While the Steam Machine was initially supposed to come out at the beginning of 2026, the AI-fueled RAM crisis caused Valve to hit the brakes back in February.
Even back then, Valve seemed to suggest that the delay was entirely due to supply constraints, and well, that hasn’t changed. In an interview about the upcoming Steam Controller, Valve’s Pierre-Louis Griffais told IGN that “in terms of Steam Machine, yeah, it’s really just about the logistics of getting it into user’s hands.”
It does seem, then, that supply constraints are the only thing holding the Steam Machine back from its release. From what Griffais told us, it seems like the mini gaming PC is feature complete. “If you’ve used the Steam Deck docked, the experience is pretty much there. It’s that plus some more GPU horsepower,” he said. “Of course, there’s a ton of polish and other feature work that we can do, but at the end of the day, the core experience is there.”
As for when the Steam Machine is actually going to hit shelves, it’s still a mystery. Valve assures us its close, and says it has some news to drop on that soon, but until it does, it’s still just a guessing game. There’s no reason to suspect that it’s not still coming out sometime this year. But, RAM prices are still quite high, so it’s really just a question of how much Valve is willing to wait out the shortage before it just releases it.
It’s also possible, now that the Steam Controller has launched on its own, rather as part of Valve’s hardware trifecta, that the Steam Frame might also get an independent release. When IGN’s Bo Moore asked Valve why the controller was coming out on its own all of a sudden, the company told us that “in general, there’s not an arbitrary consideration about tying product launches together or anything like that.” It sure seems like Valve is at least considering launching these products on their own, if it means it’s able to at least get these products out at some point. My gut says that if all the products are launching separately, the Steam Machine just might be the last one out of the door.
Valve isn’t the only company with imminent gaming hardware, though. Microsoft is surely close to giving more concrete information about Project Helix, and next-gen PlayStation hardware is probably not far behind, though it sounds like that one might be delayed, too. One thing’s for sure: The launches of these next-generation gaming platforms are going to be a wild (and expensive) ride.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
