Valve intends to release its Steam Machine and Steam Frame this summer.
The Steam Machine is a new console coming from Valve, which will allow you to play your PC games on your television. It was announced in November, alongside a new standalone VR headset known as the Steam Frame, which is essentially an entire computer that you strap to your head.
These devices were once planned for release in the first quarter of 2026, but in February, this was revised to the first half of the year due to the current memory crisis. The cost of RAM – the quick access source of memory in a computer – has skyrocketed over recent months, and has had the knock on effect of price increases to hardware including Sony’s family of PS5 consoles and Nintendo’s hybrid Switch 2 devices, as well as delays to hardware production.
Valve was not immune to the current pressure on hardware providers, and last month the company announced a steep price increase for its Steam Deck OLED models. In the UK, would-be-buyers saw a rise of over £200 for the company’s chunkier 1TB Steam Deck OLED model, which increased from £569 to £779. This decision left many concerned about what this would mean for release of the Steam Machine and the Steam Frame. However, in a blog post in which Valve has detailed the expansion of its Verified programme to include Steam Machine and Steam Frame, the company said both devices are due this summer.
“Today we are expanding the Verified program to include Steam Machine and Steam Frame, both of which are shipping this summer. As with Steam Deck Verified, the goal is to help customers understand the out-of-box experience for a given title on these new devices, and how smoothly a game will run with no user work or configuration required,” Valve said.
“We’re excited for players to try your titles on the new Steam hardware once they launch this summer,” Valve again stated at the post’s close.
Valve’s upcoming hardware still lacks a price, and there are plenty who are keen to know just how much the two devices are actually going to end up costing. In November, the company said the Steam Machine would be “more in line with what you might expect from [the] current PC market”. However, the PC market is getting more expensive, and there are concerns the Steam Machine will retail in excess of $1000. As analysts have remarked, we’re witnessing “quite the squeeze” in most areas of life when it comes to the cost of goods, so Steam Machine price news likely won’t make people happy.
However, given that summer release window, along with a Steam Machine ‘welcome tour’ minigame of sorts, which was recently spotted being added to Steam’s backend, we will hopefully hear something more concrete on the Steam Machine and Steam Frame’s pricing and a proper release date soon.
