Valve still 'hopes' to ship Steam Machines in 2026, but a delay into 2027 is starting to look like a real possibility: 'Memory and storage shortages have created challenges for us'

The new hardware lineup revealed by Valve in 2025—the Steam Controller, Steam Frame VR headset, and Steam Machine—made quite a first impression. The Steam Machine in particular came off as streamlined, simple, and very capable: A significant evolution over Valve's early Steam Machines that has the potential to finally bring livingroom PC gaming to the mainstream. Just two big questions remained: How much, and when?

That question is muddled by one big thing: The RAMpocalypse wrought by the headlong pursuit of AI...