Valve is expanding its presence within the hardware market with a console-like PC called the Steam Machine and a lightweight VR headset dubbed the Steam Frame—but consumers will have to wait longer than expected to find out when they’ll be getting their hands on the goods.
That’s because pricing and shipping announcements for both devices have been delayed due to memory and storage shortages. As noted by Tom’s Hardware last year, supplies are becoming increasingly constrained (and costly) due to a surge in AI data centres that is pushing the market to its limits.
Valve said the situation has forced it to review its shipping schedule and pricing options, though it still plans to ship both products (and the new Steam Controller) in the first half of the year.
“When we announced these products 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,” wrote the company on the Steam Hardware blog.
“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.”
Discussing how the Steam Machine will perform when it does eventually arrive, Valve said the dinky cube will be capable of playing the majority of Steam titles at 4K 60FPS with FSR. It did, however, note that some games currently require more upscaling than others, meaning it might be preferable to play at a lower framerate with VRR to maintain a 1080p internal resolution.
“In the meantime, we are working on HDMI VRR, investigating improved upscaling, and optimizing ray tracing performance in the driver, so we are approaching this from multiple angles,” added Valve.
For those with a penchant for design, Valve also confirmed it plans to share faceplate CAD specs so customers and manufacturers can tinker with all manner of customisation options.
