When Valve first announced the impressive-looking Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller hardware last November, the company said they would begin shipping in early 2026. portion journalist Specifically, I was told “Q1 2026.” However, ongoing memory and storage shortages have pushed the launch back to the first half of the year, and Valve has said it will reset cost expectations “as soon as possible.”
“We planned to be able to share specific pricing and release dates by now.” Valve says in a new post:. “However, the memory and storage shortage issues you’ve probably heard about across the industry have grown dramatically since then. Limited availability and price increases for these critical components are forcing us to revisit our exact delivery schedules and pricing (particularly as it relates to Steam Machine and Steam Frame).”
“Our goal of releasing all three products in the first half of this year has not changed,” Valve said, “but we have work to do to confirm specific pricing and release dates that we can announce with confidence, keeping in mind how quickly the circumstances surrounding both can change.”
when The Verge And while other retailers met with Valve to preview new hardware, the company was mostly vague about pricing at the time. This was one of the most important questions about whether these devices would compete with non-PC gaming consoles. From the beginning, Valve said its ambitious new console, the Steam Machine, would be “positioned closer to the entry-level level of the PC space.” As for the frame, the company says it’s aiming for a cheaper price than its previous headset, the $999 Index. For the Steam Controller, Valve said it’s targeting a price that’s competitive with other controllers with “advanced inputs.”
However, within days of Valve’s hardware announcement last November, it became clear that Valve would have difficulty offering competitive pricing due to the rising cost of RAM. that said Tom’s Hardware Pricing the console has been difficult because “the market is a bit weird” and “memory prices are rising as we speak.” As of early 2026, PC gamers have seen RAM prices triple and even quadruple as memory manufacturers pour supply into the more profitable AI server space.
Yesterday, AMD CEO Lisa Su said on the earnings call “From a product perspective, Valve plans to start shipping AMD-powered Steam Machines early this year.” I think the phrase ‘from a product perspective’ carried a lot more weight than we thought.