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PayPalValve gave us the latest teaser for the Steam Machine and Steam Frame which they said are now shipping "this summer" in a post about their verification systems.
So we've gone from early 2026 around the original announcement, to it arriving sometime in the first half of the year due to component shortages and pricing and now sometime "this summer". Can't be easy to do a launch like this with everything going on - and we still do not know the pricing.
The Steam Deck Verified program has now officially expanded to include both systems, and we already knew mostly what to expect from this from Valve's GDC talks earlier in the year. For Steam Machine, it's basically the same as the Steam Deck - as Valve said: "If your game already runs well on Deck, it will also run well on Machine with no extra work required from you" but naturally may run better because it's more powerful.
The Steam Frame is the one that's really different here though, because it can either stream games or run them directly. So with Steam Frame Verified they're focusing on the standalone mode to have "the default graphics configuration needs to perform well, text and UI elements need to be clear and legible on the built-in display, and the default controller configuration needs to work well with the Steam Frame Controllers" which applies to both VR and non-VR titles.
Valve also updated the game developer Partner Dashboard to include more info for the Steam Machine and Steam Frame along with their testing information.
There's also the updated Steamworks developers documentation:
Source: Valve
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
About the author - Liam Squires-Hand
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. You can follow me personally on Mastodon [External Link].
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27 comments
Philadelphus 19 hours ago
Leaving aside the question of pricing for the moment, I wonder how much of this delay is due to supply chain problems and securing enough components to be able to keep up with projected demand. We saw how quickly the controller went out of stock. In some ways the pricing doesn't matter much* if Valve can only secure enough RAM to make a hundred Steam Machines a month. Maybe they're trying to build up a big inventory before launch. Or maybe they're still ironing out issues with SteamOS on new hardware. There could be a lot of reasons for the delay.
*In broad terms, obviously it matters very much to individuals.
*In broad terms, obviously it matters very much to individuals.
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Quoting: PhiladelphusLeaving aside the question of pricing for the moment, I wonder how much of this delay is due to supply chain problems and securing enough components to be able to keep up with projected demand.Valve at GDC in March:
"If you have a line on a bunch of RAM, we would love to buy it from you!"
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Mohandevir 17 hours ago
Quoting: Purple Library GuyBought my first pc, a Pentium 166, in 1995, with my hard earned summer job money for 2400$. Couldn't afford a monitor, borrowed one from my older brother.Quoting: CaldathrasSadly, I'm old enough to remember the times when a good gaming rig easily cost anywhere from $2,500 to $4,000 (in Canadian funds).In pre-inflation Canadian funds, even.
Yep! Rampocalypse prices are not even close to that.
This said, it doean't mean that the actual situation is ok. It's just a memory of a time when computers were even less affordable then today. Before it was "democratized".
Last edited by Mohandevir on 6 Jun 2026 at 1:53 am UTC
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Quoting: MohandevirBought my first pc, a Pentium 166, in 1995, with my hard earned summer job money for 2400$. Couldn't afford a monitor, borrowed one from my older brother.I think PCs still cost more today than they did in the 90s. A Pentium 166 is pretty Gucci for 1995. In CDN dollars, a good mid-high range GPU, and 64GB of DDR5 RAM is gonna cost you over $2500 alone. That's just 2 parts - the GPU and the RAM. All-in without tax, the rest of the PC will probably be around at least another $2000. Adjusted for inflation, maybe it might add up to be close to the same, but let's bear in mind that everything else these days definitely costs much more than they used to. In the 90s gasoline hovered around .40-.50 cents a litre, which was really cheap, even for that time. We're at $2.05 cents a litre now. Sucks.
Yep! Rampocalypse prices are not even close to that.
This said, it doean't mean that the actual situation is ok. It's just a memory of a time when computers were even less affordable then today. Before it was "democratized".
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Quoting: Liam Squires-HandSomeone half-jokingly said those new Deck prices look as though Valve employees were buying up NVMes and RAM on ebay - hence why it took so long to restock, and why the crazy high prices. If they as a company are unable to secure actual deals and (as it appears to be the case) rely on spot pricing this is dead in the water.Quoting: dorronThis is getting absurd by now...just give a definite date and price already! But if it's over 1000€ it will be DOA...They're in the most impossible position because of the specs of it and what they can offer in terms of price with the massive price rises. They want it to be a success, so I can't imagine how difficult coming to a price will be. They have to get it right, but still...it has been a while eh.
Seriously, what's going on at Valve? I was expecting better from them after the great Steam Deck.
Now it looks like they're dumping whatever they have before the proposition gets even worse as the already ancient hardware keeps aging further. VR needs a cheap entry point, it can't have one now. The Steam Machine priced in line with the Deck is a strictly enthusiast proposition - or would have been if it wasn't for the fact it's really crappy hardware at this point. Enthusiasts can get mining refuse from China and for maybe 25% of that price have a fully assembled rig that already outperforms the Steam Machine.
I have no doubt whatever they do dump soon sells out fast, but this has no legs, and will likely be damaging to the idea overall.
Last edited by such on 6 Jun 2026 at 12:47 pm UTC
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Mohandevir 6 hours ago
Quoting: SlaxerYou just singled out 75% of the total cost of a complete PC. A Pentium 166, in 2025 money would be around 5000$.Quoting: MohandevirBought my first pc, a Pentium 166, in 1995, with my hard earned summer job money for 2400$. Couldn't afford a monitor, borrowed one from my older brother.I think PCs still cost more today than they did in the 90s. A Pentium 166 is pretty Gucci for 1995. In CDN dollars, a good mid-high range GPU, and 64GB of DDR5 RAM is gonna cost you over $2500 alone. That's just 2 parts - the GPU and the RAM. All-in without tax, the rest of the PC will probably be around at least another $2000. Adjusted for inflation, maybe it might add up to be close to the same, but let's bear in mind that everything else these days definitely costs much more than they used to. In the 90s gasoline hovered around .40-.50 cents a litre, which was really cheap, even for that time. We're at $2.05 cents a litre now. Sucks.
Yep! Rampocalypse prices are not even close to that.
This said, it doean't mean that the actual situation is ok. It's just a memory of a time when computers were even less affordable then today. Before it was "democratized".
Edit: In 2025 money, the Pentium 133, which was considered the "sweet spot" would be sold 2000$.
For my PCs, I usually pay half that price, in CAN$. Add a 300$ for the rampocalypse (32gb).
That's not even taking into account that 2 years later this cpu was a paper brick. Quickly replaced by the likes of my PII 400. The generational leaps were way more impressive back then.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 6 Jun 2026 at 3:23 pm UTC
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Quoting: MohandevirYou just singled out 75% of the total cost of a complete PC. A Pentium 166, in 2025 money would be around 5000$.According to the [Bank of Canada inflation calculator](https://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/related/inflation-calculator/), $2400 in 1995 would now be worth $4608 in 2026. You're right though, I forgot how quickly things became obsolete at that time.
Edit: In 2025 money, the Pentium 133, which was considered the "sweet spot" would be sold 2000$.
For my PCs, I usually pay half that price, in CAN$. Add a 300$ for the rampocalypse (32gb).
That's not even taking into account that 2 years later this cpu was a paper brick. Quickly replaced by the likes of my PII 400. The generational leaps were way more impressive back then.
Both GPUs and RAM are extremely overpriced these days. $1500 for a mid-range graphics card with only 16GB of VRAM is ridiculous. You could still buy a PC for relatively "cheap"... if you settle for low-end hardware, or by going on the used market to buy previous gen parts. IMO, if I was buying a new PC, I don't think it's reasonable to build a PC with a graphics card that only has 8GB of VRAM. It's 2026, 8GB of VRAM was the norm for mid-range cards in 2015. That was 11 years ago. With that said, low-end stuff is much more decent these days than it was back then because we've plateaued when it comes to compute power needs for the average person - so I dunno, maybe it isn't as bad as I make it out to be.
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