Probably going to show off whatever SteamPal happens to be.
Valve rarely shows up to E3 [insert joke about the number 3]. But they’ll have a presence at the 2021 show, as part of the PC gaming show. Officially, all they’ve announced for their part in the show is a “message regarding the Steam Next Fest”.
That said, speculation is always running hot around any kind of Valve announcement. Especially this year, as they’ve been working on something involving hardware, with a projected release sometime near the end of the year; E3 would be the perfect time to announce it to the public, then. Dataminers have also found references to “SteamPal” when digging through the latest version of Steam.
Gabe Newell recently hinted at a console-related announcement at some point in the near future, too. So now the question becomes, what is SteamPal? Is it the name for the hardware that Valve has been working on? Or is it the name for their planned console integration service/application/whatever? According to Gaben, hallowed be his name, we won’t really know or understand until whatever announcement they decide to make comes along. But regardless of what it is, it’ll probably be a big deal.
Source: GameRadar+