Filed just yesterday, September 2nd 2025.
STEAM FRAME™ trademark registration is intended to cover the categories of computer hardware; computer networking hardware; computer peripherals; computer hardware and computer software for the reproduction, processing, and streaming of audio, video, data, text, and multimedia content.
https://uspto.report/TM/99370857
STEAM FRAME™ trademark registration is intended to cover the categories of computer game consoles for recreational game playing; video game consoles; video game accessories, namely, controllers for video games.
I am hoping this ends up being a PC hardware ecosystem, where each component is a cartridge or LEGO brick. Just pull out the power supply, RAM, GPU, or CPU, and slot in another, without worrying about breaking something or technical details. No need to dig your paws into the flesh of the machine and hope your rocket surgery skills are up to the task.
Serious question: Have you ever built a PC?
Because it really isn't rocket appliances. I would venture your average 12 year old could do it, and has done it given a YouTube tutorial.
All of the connectors only fit one way, and they are all uniquely shaped/sized.
More expensive, Proprietary hardware, sounds like a nightmare for all involved.
I'll be honest, even though it's not hard, it's still intimidating to the average person. Having easier connecters with clear slot labels would be an absolute win for everyone. But then it introduces the problem of having another competing standard.
The connectors have to be very sturdy, making them easier will not be good for performance
That's definitely not a blanket statement you can make. I'm not saying everything needs to be USB-C. Even just a connection like VGA/DVI that you can screw in would be perfectly fine.
Oh boy, the amount of engineers I have seen who end up with computers dangling from cables is not zero. At the time of VGA as a standard almost no average user bothered to screw on connectors.
An HDMI cord will pull itself out
A screwed in connector will rip the pins off the board. There is no extra strength there.
The difference is you can just plug the HDMI back in. You aren't reattaching the pins to the mobo