Late yesterday evening, Valve posted a 2025 Steam retrospective that also included some small but significant tidbits on the Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller shipping.
As you will certainly recall, their original goal was to ship all three products in early 2026, as confirmed even by AMD CEO Lisa Su. However, shortly after that statement, Valve told consumers that it was forced to delay the timetable on the heels of the ongoing memory and storage crisis and was now targeting the first half of 2026.
The new blog post appears to quietly push the shipping window even further. Here's the relevant quote:
Here’s the lineup of hardware we announced in 2025. We shared recently that there have been challenges with memory and storage shortages, but we will be shipping all three products this year. More updates will be shared as we finalize our plans.
We've bolded the exact wording: Valve is now saying it will ship the Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller at some point in 2026, rather than in the first half (by the end of June). This suggests that a delay to the latter half of the year is now very much a possibility. That makes sense, as the aforementioned memory and storage issues are still far from being resolved, thus fueling uncertainty on the pricing of the Steam Machine in particular.
We already know Valve won't subsidize the hardware like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have done with their consoles. Thus, the pricing would have been roughly in line with what you could expect when buying those components on the PC market. The issue is that the prices of memory and storage components have literally skyrocketed over the past few months, driven by excessive demand for AI hardware. As things stand, they could add $100 to $200, with the 2TB NVMe SSD Steam Machine configuration taking the biggest hit.
As a refresher, we've listed the official Steam Machine specifications once again below.
| Category | Specification |
|---|---|
| I/O | |
| Displays | DisplayPort 1.4: - Up to 4K @ 240Hz or 8K@60Hz - Supports HDR, FreeSync, daisy-chaining HDMI 2.0: - Up to 4K @ 120Hz - Supports HDR, FreeSync, CEC |
| USB | - Two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 (front) - Two USB-A 2.0 High speed (back) - One USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (back) |
| Networking | Gigabit ethernet |
| LED Strip | 17 individually addressable RGB LEDs for system status and customization |
| Size & Weight | |
| Size | 152 mm tall (148 mm without feet), 162.4 mm deep, 156 mm wide |
| Weight | 2.6 kg |
| Software | |
| Operating System | SteamOS 3 (Arch-based) |
| Desktop | KDE Plasma |
| General | |
| CPU | Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C/12T - Up to 4.8 GHz, 30W TDP |
| GPU | Semi-custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs - 2.45GHz max sustained clock, 110W TDP |
| RAM | 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM |
| Power | Internal power supply, AC 110-240V |
| Storage | Two models: - 512GB NVMe SSD - 2TB NVMe SSD - Both include a high-speed microSD slot |
| Connectivity | |
| Wi-Fi | 2x2 Wi-Fi 6E |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 5.3 (dedicated antenna) |
| Steam Controller | Integrated 2.4 GHz Steam Controller wireless adapter |
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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