Valve to Revisit Price and Release Date for Steam Machine, Controller, and Frame Due to Memory Prices - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 February 2026 / 4,169 Views
Valve in a new blog post has provided an update on the hardware devices - Steam Machine, Stream Controller, and Steam Frame - that were announced last November.
The company was hoping to have provided a specific price and launch date for the devices by now, however, the increased prices in memory and storage have delayed this announcement.
Valve still plans to launch the products in the first half of the year, but are working to figure out a concrete price and launch dates they can confidently announce.
"When we announced these products in November, we planned on being able to share specific pricing and launch dates by now," reads the blog post from Valve. "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).
"Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed. But we have work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we can confidently announce, being mindful of how quickly the circumstances around both of those things can change. We will keep you updated as much as we can as we finalize those plans as soon as possible."
Read a new FAQ below:
Steam Frame and VR
Will Steam Frame support other streaming services?
SteamOS has a built-in browser, and we expect streaming services to work in a theatrical browser mode.
How can I request a Steam Frame developer kit?
Steamworks developers can submit a request for Steam Frame dev kits at the partner site here:
https://partner.steamgames.com/hardware
Supplies are limited, but we are sending out kits on an ongoing basis.
Will Steam Frame work with lighthouse base stations?
It's not something we're working on, but we built Steam Frame to be modular and extensible so that the community and 3rd parties can build out the features and accessories that are important to them.
Can Steam Frame be used while wearing glasses?
A bunch of people on the team wear glasses and use Steam Frame without issue, but it really depends on the width of the glasses frames. And while we don't have details to share yet, we are looking into making prescription lens inserts available ahead of launch.
I heard that Steam Frame has foveated streaming - is that the same thing as foveated rendering? What games support it?
With Steam Frame, we are introducing a new feature called foveated streaming. While both use eye tracking data, the technology is different:
- Foveated rendering uses eye tracking data so the game only renders high resolution data in the portion of the viewport that the player is looking at.
- Foveated streaming, on the other hand, uses eye tracking data so that the PC only streams high resolution data in the portion of the viewport the player is looking at.
Since foveated streaming is a system-level feature, it applies to all games, and requires no game developer work. If a game implements foveated rendering, the benefits of that feature will stack with foveated streaming.
Will Valve Index have ongoing product support?
While we're no longer making Valve Index, we do intend to support Index owners the same way we have in the past on an ongoing basis.
Steam Machine
How well can Steam Machine play newer, more demanding games on Steam?
In our testing the majority of Steam titles play great at 4K 60FPS with FSR on Steam Machine. That said, there are some titles that currently require more upscaling than others, and it may be preferable to play at a lower framerate with VRR to maintain a 1080p internal resolution.
In the meantime, we are working on HDMI VRR, investigating improved upscaling, and optimizing ray tracing performance in the driver, so we are approaching this from multiple angles.
Will third parties be able to make faceplates for Steam Machine? Will you be making the CAD for those faceplates available?
Yes, we plan to share faceplate CAD, specs, and details in the coming months, for customers and manufacturers to make their own.
What components of Steam Machine are upgradeable?
Steam Machine's SSD (NVMe 2230 or 2280) and memory (DDR5 SODIMMs) are both accessible and upgradeable.
Steam Controller
Can I play non steam games with the Steam Controller?
The controller can work with any game compatible with the Steam Overlay.
More to come
Keep following the Steam Hardware Blog to stay up to date on the latest news and information as we head toward launch and beyond. We'll answer more questions as we go, and also plan to release additional content that lets us deep-dive into specific features and other topics related to the hardware.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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Its Gabe Over.
Console Gabing ded...
Alright, I'll admit it, I liked that :D
I Gabe up trying to top that
Do us all a favour and cancel the products. Release them during another gen.
Yeah, that is not going to happen because they already spent the money. Since this isnt a console so they are definitely not going to take a loss on hardware they might just need to come out at cost just to get a foothold or something for their next iteration.
Add your reply...
Sorry JackHandy, I hit the wrong button and removed your reply could you add it back.
This is not their first attempt remember. This is already an "iteration".
RAM and NAND have screwed over the consumer and console markets.
True this is not their first attempt but this is probably their best attempt I believe to gain some significant marketshare
They aren't going to gain marketshare... This is using low end hardware.
Valve is a software platform, Valves hardware is never going to sell 100~ million units.
What Valve is trying to do... And what they have successfully done is build a "reference platform" for other OEM device manufacturers to build on... And then adopt SteamOS and Steam.
Just look at PC handhelds. Thanks Valve.
It's bigger picture stuff.
That is like saying MS is a software company but dabble in hardware. I do not see any third party hardware vendors making steam OS handhelds so I am very skeptical seeing third party PC hardware vendors making steam OS PC devices like this unless it can make a really good dent in the current market. As you stated, this isn't valve first rodeo and that did not fare that well. Half measures really do not work that well when going up against big business like MS, either commit fully or get swept away.
Ummm.
Just because you may be ignorant about something... Doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
I suggest you do some research to update your knowledge as it seems to have a few gaps.
1) You can install SteamOS on these devices yourself.
https://rogallylife.com/2025/05/23/how-to-install-steamos-on-the-rog-ally/
2) Handhelds like the Lenovo Legion Go S has a SteamOS variant.
https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/p/handheld/legion-go-s/83l3cto1wwau1
Again, Valves devices aren't meant to sell 100~ million devices, it's meant to build a reference platform for other OEM's.
Software platforms tend to encompass more than 1 hardware platform, which is how you build a larger platform.
StreamOS is non-profit, it's open-source.
Valve makes money from the software SteamOS sells through the Steam store.
It's just R&D costs, and the R&D carries over to the next products, it's not like they just throw everything away and start from scratch.
They didn't even spend anything on marketing, because this is Valve we're talking about.
Cost is still cost and waiting until ram prices drop misses the window for the current hardware they just spent a number of dollars on. There is a window to get this device to market and waiting means they would need to than have to go back and reevaluate the hardware compared to the market and that could mean even more money lost. Waiting longer could mean hitting a time when the PS6 and Xbox whatever hits the market which could be an issue.
my 5 year old 6600xt is better
They'll look tight in a museum
I mean, rumors had the price looking to be too high for this to make sense already before this, so at this point the viability of it at all is starting to become questionable.
The timing couldn't have been worse for them. At least there won't be a PS5 Pro style backlash against the price because Valve is very popular and well liked within the gaming community
In other words don't hold your breath for this one. It's a shame as the idea had potential, though I still doubt the controller would be particularly good after the last one.
The right products at the VERY wrong time......
I would argue that then it is not the right product :)
Then no product will be the right one in the near future.
Release the controller, delay the other hardware
I think this will still sell fine,
Same issues for everybody at the moment with hardware prices. There will be people out there that will want the Steam Machine and it's a neat little box for gaming in the living room.
