Steam Machine release date speculation, specs and latest news

There was much hubbub and excitement when, in November 2025, Valve announced a slew of new hardware, but worsening market conditions have seen its launch delayed, and so we'll be dabbling in a little Steam Machine release date speculation, as well as going over the specs and latest news.

The ongoing memory pricing crisis, dubbed 'RAMageddon', is affecting the launch of the Steam Controller and Steam Frame as well, though at the very least, it will give developers more time to get Steam Frame verified and behold their developer kits in wonderment.

It also goes without saying that the Steam Machine is going to cost more, owing to the hugely inflated price of memory.

Until then, we'll have to make do with our Steam Deck, and when the Steam Machine does come out, we can start haranguing Valve for a Steam Deck 2.

But for now, read on to find out when the Steam Machine release date might be!

When is the Steam Machine release date?

The Steam Machine will release in 2026.

Originally, Valve stated that it was aiming for "early 2026", but a Steam Hardware FAQ quietly expanded the scope of what this could mean, first by saying it was targeting a launch in the first half of the year, but then this was further revised in the Steam Year in Review 2025, where Valve states that it plans to ship "all three products this year", with the other two being the Steam Frame and Steam Controller.

The release date has been hampered by the ongoing RAM crisis due to AI data centres hoovering up DRAM and NAND modules, used in system memory chips and SSDs, causing these components to skyrocket in price.

With business booming for manufacturers of these chips, some, such as Micron, are pulling out of the consumer market to instead focus on selling directly to enterprise.

All said, Valve, which has gone on the record to say that it wants to be competitively priced with entry-level PCs, has had pause for thought as it reevaluates market conditions, saying that the "limited availability and growing prices of these critical components" has resulted in Valve needing to revisit the "exact shipping schedule and pricing", and especially for the Steam Machine.

Can I pre-order the Steam Machine?

No, you cannot pre-order the Steam machine at this time.

You can wishlist it on Steam, so that you are notified the moment it becomes available for purchase.

There is also no word on whether Valve will employ a reservation system, as it did for the Steam Deck when it was first announced.

This placed prospective buyers in a queue after paying a small deposit, and when it became available for purchase, you had a window of time to put up the rest of the money.

Valve is no stranger to hardware launches now, however, so Valve could be manufacturing a large enough volume for a general launch.

Is the Steam Machine a PC or console?

The Steam Machine is a PC-hybrid console.

It is essentially the same experience as the Steam Deck, sans the portability and built-in screen, in that SteamOS, a custom version of Arch Linux, has a very console-like interface when you turn it on, but you can switch to a desktop environment.

While it is a bit more fiddly than a traditional console, it is extremely flexible, and opens the door to cheap PC games stretching back decades.

By popping into the desktop, you can install other store launchers, or anything really, as it is just a computer.

However, if you’re happy with just Steam, you can treat it very much like a console, especially seeing as the Steam Machine comes bundled with a controller.

With all that in mind, the Steam machine will be equally happy under a television in your living room, or as a PC on your desk, with mouse and keyboard plugged in.

Steam Machine specs explained

In general, Valve pegs the Steam Machine as having “over six times the horsepower of Steam Deck”. Looking at the spec sheet, the Steam Machine looks to sit between the Xbox Series S and PlayStation 5, in terms of power, but more towards the latter machine.

Unlike a console, though, the Steam Machine does not have unified memory, but instead has 16GB of system memory and 8GB of video memory.

This is an important distinction, because many recent AAA games, especially those using Unreal Engine 5, struggle to run with 8GB of video memory due to the massive size of assets, such as textures, whereas a console, despite having less memory overall, can assign only a few GB to game logic, and use the rest for video memory, if it needs to.

With this in mind, the Steam Machine will be perfectly comfortable playing esports titles such as Counter-Strike 2, but don’t expect a good experience playing something like Black Myth: Wukong with all the settings turned up.

As for those specs, check them out below:

Steam Machine specs

• CPU - Semi-custom AMD Zen 4 6C / 12T, up to 4.8 GHz, 30W TDP
• GPU - Semi-Custom AMD RDNA3 28CUs, 2.45GHz max sustained clock, 110W TDP
• RAM - 16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
• Power - Internal power supply, AC power 110-240V
• Storage - 512GB or 2TB NVMe SSD (both models include a high-speed microSD card slot)

Does the Steam Machine come with a controller?

Yes, the Steam machine comes with a bundled Steam Controller.

The Steam Controller is essentially the Steam Deck, but without the screen. There are your typical triggers, bumper buttons, D-pad, analogue sticks and ABXY buttons, but there are also four back-facing buttons and dual trackpads.

The controller also has a gyroscope, meaning you can get mouse-like accuracy without the use of the trackpads.

Said trackpads make more PC centric games, such as strategy games, more readily playable in a living room setting, without the need for a mouse and keyboard.

The trackpads can also be used to create additional shortcuts, akin to a weapon wheel in a game.

For those who like the controller but want to play on a system with a bit more oomph, the Steam Controller will be available separately.

Check out more of our Gaming coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.