap graphics card will take it all on the chin and somehow offer us 12 GB of VRAM.
Yes, "somehow" is the operative word here. Do not ask me to explain myself—I declare, I do not explain. Somehow, an Nvidia or AMD graphics card will launch that costs less than $350 and offers a whole 12 GB of memory. Gamers have been complaining about 8 GB cards for long enough, and finally, they will be heard. Intel has already listened of course, with its Arc B570 and Arc B580, but I'm talking about a graphics card that people will actually buy—sorry, Intel.
Which of the two manufacturers will listen has not yet been revealed to me. Perhaps we'll see an even less powerful AMD card than the RX 9060 XT with 12 GB of memory—so just an AMD Radeon RX 9060, sans the XT, I suppose. Or perhaps it will be Nvidia launching an RTX 5060 Super, heralding the onset of Super cards lower down in the generational range than we've ever seen.
12 GB of VRAM on an entry-level card isn't entirely new. The RTX 3060 has only recently finally started running low on stocks, and that was an entry-level 12 GB card back in 2021. So, 2026 will be more of a return to form than anything else for the GPU market. You know, when that 12 GB entry-level card definitely launches. Yep.
A wireless gaming mouse will launch that's lighter than 25 g
A feat once thought impossible will come to pass. What was once light will become heavy, as a new class of gaming mice is to be born, lighter than any the world has ever seen.
It would not be an article of mine if I didn't speak about lightweight gaming mice, and by some Olympian grace, my trembling fingers are channelling the message that 2026 will bring even lighter gaming mice.
That will be an achievement because the Corsair Sabre V2 Pro already took things up a notch in 2025 by weighing in at just 36 g. Previously, 'lightweight' meant less than about 65 g, given the original Logitech G Pro X Superlight, which was for a long time the king of ultralight mice, weighs 63 g. Now, we have mice that weigh less than 45 g, whether from Turtle Beach, Pulsar, Corsair, or other lesser-known brands.
The Corsair mouse takes the crown for now, but I predict a surprise entry from another brand, with a solid, sturdy, wireless gaming mouse weighing less than 25 g. I'm not sure how such a thing will be possible—I don't know how the Corsair one pulls it off with zero holes in its shell, to be honest—but come to pass it shall.
It's my final prediction for the year of 2026, which is sure to be just the icing on the cake of a fantastic year for PC gaming hardware, assuming my predictions all come to pass. Which they will, of course. Not even a flicker of a doubt.