The Steam Machine and Steam Frame are officially scheduled to land in summer 2026, Valve announced today in a blog post on Something Else. It is still unclear how much either hardware will cost.
Valve revealed the large release window in a blog post about the inclusion of the Steam Machine and Steam Frame in the Verified program, which launches with the Steam Deck and lets players know how well games will run on the handheld. The Verified program will do the same for Steam Machine and Steam Frame hardware. For Steam Machine, the requirements for a Verified badge are almost identical to those for the Steam Deck, Valve says.
As for the Steam Frame, Valve writes: “Like Steam Deck Verified, the Steam Frame Standalone Verified program focuses on the experience customers will have with the device out of the box in standalone mode. The criteria are also similar: the default graphics configuration must work correctly, text and UI elements must be clear and readable on the built-in display, and the default controller configuration must work well with Steam Frame controllers. The same testing criteria applies to VR titles and non-VR titles.
There has been much speculation about the cost of Valve’s hardware since the Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller were announced in November 2025. The current global memory shortage has significantly driven up the prices of gaming consoles and PCs in 2026, and there is no clear end in sight. Xbox, Sony, and Valve have increased the prices of their existing hardware lines this year by several hundred dollars each, with Valve increasing the price of the Steam Deck by up to $300. Nintendo plans to do the same with the Switch 2.
The Steam Controller hit the market on May 4 and costs $99, which is a very reasonable price for a well-designed non-PC controller with touchpads. Of course, it only has kilobytes of RAM and runs with cool haptic screams instead.
