Friday, March 6th 2026
Steam Machine May Be Delayed After All—Still Shipping in 2026
Valve's announcement of the Steam Machine has generated a lot of excitement amongst PC gamers and apparently more than a little consternation in the ranks of traditional console makers, although the recent announcement that pricing for the upcoming living room PC is delayed due to the RAM shortage has poured a bit of cold water on things. Adding to that disappointment, Valve recently softened its promise to deliver the Steam Machine and Valve Index in "early 2026" as it had initially promised.
In a recent Steam Year In Review news post, Valve says that "We shared recently that there have been challenges with memory and storage shortages, but we will be shipping all three products this year. More updates will be shared as we finalize our plans." Notably, however, this previously read "We hope to ship in 2026, but as we shared recently, memory and storage shortages have created challenges for us," according to VideoCardz, but the verbiage has since been changed. The Steam Store page for the Steam Machine only lists "coming soon" in the release date section, but it's also curious that Valve seems steadfast in its plans to release the Steam Frame, Machine, and Controller simultaneously, despite the potential delays in delivering the hardware.
Sources:
Valve, VideoCardz
In a recent Steam Year In Review news post, Valve says that "We shared recently that there have been challenges with memory and storage shortages, but we will be shipping all three products this year. More updates will be shared as we finalize our plans." Notably, however, this previously read "We hope to ship in 2026, but as we shared recently, memory and storage shortages have created challenges for us," according to VideoCardz, but the verbiage has since been changed. The Steam Store page for the Steam Machine only lists "coming soon" in the release date section, but it's also curious that Valve seems steadfast in its plans to release the Steam Frame, Machine, and Controller simultaneously, despite the potential delays in delivering the hardware.
45 Comments on Steam Machine May Be Delayed After All—Still Shipping in 2026
I mean sure a cleaner and better optimized OS is nice to get the most out of the given weaker hardware and all but to me that alone doesn't justify the price.
I don't know what the others do with their PC's but for my basic use case Windows is fine like its been many years since I've had any issue with it.
That one case being a faulty windows update 'MS did admit that later on..' that was conflicting with the at the time new AMD driver when I've still had my RX 570 so that wasn't exactly nowadays.
For me it just works with all of the game launcher clients that I have on my PC and its rock solid in general.
Just like you. Most of the stuff I do works on CachyOS and Linux Mint. I choose alternatives to Windows to help with diversity of options. It would suck if there is the monopoly over the OS. As there is a threat Microsoft would try to improve to avoid losing users to alternatives.
You have thank people like us to set the balance.
Personally, I found the slow boot, constant nagging about updates, about enabling backup, about upgrading to Windows 11, the clunky USB device removal process, the hardware hogging, the necessity to tweak registry entries, update drivers, dismiss notifications, etc. tiresome. I felt like my PC was playing with me, not the other way around. I had to change, and I'm so glad I did! You don't know how much freedom you feel not having to deal with any of that crap until you try. No one is forcing you, of course. :)
Made it dual-boot with Linux.
After some time browsers and Steam ended the support for Win XP. Linux is still working.
Win XP - unsuported
Win 8.0/8.1 - unsuported
Win 7 - last browser gave up support recently
Its only question of time when Win 10 ends the same way.
The win 11 update nagging shows up only every now and then and I can get it out of my face with a single click tho I might bite the bullet and switch to Win 11 in a few months anyway since for my almost purely gaming purpose it should be fine nowadays. 'I can always switch back..'
USB devices I rarely connect and disconnect so again its a non issue here, hadware hogging is also kind of a moot point imo with how fast even a mid range PC is nowadays. I've used Windows on much much slower systems as you know I've used to run i3's for a long time and I was fine with that experience.
I never tweak registry like literally my current Windows install has zero tweaks done to it other than having a set timer enabled to turn off my monitor's screen in case I have to afk for longer than expected.
So ye like I've said I have no reason to mess around with other OS and I also don't think that I owe anyone a thanks for using whatever other OS preferences they might have.I'm mostly planning to switch to 11 cause of Nvidia ending the game ready driver support for Win 10 in 2026 october supposely and that does affect me since I do play new games.
Hardware hogging isn't moot when
1. Nothing seems to be happening on the PC, and you still get 10-20% CPU usage on a modem 8-core.
2. Windows update uses your drive so heavily that the whole system slows down.
3. You're running a benchmark.
4. You never even asked for any such process to run to begin with. I want to decide when my PC installs updates, runs a virus scan, etc. On Linux, I can.
5. Linux uses half as much RAM.I've had Windows update install an old GPU driver just after I updated it many times, so disabling automatic driver updates in the registry is a must. Not to mention all the telemetry.That's fine. I'm just sharing my perspective on the matter. I like playing on my PC, not the other way around, and I'm not compromising on this. I'm glad I don't have to. :)Not when desk footprint is a matter of concern.
AMD needs to haul ass and feature equip RDNA3 like they originally said they would - with a functional upscaler and not this weak FSR3 shit.
That is probably also the only way I'll ever consider buying an AMD GPU again. Deliver, or you're on my blacklist, assholes.
Its mind blowing too because you'd think they have enough motivation, but they are clearly trying to go minimum effort even despite their console deals on this. Setting themselves up for failure once more. 'Oh look, handhelds and consoles succesfully pulled into AMD territory, let's stop making a real effort!'
I am lacking sufficient # of faces and palms for this situation honestly. The last decade has been full of opportunities for AMD to catch up. They missed every single one.A Windows computer, which is a crucial point to consider given the world of hurt that OS is in. Also I think we can rest assured that Microsoft will screw that up somehow, it will never be a full fledged Windows PC alongside an efficient Xbox console. Its going to juggle both and fail at both, or it will just be a Windows PC you can skip, or it will be another semi-locked garden where your freedom gets limited to Microsoft (approved) 'services'. Oh... and let's not forget the omnipresence of AI in each of the mentioned options. You shall use Copilot, peasant.
Either way I don't see this destroying anything but itself to be fair. Steam Machine has unique selling points. Xbox has carefully deleted all of them courtesy of Microsoft itself.
Will see about Win 11 and then I will form my opinion about it after.
No I don't use an external drive as I don't even have one, the only device I connect and disconnect every now and then is my phone and that I simply unplung after I'm done with what I wanted.
As of writing this reply and have Firefox open my CPU usage sits between 1-4% so idk where that 10-20% comes from if its a modern 8 core.
Again this is a zero tweaked Win 10 in my case.
Ram usage is again not a problem here nor when I'm gaming meanwhile, with old or very budget systems sure thats an extra but I'm not talking about those here.
I rarely notice windows updates and even then its over in a few minutes anyway.
Never had random driver installs that would replace a newer already installed one, that sounds really weird to me.
I also like playing all kind of games including some cross platform games on my PC so for me that is the priority to have the best overall gaming support and for that Windows is still the best even with all of its supposed issues/annoyances for some.
I get the point of Linux and the other 'open source' OS and they have their use case/place for sure but to round back to my original post here, with the Steam machine that alone is a lot of premium to pay for when the hardware itself doesn't justify that cost.
Joking aside, that's all fine, just use what works for you. I never said you shouldn't. :)I mean when Windows update, or drive indexing, or a random spontaneous Defender search kicks in.How do you do that? I've never seen such low usage with 32 GB available.You're lucky (or just not as controlling of your system's processes as I am).
At no point have people looked at the market and only seen £700 5070 cards. Complete misrepresentation.
There's a reason it's the most popular card of this generation. 3080 Ti/4070 Ti perf @200 W for £500 is great.
Cheapest 9070 is almost 10% more. So no, not the "same" price.
Tbh I can't really tell when my windows is doing stuff in the background ever since I've upgraded from my i3 range of CPUs like not even when I'm gaming meanwhile, my OS drive is only for the OS so even if its doing something there it doesn't affect my games to a noticeable level.
Dunno really that RAM usage is like normal for me, all I've done is disable the auto startup in most of the software/apps that I'm using other than MSI Afterburner+RTSS. I also don't keep a ton of browser tabs open in the background as its a habit of mine to close them once I'm done browsing.:oops:
Yeah I just prefer to stick to what already works for me.:)
And BTW Microsoft is asking for a 30% return to Xbox so they have two options:
- Make an ultra-expensive device with no self-imposed production restrictions.
- Follow the Series doctrine and lower the production until you can afford whatever harm it'd do to your margins.
Whatever they choose the Xbox platform is thoroughly fucked because they are going to sell 10 million tops of these and they are against Valve this time.
I bought a 8700K + 1080ti +16GB rig, complete with storage and built into a case, for €300,-.
There is no way I'm rewarding any company for delivering heated piles of manure to me. I'll make someone else happy instead.
Unironically the only, and shittiest GPU purchase I've made in life was an overpriced 7900XT, which then proceeded not only to get a hard price cut, but also a cut in promised feature delivery. The same lack of feature delivery that we see on the Steam Machine, and quite frankly, probably the main reason it won't be going places at all.
The only correct choice when confronted with two evils, is the third option and two middle fingers.