Valve Confirms Steam Machine Delay

Valve has confirmed it has delayed announcing the pricing and release dates for the Steam Machine and Steam Frame.

In a blog post, Valve says it still plans to release both the console-like PC and VR headset in the first half of 2026, but needs more time “to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we can confidently announce”.

Both products were announced in November, with the original plan being to reveal their pricing and release dates by now.

However, they cite the memory and storage shortages across the industry, which has seen RAM sticks quadruple in cost in the span of just a few months, as the reasoning behind the delay:

“The limited availability and growing prices of these critical components mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing (especially around Steam Machine and Steam Frame).”

Valve has stated that, unlike with game consoles, they have no real plans to partly subsidise the Steam Machine. That means it will cost around the same as “if you build a PC from parts and get to basically the same level of performance”.

At the time, estimates were that it could retail for around $700 U.S. dollars – but with memory and component prices still increasing, it’s not clear what that cost could be now. The machine’s specs give it a level of performance under that of a base PS5, which retails for $499 in the United States.

The same post also indicates that the Steam Machine’s SSD (NVMe 2230 or 2280) and memory (DDR5 SODIMMs) will be accessible and upgradeable, though presumably the latter refers to the console’s 16Gb of system RAM as opposed to its 8Gb VRAM which has raised concerns over its handling of high-end modern games.