Valve’s Steam Machine: Summer Release Planned, Still No Price

Valve is still determined to release its living room PC game console, called the Steam Machine, despite skyrocketing prices for gaming hardware across the board, including the company’s own Steam Deck. June was considered one of the most likely times for Valve to release its home console, but while there is no specific release date yet, Valve did offer an update on when it will launch the Steam Machine. 

The Steam Machine is set to release sometime this summer, according to a blog post by Valve on Thursday. It will come out alongside the Steam Frame, Valve’s VR headset, which was revealed along with the Steam Machine and new Steam Controller last November. 

The Steam Machine is Valve’s gaming PC, built into a roughly 6-inch cube that’s designed to connect to a living room TV. The aim is to deliver a simplified PC gaming experience for a broad audience and for game developers to optimize for a single spec as they’ve done with the Steam Deck. While the Steam Machine’s hardware is expected to be slightly more powerful than the standard PS5 or Xbox Series X, the company doesn’t see the Steam Machine as a direct competitor to those consoles. Pricing has yet to be confirmed, but with the ongoing shortage of PC memory, the price will not be easy on gamers’ wallets. 

Here’s everything we know about the Steam Machine.

When does the Steam Machine come out? 

Valve said Thursday that the Steam Machine will have a summer release date. When the hardware was first revealed, the company said it would be coming in early 2026. On Feb. 4, Valve confirmed the PC would be delayed in its first major update about the Steam Machine since it was unveiled.

This year is turning out to be quite a tumultuous time for gaming. It’s been almost six years since the release of the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles, which is usually the time when those companies would begin teasing their new hardware. However, due to the memory shortage, those companies have instead been forced to increase the prices of their respective consoles and will likely hold off big news about their next-generation hardware until memory prices come down. Game developers are also petrified of releasing anything in November or else get caught up in the whirlwind of hype that is Grand Theft Auto 6, set to release on Nov. 19. If there’s an ideal time for Valve to release its new console, it will be mid-August as a buffer from September, which is getting flooded with game releases. 

Can I preorder the Steam Machine?

There are no preorders available for the Steam Machine yet. When preorders become available, they will likely be available on the Steam Machine hardware page. 

If Valve does do preorders, the company may have a system in place to roll out consoles in a timely manner, as it did with the Steam Deck. With the Steam Deck, you could preorder the device, and based on when an order was submitted, you would get a designated timeframe for its release and when you’d receive it. 

Valve also required anyone who wanted to preorder the Steam Deck to have a Steam account. This would prevent scalpers from ordering numerous devices at once, which will likely be the case with the Steam Machine. 

How much will the Steam Machine cost? 

This is arguably the biggest question about the Steam Machine, and for good reason. Valve said the console would be priced in the same range as a gaming PC with the same kind of power. There has been speculation that this would put the price at around $600 to $800. 

However, the global RAM shortage continues to raise the price of memory. This could mean the Steam Machine may cost $1,000 or more, which would be a hard sell for many and make it less competitive against the PlayStation 5 or a regular gaming PC. 

Valve said on Feb. 4 that it’s still trying to figure out the price of the Steam Machine.

“The limited availability and growing prices of these critical components mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing (especially around Steam Machine and Steam Frame),” the company said.

What are the Steam Machine specs? 

Valve has released the specs for the Steam Machine, but on the hardware page, there is a note at the bottom stating, “some specifications subject to change ahead of availability.” It’s not common to see that kind of disclaimer, which hints that if tariffs or  RAM shortages make the console too expensive, Valve may make adjustments to keep the price attractive. 

What else is unique to the Steam Machine? 

Valve is doing a bit more than just making a tiny gaming PC. The company is offering some features that aren’t found on the PS5, Switch 2 or Xbox Series consoles. 

To start, there are removable face plates for the Steam Machine. This is similar to the faceplates for the Xbox 360, which offer a bit of customization for the console. 

Steam Machines are upgradable. You can increase storage by adding a microSD card to the console’s microSD card slot or by replacing the solid-state drive. There is also the possibility to upgrade the RAM, but that will take a few more steps versus the storage swapping. 

The Steam Machine will also be just a computer when needed. Connect it to a monitor with a mouse and keyboard, and the console will act just like a Linux desktop. There’s also the option to install Windows in lieu of SteamOS, which would make it still play PC games, although the experience won’t be as smooth as SteamOS.

The Steam Controller for the Steam Machine will connect seamlessly to the console. And, for multiplayer games, four controllers can connect with a console very easily.

Wait, didn’t Valve already have Steam Machines?

Kind of. Back in 2013, Valve revealed a new operating system called SteamOS. It’s what powers the Steam Deck and creates the Big Picture Mode, which allows gamers to play their PC games in a mostly console-like experience instead of the typical desktop experience of using a mouse to double-click a game to start. 

Along with the operating system, Valve also released its Steam Machine platform. This allowed computer hardware makers to develop computers shaped more like a home console instead of a desktop. Alienware and Dell were some of the notable companies that developed their own Steam Machines, but none of them really caught on, partly due to many games not being compatible with the Linux-based SteamOS. 

The Steam Machines fizzled out in the mid-2010s as making games compatible with SteamOS was not a priority for game developers at the time. It wasn’t until 2018 that Valve developed Proton, a compatibility layer for SteamOS to make it easier to run most Windows games. Proton currently supports more than 20,000 Windows games. 

Valve also ended up offering an alternative to getting a whole new piece of hardware. In 2015, the company released Steam Link, a device that allowed PC games to be streamed directly to a TV.