UPDATE (3/6 7 PM): A mere ten minutes after this article was originally published, Valve published its “Steam Year In Review 2025” Community post. Front and center is the Steam Machine, Frame, and Controller, comprising the entire first section.
After a bit of filler-speak about how far Valve has come in both Linux compatibility and VR experiences, the meat and potatoes are buried in the last section:
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.
On the bright side, I’m taking this as Valve’s way to try and reassure everyone that its three upcoming pieces of hardware will arrive at some point this year. Unfortunately, it does appear that the “first half 2026” release target won’t be met.
You can read the original article in its entirety below.
Valve blew our minds when it announced three new pieces of hardware, and none of them were the Steam Deck 2. However, it wouldn’t take long before the excitement subsided, evolving into disappointment after all three were seemingly delayed due to the ongoing RAM and storage shortage fiasco.
The company has tried to provide some reassurance that the three upcoming products would still be released in the first half of the year. However, all that really did was shift the focus from “when will they launch” to “how much is this going to cost?”
Unfortunately, we still don’t yet have the answer to either of those questions, but SteamDB shows (via @Wario64) that all three products now have an updated “Store Release Date.” No, there’s no actual specific date just yet, but Valve’s database is now showing them as “Coming soon.” Here are the links to each if you want to keep an eye on things for yourself:
Before yesterday, the database entries hadn’t been updated since the initial announcement and reveal in November 2025. Now, it appears as though the company is working on dotting the “i’s” and crossing the “t’s” before at least making these available for pre-order.
When originally announced, the hope was that the Steam Machine would be priced at around $400-$500, while operating as competition to the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. Back in January, a leak from a Czech retailer listing showed the 512GB model for 19,826 CZK, or about $950, with the 2TB model priced at just shy of $1,100.
However, it’s not very often that global product pricing matches up with what a product ends up costing in North America. That being said, it’s still left us feeling a bit uneasy when you look around at the rest of the gaming and PC industry. Prices are continuing to rise, with consumer-facing components like the 1TB WD_Black SN770M M.2 2230 NVMe now retailing for around $200.
Not to mention that it’s forced handheld makers to either make devices more expensive, remove models from lineups, or both. AYN and Retroid were two of the more recent examples, as all Odin 3, Thor, and Retroid Pocket 6 models are now more expensive, while the Odin 3 Ultra has essentially been “canceled.” The x86 handheld market isn’t immune either, as evidenced by the recent jump in price for the Lenovo Legion Go 2, provided that you can even find it in stock.
I’m hoping that Valve will just rip off the band-aid and let everyone know how much we can expect to pay for this new hardware trio. Even if that means we have to wait a bit longer before being able to throw enough money at Gabe so he can buy another yacht for his fleet.
