Valve confirms Steam Machine is still on track for 2026 despite memory shortage

Valve briefly sent Steam Machine hopefuls into a mild panic after publishing a blog post where it only "hoped" to ship the device in 2026. A few hours later, the wording was quietly updated – Valve now says all three announced products will ship this year.

The original post read: "Here's the lineup of hardware we announced in 2025. We hope to ship in 2026, but as we shared recently, memory and storage shortages have created challenges for us. We'll share updates publicly when we finalize our plans!" That single word – "hope" instead of something more definitive – was enough to set off a wave of concern across the gaming community.

After the reaction, Valve updated the post to read:

"Here's the lineup of hardware we announced in 2025. We shared recently that there have been challenges with memory and storage shortages, but we will be shipping all three products this year. More updates will be shared as we finalize our plans."

The three products in question are the Steam Machine mini-PC, the Steam Frame VR headset, and a new Steam controller. All three were announced last fall, with pricing and pre-order details originally expected in early 2026 – a timeline that slipped almost immediately.

Earlier this year, Valve said its goal of shipping all three products in the first half of 2026 hadn't changed, while acknowledging it still had "work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates" given how quickly market conditions were shifting.

The core issue is an unprecedented shortage of RAM and storage components driven by the AI infrastructure boom. Data centers are consuming components at a pace that's pushing prices up and squeezing supply for everything else in consumer electronics.

Nvidia signaled in its recent earnings call that relief isn't coming anytime soon, which suggests Valve may be waiting to lock in component contracts at workable prices before committing to a final price for the Steam Machine.

Spec-wise, the Steam Machine appears to target the median gaming PC build among Steam users – and even at announcement, many expected it to land above the PS5 Pro in price. Valve has confirmed the device will be priced like a PC rather than a subsidized $500 console, and that Steam revenue won't be used to offset the cost.

All of that points to a price tag higher than either Valve or buyers would prefer. Current estimates put it somewhere around $1,000.