A senior Valve official has indicated that the Steam Machine's release date announcement is drawing close, saying there is only one remaining obstacle standing between the company's new gaming hardware and consumers. In the meantime, the new controller that was originally announced alongside the Steam Machine will hit the market in early May 2026.
Valve revealed the Steam Machine together with the Steam Frame VR headset and Steam Controller in November 2025. All three were promised to ship in 2026. Half a year later, the company announced that the Steam Controller is due for release on May 4, priced at $99.99. No equivalent date or pricing has been set for the Steam Machine.
Even without an official price announced, Valve's Steam Machine is rumored to cost a pretty penny, but there is one alternative that is much cheaper.
One encouraging signal has now been shared by SteamOS developer Pierre-Loup Griffais, a Valve veteran who helped port the Source Engine and Steam to Linux. In a recent interview with IGN, Griffais said Valve expects to share Steam Machine news soon and that "in general, things are going well" with regard to its pre-release pipeline. As for other things, the engineer identified...
