Steam Machine delay rumors blow up as Valve signals worry

The wait for Valve’s new Steam Machine — and Steam Frame VR headset and new Steam Controller — may be even longer than expected. Valve suggested further delays for its new hardware, originally planned for release in “early 2026,” as part of a lengthy Steam year in review post on Friday.

Addressing the trio of new hardware releases planned for this year, Valve said, “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!”

Valve originally planned to release the Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller in early 2026, when it announced its new hardware push last November. At the time, Valve said it would share more specific timing “after the first of the year.” After January 2026 came and went, Valve offered an update, suggesting a delay for new Steam hardware.

“When we announced these products in November, we planned on being able to share specific pricing and launch dates by now. But the memory and storage shortages you’ve likely heard about across the industry have rapidly increased since then. The limited availability and growing prices of these critical components mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing,” Valve said in February. “Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed.”

That goal appears to have now changed, or at least become more fluid. In addition to now only committing to a 2026 release window, Valve on Friday updated release dates for Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller in the Steam backend to say they were simply “coming soon.”

Valve is wrestling with the same issue other PC and console manufacturers are: namely huge price increases on crucial components like RAM and storage. Prices have spiked over the past year as tech companies swallow up components to build enormous data centers that power AI software. Whether there will be any relief on that front any time soon is unknown, but Valve has only a few options here:

• Delay manufacturing and shipping of Steam hardware while waiting for prices to settle
• Charge more for its hardware, defeating the purpose of an “affordable” Steam Machine
• Scrap its hardware ambitions and continue to make billions selling games

Only time will tell what Valve will do, and whether it will actually ship new hardware in 2026. But it sounds like we’ll all be playing a waiting game — while also playing with our aging Steam Decks.