Valve has once again confirmed that the Steam Machine should still be released in 2026. Given the current RAM crisis, there were concerns that the launch would be delayed. The release also seems to have been postponed slightly, because Valve’s new hardware was originally supposed to be released before the end of March.
In a blog post on Friday, Valve indicated “we hope to ship in 2026.” That sentence caused more concern for many people, because it seemed that the company was not sure whether a launch in 2026 would still be possible.
We don’t have a price yet either
It is good news to hear clearly once again that the Steam Machine will really be launched in 2026, even though it no longer appears to be a release in “early 2026” or Q1 (January, February, March), as originally promised.
It’s clear that the RAM shortage, due to extra-heavy demand from AI data centers, is having an effect on virtually every PC hardware manufacturer. Valve has already admitted that the limited supplies of RAM have an impact on the stock of the Steam Deck OLED.
What this ultimately means for the price and availability of the Steam Machine remains to be seen. Valve’s upcoming gaming PC (which should offer a more console-like experience) will have 16GB of DDR5 RAM and 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM, according to the specs that Valve previously shared.
“More updates will be shared as we finalize our plans,” Valve said. Last month it looked like we could expect the Steam Machine in the first half of the year. Then Valve announced that it had to reconsider its plans for release and price.
