By Sarah Fields
Valve has shared an update on the progress of its upcoming Steam-branded hardware, including the Steam Machine, and revealed that there has been an unfortunate delay in announcing the devices' pricing and release date. However, despite these issues, Valve seems confident that the Steam Machine and its other hardware will still launch within the time frame originally promised.
Back in November 2025, Valve revealed that many of the rumors surrounding new hardware coming from the company were legitimate, revealing a new Steam Controller, Steam Machine, and the all-new Steam Frame VR headset. The three devices immediately drew excitement from PC gamers and fans of Valve products, and those potential customers have been waiting for more information since, but now there are problems on the horizon.
Steam Announces Delay to Pricing and Release Date Reveals
On February 4, Steam officially announced that the three pieces of Steam Hardware are still on their way, but that there have been some hiccups since the announcement. Valve explains that it originally intended for the pricing and launch dates to have already been revealed by this point, but that was before the hardware shortages became as severe as they are now. However, Valve adds that it still intends to ship the Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller within the first half of 2026. It added that the company "has work to do" to determine concrete pricing and schedules, especially for the Steam Frame and Steam Machine, due to the variability of the market and pricing.
Steam's Hardware is Impacted by Supply and Demand
Due largely to demand produced by an abundance of AI companies and datacenters, certain types of chips, storage, and RAM have become difficult to acquire, and many still available for purchase have seen price surges as a result of the decreased supply. Given that the Steam Machine is essentially a PC-console hybrid, it essentially needs the same parts that would go into the equivalent devices. PC gamers have already seen the price of components like RAM and GPUs skyrocket, and SSDs have recently been impacted, as well. Some gamers began to express concerns about these shortages impacting the Steam Machine in the time since its announcement, and it seems that those thoughts were valid.
The AI boom has created enough of a hardware shortage that it may potentially impact gaming beyond Valve, as well. Some reports have said that the increased costs could lead to delays in the next consoles from PlayStation and Xbox, while prices on everything from existing consoles to TVs could potentially go up. Those who want to build or upgrade a gaming PC right now are already feeling the pinch, with the prices of Nvidia GPUs rising alongside other necessary components.
Source: Steam
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This article originally appeared on GameRant and is republished here with permission.
