Valve’s Steam Machine has been postponed, and the RAM shortage will affect costs

When Valve initially presented its sleek Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller hardware in November, the firm stated that the products would start shipping in early 2026. Certain reporters were informed specifically “Q1 2026.” However, due to the ongoing memory and storage shortage, the launch has been postponed to sometime in the first half of this year, and Valve states it will reset expectations for pricing “as soon as possible.”

“We intended to share specific pricing and launch dates by now,” Valve mentions in a recent update. “However, the memory and storage shortages you’ve probably heard about throughout the industry have escalated rapidly since then. The limited availability and increasing costs of these essential components mean we must reassess our precise shipping timeline and pricing (particularly concerning the Steam Machine and Steam Frame).”

Valve asserts that its aim of “delivering all three products in the first half of the year has not shifted. However, we must finalize concrete pricing and launch dates that we can confidently share, remaining aware of how swiftly conditions around both aspects can evolve.”

When The Verge and other platforms met with Valve to preview the new hardware, the company remained largely ambiguous about pricing at that moment — one of the key queries regarding whether these devices would rival game consoles rather than PCs. From the outset, Valve conveyed that the Steam Machine, its ambitious new console, would be “positioned closer to the entry level of the PC market.” Regarding the Frame, the firm stated it aimed for a cost below that of its prior headset, the Index, which was priced at $999. And for the Steam Controller, Valve indicated that it was aiming for a cost that would be competitive with other controllers featuring “advanced inputs.”

Yet, within days of Valve’s hardware announcements last November, it became evident that Valve would face challenges in providing competitive pricing as the cost of RAM surged. It informed Tom’s Hardware that pricing the console was challenging due to “the market being somewhat unusual” and “memory prices are increasing as we speak.” By early 2026, PC gamers had witnessed the price of RAM triple, even quadruple, as memory manufacturers redirected their inventory toward the more lucrative AI server sector.

Yesterday, AMD CEO Lisa Su stated during an earnings call that “From a product perspective, Valve is on schedule to commence shipping its AMD-powered Steam Machine early this year.” It appears that the phrase “from a product perspective” carried more significance than we realized.