A game must run at 1080p and 30 FPS to be verified for the Steam Machine, just as it does on a Steam Deck. That comes straight from Valve at GDC 2026. That doesn’t mean the upcoming gaming device from Valve is incapable of going higher than those numbers, but it is the minimum a game needs if it aims to be verified for the platform.

The Steam Frame is a tad more demanding if you’re going to be running your titles off its native chip, with a 90 FOS requirement for VR titles. 2D titles only need 30 FPS at 720p, though. There was also talk about offline mode for games right off the bat, optimizing titles for lower-specced machines, and improving controller support, all of which was advice aimed at developers looking to release titles on SteamOS.

We’re looking forward to getting our hands on the upcoming Steam Machine and Steam Frame, and we think we’re not alone in our excitement to check out Valve’s way of taking the fight to the PlayStation and Xbox in the near future.

However, in a Steamworks Development post, Valve said it would be shipping “all three products this year. More updates will be shared as we finalize our plans.” Memory shortages were once again to blame, but it seems that storage is also in short supply – a knock-on effect caused by the former.

While this doesn’t necessarily mean a delay past the first half of 2026, Valve’s wording feels very deliberate here. Regardless, the shortages don’t appear to be going away anytime soon, so you have to wonder if the new Steam Hardware will even launch this year. Time will tell.

Perhaps the most disheartening part of all this is that the long-rumored Half-Life 3 was allegedly slated to launch with the new Steam Machine. It was reportedly planned for Spring 2026, likely to coincide with the initial release date. Regardless of whether this is true or not, journalists like Insider-Gaming’s Mike Straw claim that the sequel, arguably the most anticipated of all time, is indeed real.

There haven’t been too many rumors lately, though, so stay tuned for updates.

“Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed,” explained Valve. “But we have work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we can confidently announce, being mindful of how quickly the circumstances around both of those things can change. We will keep you updated as much as we can as we finalize those plans as soon as possible.”

Further in the post, Valve has also offered more details about the Steam Machine and Steam Frame through an FAQ-like structure. Through this, the company has confirmed that streaming services outside of Steam’s Remote Play will be supported thanks to the latter’s built-in web browser. The VR headset also won’t have out-of-the-box support for the Valve Index’s lighthouse base station for more advanced player tracking. However, the modular and extensible software design of the Steam Frame will allow for users to come up with their own third-party solutions to bring in new compatibility features.

As for the Steam Machine, Valve has confirmed that it will be sharing faceplate CAD files, specs and details to ensure that third-party companies will also be able to make their own custom faceplates for the pre-built PC. The company has also noted that its RAM—DDR5 SODIMMs—and SSD—NVMe 2230 or 2280—will be accessible and fully upgradeable.

Valve’s announcement comes just a day after AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su had announced during an earnings call that the Steam Machine is on track to be launched “early this year”. In a statement. Dr. Su also projected a double-digit percentage loss for its semi-custom SoC (system-on-a-chip) business owing to the current console generation still going strong.

“In gaming, revenue increased 50% year-over-year to $843 million. Semi-custom sales increased year-over-year and declined sequentially as expected,” she said. “For 2026, we expect semi-custom SoC annual revenue to decline by a significant double-digit percentage as we enter the seventh year of what has been a very strong console cycle. From a product standpoint, Valve is on track to begin shipping its AMD-powered Steam Machine early this year.”

While Valve has been rather quiet about its pricing strategy for the Steam Machine, the company had confirmed back in November that the pre-built PC’s cost will be competitive with similarly-specced custom PCs. “I think that if you build a PC from parts and get to basically the same level of performance, that’s the general price window that we aim to be at,” said Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais in November.

For more on the Steam Machine, Steam Frame and new Steam Controller, here is everything you need to know.

“In gaming, revenue increased 50% year-over-year to $843 million. Semi-custom sales increased year-over-year and declined sequentially as expected,” said Dr. Su (via IGN). “For 2026, we expect semi-custom SoC annual revenue to decline by a significant double-digit percentage as we enter the seventh year of what has been a very strong console cycle. From a product standpoint, Valve is on track to begin shipping its AMD-powered Steam Machine early this year.”

Valve’s Steam Machines have been highly anticipated for how disruptive it will be in the market. Among many other issues, the global memory shortage has meant that building a new gaming PC has become an expensive concept due to the high prices of DDR5 RAM. Along with this, its use of the Arch Linux-based SteamOS has also been seen as having major implications, especially thanks to dissatisfaction in the current state of Windows 11. To top it all off, the Steam Machine is expected to have at least one major launch game: Half-Life 3. That last one comes courtesy of a rumor from back in December, which noted that Valve was initially aiming for a Spring 2026 launch. Soaring RAM prices, however, seemingly had a major role in changing these plans.

Despite all the excitement behind the Steam Machine, however, the pre-built PC isn’t expected to be priced competitively with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles. Valve has remained quiet about its price tag, which has led to quite a bit of speculation revolving around its hardware specs and performance capabilities. According to Linus Media Group’s Linus Sebastian, however, his discussions with Valve’s engineers resulted in the room going silent when he brought up the potential of a $500 price tag.

“I can’t tell you what the price will be, because I literally don’t know,” said Sebastian on an episode of WAN Show. “When I said I’m disappointed it isn’t going to follow a console pricing model, where its subsided by the fact that manufacturer is going to be taking 30 percent of every game sold on it over the lifespan of this thing, because I feel that would be a more meaningful product, they asked what I meant by console price and I said $500. Nobody said anything, but the energy in the room wasn’t great.”

The Steam Machine was unveiled alongside VR headset Steam Frame and a new take on the Steam Controller. Valve has described the PC as running on an AMD Zen 4 six-core CPU at 4.8 GHz, a semi-custom AMD RDNA3 GPU with 28 compute units, 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM and a max sustained clock speed of 2.45 GHz, and 16 GB of DDR5 RAM. With these specs, Valve claims it can run games in 4K/60 FPS thanks to FSR.

The Steam Deck Verification program takes a number of things into account, including performance on the less-powerful hardware of the handheld system, as well as other aspects like the usability and readability of the UI on the smaller display, and whether or not it will manually require players to pull out the on-screen keyboard. The Steam Machine, in contrast, is a considerably more powerful system—referred to by Valve as being equivalent to six Steam Decks in its announcement video—and games will likely end up having an easier time running on it. Along with this, the Steam Machine also doesn’t have a tiny screen that UI and UX designers might have to account for, and keyboards are expected to be connected to it anyway since it is essentially a desktop PC.

Along with this, Yang also noted that a game being Steam Deck Verified also means that it is automatically Steam Machine Verified. “One easy rule of thumb is that if your title is Verified on Steam Deck, it will be Verified on Steam Machine,” he said. The major difference with Valve’s new set of hardware will end up being with the Steam Frame, which will likely have its own set of requirements that Yang has noted Valve will discuss with developers. He said that the company will “be going through the same rounds of testing and providing developer feedback,” as it does with its Verification program for the Steam Deck.

The Steam Machine was announced alongside the Steam Frame and the new Steam Controller in November. While the company hasn’t yet announced a launch date for the new products, it has been revealing quite a few details. Engineer Steve Cardinali, for instance, has revealed why the company went with a separate wireless protocol for the new Steam Controller to connect with a PC rather than Bluetooth.

“While Bluetooth is a great wireless connection method, we found in our testing that people’s home wireless environments and PC Bluetooth capabilities are highly variable (clogged networks, wireless interference, increased latency when using multiple BT devices, etc.),” said Cardinali, who went on to note that the new Steam Controller’s Puck “addresses these issues.”

“Another problem we set out to solve was the fact that dedicated wireless receivers that are plugged directly into the back of a PC near other USB ports can create interference issues. Adding the charging capability encourages people to leave the puck in a place where it’s likely to have minimal interference while providing a really easy charging experience,” he continued.

For more details on Valve’s new hardware, here is everything you need to know. Also check out rumours of the highly-anticipated Half-Life 3 apparently being a launch title for the Steam Machine.

This is according to Insider Gaming’s Mike Straw, who provided an update on the Insider Gaming Weekly podcast. “People have asked. I have been told a date. I wasn’t going to report that date because they weren’t 100 percent confident in that date. That date has sailed past. So, there’s a reason I didn’t report it.

“Every date from every journalist I’ve spoken with, every creator who follows it and has dug, every single date that they were told has passed.” However, everyone is “still adamant” that Half-Life 3 is a launch title for the Steam Machine, which has yet to receive a release date.

According to Straw, PC RAM prices are the culprit. They’re currently up “200, 300, 500 percent of what they were in October, and it’s only getting worse.”

“The window that I was told was Spring 2026, for the Steam Machine, for the Steam Frame, for the Steam Controller, for Half-Life 3. […] At the end of the day, the game is real. There’s no denying it. It’s just a when and not if at this point. All the signs pointed to it being announced in December. Then everything hit the fan, and I think it was a case of that concern. The Steam Machine was supposed to be Q1, like the end of Q1 2026, but I’m starting to wonder if that hardware’s going to be pushed out.”

And for those who doubt Straw’s sources, especially in light of any new information, he responded that they’re not “run of the mill” individuals who “haven’t gotten me information before.”

“They’re the same sources that have given me details on Madden. A couple of them are the same sources that have given me details on The Lord of the Rings game that is in development, which I reported on. They’re not random, like, one-off people, and they’re still adamant that Half-Life 3 is coming in the Spring.”

Of course, until Valve actually announces it, the long-awaited sequel will remain a pipe dream for many. But given the sheer number of reports and rumors that suddenly dried up after the RAM prices increased, there’s some logic to what Straw is saying. All that’s left to do is wait and see.

“Dear Valve Software, please just let 3rd parties use SteamOS and make the [hardware] with many different configurations,” wrote Ybarra. “SteamOS will take off and your Store revenue will only go up.” Ybarra went on to note that using SteamOS like this would also be a great move for Xbox, rather than the company sticking to Windows.

“This is what Xbox should do, btw,” his post continued. “But they will likely be forced to push Windows with AI, co-pilot, teams, and more. They could do GREAT if they embraced SteamOS on HW.”

It is worth noting that, since it is a Linux-based operating system, SteamOS is quite open even in its current form, with some users even finding success when they attempt to use the Steam Deck’s SteamOS recovery image on a desktop PC with AMD hardware. However, Valve hasn’t yet released SteamOS on its own to the public, and the operating system is still largely limited to specific sets of hardware, like the aforementioned Steam Deck and Lenovo’s Legion Go S.

The decision to not open it out the public is likely a technical one, since the operating system would need wider driver support in order to run on more hardware. Currently, the company is more focused on ensuring that its own hardware – the Steam Deck and the upcoming Steam Machine and Steam Frame – and is working with AMD to ensure the correct drivers are available in for the operating system. In fact, the company is likely keen on opening the operating system up to more hardware companies, but doesn’t have the bandwidth to ensure that all of the required driver development for different hardware configurations can be supported.

While SteamOS on its own might be “officially” limited to only Valve’s hardware releases, the Linux community has stepped up to fill in the gaps on its own. One of the more popular Linux distribution that offers a SteamOS-like experience is the Fedora-based Bazzite, which allows users to set it up to be quite similar to SteamOS, including booting right into Steam’s Big Picture mode.

On the subject of Xbox and the Steam Machine, NYU Stern Schoool of Business professor and industry analyst Joost van Dreunen has referred to Valve’s upcoming compact gaming PC as “Microsoft’s worst nightmare”.

“Steam Machine basically turns Microsoft’s worst nightmare into a shipping product,” said van Dreunen. “It pushes Microsoft further down the path it’s already walking, where Game Pass and cloud access matter more than plastic boxes.”

The Steam Machine is slated for launch some time in early 2026, alongside the new Steam Controller and the Steam Frame VR headset.

This first became obvious when Linus Tech Tips broached the topic of a $500 price tag to the company, and the energy afterwards “wasn’t great.” Now, it’s Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais, who revealed on the Friends Per Second Podcast that the price would be in line with a PC that offers the “same level of performance.”

“I think that if you build a PC from parts and get to basically the same level of performance, that’s the general price window that we aim to be at.

“Ideally, we’d be pretty competitive with that and have a pretty good deal, but we’re working on refining that as we speak, and right now is just a hard time to have a really good idea of what the price is going to be because there’s a lot of different things that are fluctuating.”

When asked about subsidizing the price, Griffais said, “No, it’s more in line with what you might expect from the current PC market. Obviously, our goal is for it to be a good deal at that level of performance. And then you have features that are actually really hard to build if you’re making your own gaming PC from parts.

“Things like the small form factor and I think the noise level that we achieved or lack thereof is really impressive, and we’re excited that the people are going to find out how quiet this thing is.”

With the Xbox Series X costing $649.99 and the PS5 retailing for $549.99 in the United States, it wouldn’t be surprising for the Steam Machine to veer towards the higher end in terms of pricing. But then again, such is the hold that Valve – and by extension, Steam – has on the market. How far it can leverage that is the real question, even if the Steam Machine is guaranteed to sell disgustingly well at launch.

All of the recently announced Steam Hardware, including the VR-focused Steam Frame and new Steam Controller, will launch in early 2026. Unlike the Steam Deck, Valve believes that they should be more readily available at launch.

Van Dreunen believes that Microsoft is already on a path that will ultimately culminate in its console business coming together with its PC business. Since Valve is essentially throwing in the gauntlet in the hotly-contested console market, Microsoft is expected to push its business further down the same path, with a focus on services like Game Pass rather than hardware.

“Steam Machine basically turns Microsoft’s worst nightmare into a shipping product,” said van Dreunen. “It pushes Microsoft further down the path it’s already walking, where Game Pass and cloud access matter more than plastic boxes.”

The Steam Machine, which is essentially being pitched as a small console-like gaming PC that can be hooked up to a TV, will ultimately end up beating the company to the punch. It also certainly doesn’t help that Valve’s system runs on the Linux-based SteamOS rather than Windows. Assuming the PC is priced competitively, there is a chance that it might put a large dent in future Xbox sales as well. DFC Intelligence founder and industry analyst David Cole noted that Microsoft’s console business has already been struggling with hardware sales.

“Xbox console sales have really struggled,” said Cole. “Steam Machine is just another sign that there may not be room in the market for a dedicated Xbox console system.” van Dreunen also believes that this might end up being the case, noting that “The strategic risk is that Valve becomes the preferred PC-console hybrid, meaning Xbox games strengthen Steam’s ecosystem more than Microsoft’s own.”

However, this hypothetical scenario where Xbox sales are severely impacted by Valve’s Steam Machine will largely come down to how the latter company decides to price its pre-built gaming PC. Valve hasn’t yet confirmed any pricing details about the system as of yet. However, a recent report courtesy of Linus Media Group’s Linus Sebastian indicates that the company might not be aiming to compete with consoles on the pricing front.

“I can’t tell you what the price will be, because I literally don’t know,” said Sebastian. “When I said I’m disappointed it isn’t going to follow a console pricing model, where its subsided by the fact that manufacturer is going to be taking 30 percent of every game sold on it over the lifespan of this thing, because I feel that would be a more meaningful product, they asked what I meant by console price and I said $500. Nobody said anything, but the energy in the room wasn’t great.”

All that said, the Steam Machine has been described by Valve as being around six times more powerful than a Steam Deck. Another report also revealed that a heavy game like Cyberpunk 2077 is able to run at 1440p/60 FPS with upscaling “fairly easily” on the Steam Machine, with the report pitting the system’s horsepower as falling somewhere between Xbox Series S and PS5.

For more details on Valve’s recently-announced slate of hardware, here is everything you need to know.

In this conversation, Sebastian noted that the $500 price tag that he had pitched to the company wasn’t quite seen as a welcome suggestion. While he confirmed that he doesn’t know what the price itself will be, he did mention that his suggestion of a $500 price tag had changed the energy in the room, and that it “wasn’t great.”

“I can’t tell you what the price will be, because I literally don’t know,” said Sebastian on WAN Show. “When I said I’m disappointed it isn’t going to follow a console pricing model, where its subsided by the fact that manufacturer is going to be taking 30 percent of every game sold on it over the lifespan of this thing, because I feel that would be a more meaningful product, they asked what I meant by console price and I said $500. Nobody said anything, but the energy in the room wasn’t great.”

It is worth noting that, while the Steam Machine will run on the Arch Linux-based SteamOS, the system itself will be completely open; unlike a gaming console, it can also be used for other PC-related tasks. While Valve might have been willing to take a much smaller profit margin on the Steam Deck in order to ensure the device performs well in the market, a Steam Machine having a similarly-low price would likely present a major issue for the company.

While the Steam Deck easily recoups its costs for Valve since it is primarily used for handheld gaming, a low price tag on the Steam Machine could potentially lead to it being bought en masse by companies to simply be used as workstations. This would mean that Valve would see no additional Steam revenue coming from these systems as they would not be used for gaming.

Hardware engineer Yazan Aldehayyat had recently spoken about how Valve decided on the hardware powering the Steam Machine, and how the company had to strike a fine balance between offering a compelling package while also making sure that it would remain affordable. A major tool at the company’s disposal for this was the Steam Hardware Survey, which gave it an idea of the kind of middle ground between price and performance that it could aim for with the Steam Machine.

“Another thing that we actually looked at is […] the Steam Hardware Survey,” he explained. “So basically, just to give us a good benchmark of where people’s home devices are at in terms of performance. And the Steam Machine is equal or better than 70 percent of what people have at home. So that’s also another way to kind of think about where we can arrive at that performance level.”

For more details about the Steam Machine, as well as the Steam Controller and Steam Frame that were unveiled alongside it, here is everything you need to know.