[UPDATE - March 7, 2026] Valve has quietly changed the shipping window for the Steam Machine (as well as the Steam Frame and Steam Controller) to a generic 2026, hinting at a further delay.
[ORIGINAL STORY] Just a few hours after AMD CEO Lisa Su publicly shared that they expected the Steam Machine to start shipping in early 2026, Valve posted an update revealing there will actually be a slight delay.
In a blog post dedicated to launch timing and other FAQs for the whole family of upcoming Steam Hardware products, Valve admitted they've had to revisit the shipping schedule and pricing due to the ongoing memory and storage shortages that have hit the tech industry hard. They had hoped to be able to share both the launch and price details by now, but that just wasn't possible yet, with the Steam Machine and Steam Frame particularly affected (while, on the other hand, the Steam Controller obviously won't include any RAM or storage; but Valve wants to start selling it alongside the other two).
Valve's goal is to launch all of the products in the first half of 2026. From the sound of it, though, they are now targeting the latter months of Spring, perhaps toward May or June, whereas before it really sounded like it could have launched in March or April.
Customers are certainly worried more about the pricing than the slight delay. The RAM shortage has driven component prices to absurd levels, and even console manufacturers like Nintendo haven't definitively ruled out price bumps for their hardware if the situation doesn't improve. The Steam Machine was already going to have a hefty price tag, at least compared to a typical console, because Valve won't subsidize it. Earlier this year, a Czech retailer listed a price of $950 for the base model with 512GB of storage, while the 2TB model would cost $1070. Those prices are not confirmed by any means, though.
In the new blog post, Valve also shared a few FAQs for the Steam Hardware family.
Steam Machine
- Valve reiterated that most Steam games can run at 4K@60FPS on the Steam Machine with AMD FSR. However, they also acknowledged that some titles will be more taxing, and users might need to play at a lower frame rate with VRR enabled and a 1080p internal resolution. Meanwhile, they are working on HDMI VRR, investigating improved upscaling, and optimizing ray tracing performance in the Steam Machine driver.
- It was confirmed that the SSD (NVMe 2230 or 2280) and RAM (DDR5 SODIMMs) are both user-accessible and upgradable.
- In the coming months, Valve will begin sharing faceplate CAD models, specs, and details so manufacturers can make and sell third-party faceplates to users.
Steam Frame
- Streaming services should work in a 'theatrical browser mode'.
- People wearing glasses shouldn't have problems with the Steam Frame, though it depends on the width of the glasses. Still, Valve would like to make prescription lens inserts available ahead of launch.
- The Steam Frame will include a new feature called Foveated Streaming. Based on the eye-tracking data, the PC streams high-resolution data only to the portion of the viewport the player is looking at. This is a system-level feature, so it can be applied to all games to improve performance. Furthermore, it can stack with Foveated Rendering (which allows a game to render only the portion the player is looking at) if the game supports that feature.
- The Valve Index will continue to be supported by Valve, as it has in the past.
Steam Controller
- The Steam Controller is expected to work with any game compatible with the Steam Overlay, even if they aren't actually on Steam.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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