The Steam Machine officially delayed due to RAM and SSD shortages

Well, most of us feared as much when it became clear over the holiday season that the whole ugly PC component situation was not going to be resolved any time soon, but it’s now official: the Steam Machine – Valve’s Linux-based gaming PC that will strive to offer PC gamers an alternative to traditional Windows rigs – will be released later or even much later than originally planned and it’s all because of the RAM and SSD shortages consumers are facing for the last 4-5 months. Valve themselves admitted as much in a blog post which offers a candid explanation but not a solid launch time frame for the device.

Here’s what Valve had to say on the matter:

When we announced these products – i.e. the Steam Machine, Steam Frame and Steam Controller – in November, we planned on being able to share specific pricing and launch dates by now. But the memory and storage shortages you’ve likely heard about across the industry have rapidly increased since then. The limited availability and growing prices of these critical components mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing (especially around Steam Machine and Steam Frame).

Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half of the year has not changed. But we have work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we can confidently announce, being mindful of how quickly the circumstances around both of those things can change. We will keep you updated as much as we can as we finalize those plans as soon as possible.

Just as stated, when the Steam Machine was unveiled in November an “early 2026” release window was mentioned. In gaming market terms that usually means February or March but, if that was still the case, Valve would have shared a launch date and pricing by now. The launch window is now redefined as “first half of the year” (so until June 30th) and pricing is still undetermined because Valve, like everyone else, is having a hard time securing enough memory and storage chips for a meaningful launch (making pricing extremely risky to lock).

This is a tricky situation for a number of reasons. On one hand, Valve has made clear that it does not want to subsidize the Steam Machine – that is, sell it at a loss – but the whole point was to make it as affordable as possible: to offer it if not at console-level pricing, then at entry-level gaming PC pricing. This would be very hard to achieve now, as RAM and SSD components are 3-5 times more costly than back in November. But selling what is essentially a PC at current, criminally expensive PC pricing does not help the Steam Machine’s cause at all.

On the other hand, two things. One: there’s no telling when this RAM and SSD shortage is going to end, so there’s no point delaying the Steam Machine’s launch in the hopes that it could hit its original pricing target any time soon. Two: the favorable timing for this particular type of device – now that official support for Windows 10 has ended and negativity towards Windows 11 is at an all-time high – may not last for very long. Valve is surely aware of all that, but it seems that the company would rather risk losing a bit of time and momentum than losing money on a product designed to bring more money in (through higher Steam sales).

Assuming that the Steam Machine hardware is finalized in terms of both hardware and software, one thing Valve could do – in order to launch this product as soon as possible – would be to offer customers multiple options for it. It could launch the more affordable model (coming with a 512GB SSD) for a price that makes no profit at all, the more costly model (coming with a 2TB SSD) for a price in line with what the company expected to make a profit on in the first place, as well as a barebones model (no RAM and SSD so consumers could use their own) for a price that makes Valve some money as a third option.

A barebones version of the Steam Machine would be great at any point, not just when it comes to its launch window: people able to make good use of this option are more likely to have compatible SSDs or RAM sticks at hand (or the means to track such components down), as well as the knowledge necessary to install SteamOS by themselves. However Valve chooses to proceed in the coming months, in will be interesting to see whether the company can replicate the success of the Steam Deck with a different product released in decidedly less favorable circumstances. Or rather favorable if it manages to hit at least one attractive price point, no?