Steam's official gaming PC release delayed due to memory shortage, and FAQ released explaining parts interchangeability and VR technology
Valve, the company behind Steam, has released some of the most frequently asked questions about three gaming hardware products it has announced but has yet to release.
Steam Hardware: Release Date and Other FAQs - Steam News
Valve announced the following three pieces of hardware in November 2025, all of which are scheduled to be released in 2026:
Steam Controller
Steam Machine
Steam Frame
Valve announces SteamOS gaming PC 'Steam Machine', standalone VR device 'Steam Frame', and game controller 'Steam Controller' - GIGAZINE
Regarding the release dates and prices, Valve said, 'Our original plan was to announce specific prices and release dates at this point, but the industry-wide memory and storage shortages have become more serious, resulting in supply shortages and rising prices, which have forced us to reassess the specific shipping schedules and prices, particularly for the Steam Machine and Steam Frame.' While the original goal of shipping all three products in the first half of 2026 remains unchanged, the company is currently assessing the situation.
AMD, which provides custom CPUs and GPUs for the Steam Machine, stated in its financial results announcement on February 3, 2026, that 'Valve's new mini PC will be released in the coming months.'
In addition to the above, Valve has responded to some questions submitted by users.
Steam Frame
Steam Frame is a standalone VR device optimized for Steam. Standalone means you can play games on it without connecting it to another device. The device will be equipped with Valve's SteamOS, 16GB of memory, and 256GB or 1TB of storage.
In response to the question, 'Will Steam Frame support other streaming services?', Valve explained, 'SteamOS has a built-in browser, and streaming services will work in a theater-style browser mode.' It is likely that, like
Steam Frame is a goggle-type VR device that completely covers the eyes, but it can also be worn 'while wearing glasses.' However, this depends on the width of the glasses frame. Details are still being released, but the company is considering offering prescription lenses.
Steam Frame is equipped with a technology called 'foveated streaming.' This is similar to 'foveated rendering,' a technology often used in VR devices. It is a load-reducing feature that uses eye tracking to display the peripheral areas of 'where the user is looking' at in high resolution and the rest at low resolution. While foveated rendering requires support from the game itself, Steam Frame's foveated streaming works as a system function rather than a game, so no work is required from the game developer and it can be applied to all games.
Steam Machine
The Steam Machine is a box-shaped gaming PC. It uses an AMD CPU and GPU, and during development testing, it was able to run 'the vast majority of Steam titles' at 4K resolution at 60fps using
The Steam Machine's SSD is either an NVMe 2230 or NVMe 2280, and the memory is DDR5 SODIMMs, both of which are user-replaceable.
Steam Controller
The Steam Controller is a controller designed for Steam. In response to the question 'Can you play non-Steam games with the Steam Controller?', Valve responded that 'The Steam Controller works with all games that are compatible with the Steam overlay.'
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