In early February, Valve confirmed that Steam Machine’s launch was pushed out of its early 2026 release window due to the ongoing RAM shortages. At the time, Valve expressed confidence that a 2026 release was still on the table. But the latest word from Valve seems a little less confident that it’s going to drop this year.
Valve has shared it’s Year In Review 2025 report, and addressed the arrival of Steam Machine, the new Steam Controller, and Steam Frame with the following statement:
“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!”
The report went on to mention that “Steam Machine has more than six times the horsepower of Steam Deck, packed into sleek, quiet form factor.” Like the Steam Deck before it players will be able to install custom software on Steam Machine as they would for any PC. Alternatively, it can just be used to explore the Steam ecosystem and play games at will.
Earlier this week, Microsoft officially announced the new Xbox, which is codenamed Project Helix. Since that console will play Xbox and PC games, it appears to be a direct competitor of Steam Machine. An analyst recently estimated that Project Helix may cost $900 or more. As for Steam Machine, Valve has yet to disclose any pricing details. Analysts have had a harder time predicting the cost of that console.