Valve's Steam Machine has been delayed, and the RAM crisis will impact pricing

"When Valve first announced its impressive-looking Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller hardware in November, the company said the products would begin shipping in early 2026. Some journalists were told "Q1 2026" specifically. But because of the ongoing memory and storage crunch, that launch has been delayed to sometime in the first half of this year, and Valve says it will reset expectations for how much they will cost "as soon as possible.""

""We planned on being able to share specific pricing and launch dates by now," Valve says in a new post. "But the memory and storage shortages you've likely heard about across the industry have rapidly increased since then. 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 says that its goal of "shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed.""

"When The Verge and other outlets met with Valve to preview the new hardware, the company remained mostly vague about pricing at the time - the most important question if these devices would compete with game consoles rather than PCs. From the beginning, Valve told us the Steam Machine, its ambitious new console, would be "positioned closer to the entry level of the PC space.""

Valve initially planned to ship Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller hardware beginning in early 2026, with some journalists told Q1 2026. Memory and storage shortages have intensified, forcing a delay to sometime in the first half of the year and prompting a revisit of pricing and shipping schedules. Valve states the goal of shipping all three products in the first half remains, but concrete pricing and launch dates must be finalized cautiously due to rapidly changing component availability and costs. Earlier positioning aimed Steam Machine at entry-level PC pricing, Frame below the $999 Index, and the controller competitively priced among advanced controllers.

Read at The Verge