After a long period of waiting, Valve finally came out again to share with fans the launch schedule information for its latest PC console Steam Machine and VR headset Steam Frame, suggesting that these two key products will still be launched in the summer of 2026.
Since their release in November last year, Steam Machine and Steam Frame have attracted the attention of many fans. However, unfortunately, shortly after these two products were revealed, global memory and other chips fell into an unpredictable price increase due to the large-scale development of AI companies. This also led to Valve announcing earlier this year that they would postpone the release schedule of the price and launch date of these two products.
Even so, Valve has always emphasized that both products will be released within 2026. On Thursday, the company finally disclosed further news about the launch schedule of Steam Machine and Steam Frame, confirming that both new products will be released this summer. In addition, they will also fully expand the Verified program for this purpose.
“Today we will expand our Verified program to include Steam Machine and Steam Frame, both new products will be launched this summer. Just like Steam Deck’s Verified verification, the goal of this program is to help consumers understand the immediate experience of specific games on these new products, and how smoothly the game runs without any user operation or configuration.” Valve officially wrote
In addition, according to Valve, as long as a game can run smoothly on the Steam Deck handheld console, it means that it can also be played smoothly on the Steam Machine.
“Simply put: if your game already runs well on Steam Deck, it will run smoothly on Steam Machine, and developers don’t need to do any extra work. However, if a game performs poorly on Steam Deck due to CPU or GPU performance limitations, it may still perform well on Steam Machine. If this is the case for your game, you don’t need to take any action: We have tested on Steam Machine all titles that do not meet performance standards on Steam Deck,” he said.
At present, Valve does not seem ready to reveal the price information of Steam Machine and Steam Frame to players. However, Valve officials also emphasized that if players build a PC by themselves and achieve the same level of performance, the cost will be within the range they are currently locked in.
Prior to this, many technology media and players have analyzed the hardware specifications of the Steam Machine and estimated that the price of this PC console may fall around US$700. However, considering that the prices of memory and other components have already risen since the launch of this console, the actual price has yet to be officially announced, but considering that summer falls from June to August, it seems that players will soon see relevant information disclosed.
Source: KOCPC Chinese