The Steam Machine Is Now Delayed (And May Cost Even More Than We Thought)

The gaming world has been positively abuzz since Valve's November announcement that its highly-anticipated Steam Machine gaming platform would be shipping sometime in the early days of 2026, potentially even in Q1. But now just a little over a month into the year, hopes of getting your game on via The Steam Machine in immediate future have officially been dashed, with Valve announcing that it has been forced to delay shipping on the PC/gaming console hybrid. Ditto for the equally-anticipated Steam Frame VR headset and Steam Controller that were announced alongside The Steam Machine. 

The tech and gaming outfit made dropped the bad news via an official post on its FAQ page, stating, "When we announced these products in November, we planned on being able to share specific pricing and launch dates by now." They add that circumstances have since changed, and that they will not be able to meet the initial "early 2026" shipping window for these devices. 

The news is not all bad surrounding the launch of The Steam Machine, with Valve going on to state, "Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed." From the sounds of it, The Steam Machines may well be ready to ship, once Valve sorts out the issues that have delayed its release. As of this writing, however, the company has no concrete timeline for its release, stating simply, "We will keep you updated as much as we can as we finalize those plans."

Valve's seeming inability to confidently price The Steam Machine looks to be the biggest culprit behind the device's disappointing shift into shipping purgatory. The company makes that fact abundantly clear in its statement, noting specifically, "the memory and storage shortages you've likely heard about across the industry have rapidly increased since then (November)." Valve reps went on to write, "The limited availability and growing prices of these critical components mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing ..."

If you're unfamiliar with the ongoing RAM (Random Access Memory) drama, it stems largely from the exponential growth of A.I. data centers over the past several years. To put it plainly, those platforms require massive amounts of storage to properly function, and A.I. based tech factions have been gobbling up memory chips and storage space at a positively gluttonous clip of late. In doing so, prices for those chips have skyrocketed, with the market fluctuating at a legitimately uncomfortable rate. 

Along with driving up the prices for laptops, PCs, and gaming consoles, the unsteady chip market has, expectedly, made it difficult to place a firm price on new devices that rely on them to function. For now, Valve appears to be waiting for the market to level out a bit before putting officially pricing out The Steam Machine. Whatever the case, it sure seems like the platform may end up costing considerably more than many initially projected, and those who are willing to pony-up for the device are just going to have to wait to find out what it'll cost them to do so.