Steam Machine & Steam Frame FAQ - RAM and storage crisis to blame for no pricing or dates

Valve have put up an official explainer on why we haven't gotten released dates or pricing for the new Steam Hardware like the Steam Machine and Steam Frame. And of course, not forgetting the Steam Controller that I might just be the most excited for. I'm excited for all of it, but that controller looks delicious.

Unfortunately, the memory crisis with shortages and prices rising has been a factor in why we don't know more yet. As Valve said: "When we announced these products in November, we planned on being able to share specific pricing and launch dates by now. 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)".

This is pretty much expected, and anyone following the industry will no doubt have guessed that was the reason by now. However, as also previously mentioned by the AMD CEO, Valve say "Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed". But Valve aren't ready to talk any more on pricing or dates right now as things are changing so quickly.

As for your burning questions, Valve have a few other answers:

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.

See all in the blog post.