Don't worry, Valve still plans to launch the Steam Machine 'this year'

Source: Ars Technica

Valve reconfirms Steam Machine launch “this year”

Valve quickly reconfirmed that it plans to ship the Steam Machine and other recently announced hardware products “this year,” after an official blog post late last week set off some worried speculation about possible delays.

Background

While Steam’s 2025 Year in Review mainly focused on new Steam tools and features released last year, the introductory section highlighted the company’s previously announced upcoming hardware plans. When that Year in Review post was first published Friday afternoon (archived version), it included a surprisingly vague line saying “we hope to ship in 2026, but as we shared recently, memory and storage shortages have created challenges for us.” (Emphasis added.)

Valve clarification

As stray chatter about that line started to filter through message boards and comment threads, Valve quickly issued a clarification. By late Friday (archived update), the blog post had been updated to note that, despite the global supply chain challenges, “we will be shipping all three products this year. More updates will be shared as we finalize our plans.” (Emphasis added.)

Timeline of announcements

• November 2025 – Valve announced an “early 2026” target for the Steam Machine launch (Ars Technica article).
• February 2026 – A follow‑up update stated that “our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed” (Ars Technica coverage). The same update noted that Valve still had “work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates we can confidently announce, being mindful of how quickly the circumstances around both of these things can change.” (Emphasis added.)