Steam Machine Release Info Delayed Due to Computer Hardware Crisis, Valve Still Aiming For Launch In First-Half 2026
Though well-aware that players the world over are waiting with baited breath for the Steam Machine’s full retail details, Valve has unfortunately announced that due to the ongoing computer hardware crisis and the resulting rising component prices, that information is currently up-in-the-air.
Breaking the news via a new blog post, Valve informed eager fans that while the company had originally intended to release “specific pricing and launch dates by now”, the aforementioned “memory and storage shortages you’ve likely heard about across the industry have rapidly increased since then,” and thus “the limited availability and growing prices of these critical components mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing.”
However, Valve meanwhile affirmed that, despite this hiccup, “our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed.”
“But we have work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we can confidently announce, being mindful of how quickly the circumstances around both of those things can change,” assured the Half-Life house. “We will keep you updated as much as we can as we finalize those plans as soon as possible.”
And while unable to provide any concrete pricing or release details, Valve did explain that, when it came to the Steam Machine playing “newer, more demanding games”, the developer’s testing had found that although “the majority of Steam titles play great at 4K 60FPS with FSR [otherwise known as the AMD Fidelity FX Super Resolution upscaling architecture]”, 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,” they added, “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.”
RELATED: Top 7 WTF Moments In Gaming In 2025
Interest in Valve’s Steam Machine has only been building since its announcement last November, and funnily enough, said demand has been fueled by the very memory and ram shortages at the center of the mini PC’s information delay.
In keeping a very detailed economic situation brief, these shortages are caused by both US President Donald Trump’s ongoing tariff policies wreaking havoc on supply chains and the ongoing rise of AI data centers sucking up all the best tech straight off of the production lines.
Paradoxically, there seems to be hope the Steam Machine may be a cheaper alternative to a gaming PC at this time, but reality sees it still suffering from the same issues currently plaguing their console and custom-built competitors.
In the absence of concrete info, rumors regarding the Steam Machine’s eventual price have run rampant across the internet.
Adding perhaps the most fuel to the speculative flame was Czech electronics retailer Smarty.cz, whose website source code was discovered in January to hold an apparent listing for the Smart Machine, therein listing its 512GB and 2TB models for the before-tax equivalent of $800 and $900 USD.
While Smarty does sell Valve products such as the Steam Deck, Valve emphasized it was only sold officially through Steam in Europe. As such, it appears that Smarty’s listing was a placeholder estimate, as made to allow the product to be entered into their systems ahead of its official release, rather than official info.
With this lack of info, the pressure on Valve to deliver an economically sensible gaming option is building like, well, the pressure that normally necessitates the use of a steam-release valve – Let’s just hope no one gets scalded when it finally opens.
NEXT: Despite Massive Switch 2 Sales Success, Nintendo Stock Price Drops 33% Over Last Five Months
